Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2002/11/20/cisco_expands_safe_blueprint/

Cisco expands SAFE Blueprint

Broad security upgrades

By ComputerWire

Posted in Security, 20th November 2002 09:50 GMT

ComputerWire: IT Industry Intelligence

Cisco Systems Inc said yesterday it has added a dozen upgrades to its products with the aim of enhancing its SAFE Blueprint security strategy. Security was one of five areas identified as sexy, with much-sought short-term growth potential, by Cisco boss John Chambers in the company's last quarterly earnings call.

The company said it has upgraded its IOS software, which underpins many of its products, to support new convergence-related protocols such as SIP, as well as improving the performance of the built-in stateful inspection firewall and intrusion detection system (IDS) features.

The 2961, 3660 and 3700 series branch office routers all get new virtual private network acceleration modules that Cisco said can cut CPU time in half and increase VPN traffic speeds by up to 10 times when used in IP voice and video deployments. The performance increases are achieved with AES (advanced encryption standard) accelerator cards.

For the hosting market, Cisco introduced version 1.7 of its Hosting Solution Engine, a configuration, monitoring and reporting software system designed to ease the management of content networking and firewall devices from Cisco's portfolio.

The company has also released a product in its Secure Content Accelerator range of SSL offload devices, the SCA II. In addition, new products in the 800 Series and SOHO 90 Series router line offer these security features to the lower end of the market.

© ComputerWire