SP stands for secure proxy. The appliances sit in front of web servers providing application-level acceleration, traffic management and security. The SP competes against devices from the likes of Blue Coat Systems Inc, and SSL extranet features mean it competes also against the likes of Neoteris Inc and Safeweb Inc.
With version 6.0, the company has added support for the internet content adaptation protocol (iCAP), which allows it to pass traffic to virus and content filters in compatible products from the likes of McAfee, Trend Micro and Webwasher. This is a feature Blue Coat promotes in is Secure Gateway products.
Array also seems to be closing in on Neoteris and Safeweb with claims that the SP’s Web Resource Mapping content-rewriting function and its forward proxy allows SSL VPNs to be set up that give users clientless access to behind-the-firewall applications including Outlook, Notes, Siebel, SAP and PeopleSoft.
On the traffic management side of things, the SP can now load balance SSL traffic, and can load balance all traffic over multiple ISP connections (link load balancing). The product will be available in March, six months after version 5.0 was released. It will have a starting price of $49,995. A compact version will also be made available for $14,995.
Source: Computerwire
