Blue Coat Systems and IBM have entered into a global agreement under which IBM will provide a new managed security service secure web gateway offering to new and existing clients that use Blue Coat appliances.
The companies said that the partnership provides clients with a managed service that enables protection against web-based threats and enforcement of corporate IT policies while lowering overall management costs.
The new offering provides a threat mitigation approach including, monitoring and management of the Blue Coat secure web gateway; a diverse, integrated portfolio of security offerings accessible in a single web-based client portal; IBM X-Force research around evolving security threats and vulnerabilities; and a modular approach to buying and using flexible infrastructure architecture, the companies said.
According to Blue Coat, its offering utilises a hybrid design that combines on-premise equipment with a cloud-based collaborative defense to provide on-demand security intelligence about unknown web content and enforce corporate IT policies. It is comprised of Blue Coat ProxySG and ProxyAV appliances at the internet gateway for inline antivirus detection and IT policy enforcement, webfilter for content categorisation, the webpulse service for dynamic ratings and ProxyClient to extend protections and policies to remote users.
Kevin Biggs, senior vice president of worldwide sales at Blue Coat Systems, said: “Our newly expanded relationship with IBM provides global enterprise clients with our industry-leading secure web gateway solution managed by IBM to create a first line of defense against the numerous web-based threats facing IT organisations today.
Combining our security expertise and web awareness with IBM’s services expertise provides a unique, comprehensive solution that clients worldwide can use to better protect against web-based threats and improve the overall manageability of their IT infrastructure.
