Here's a quick update. Whatever your network performance or security issues, we'll be pleased to discuss problems and applications. Find out more by following the web links, or email info@phoenixdatacom.com or phone +44 (0)1296 397711. November 2008

Sourcefire IPS Intrusion Protection Sytem Achieves Highest Security Effectiveness Score in Independent NSS Labs Test

The Sourcefire 3D4500 IPS Sensor achieved the highest score for blocking attacks in a recent independent test of 15 products - and received a "Recommend" rating in the latest Network Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) Comparative Test Report from NSS Labs, Inc., published in December 2009.

"Of all products tested, the Sourcefire 3D4500 provided the greatest protection against our attacks," said Rick Moy, president, NSS Labs, Inc. "Sourcefire deserves strong consideration from organizations looking for a network IPS to use in multi-gigabit environments. Sourcefire's IPS posted the highest block rate of any product, stopping 89.5 percent of all attacks after tuning."

NSS Labs found that when tuned the Sourcefire 3D System blocked more attacks than any other IPS tested. NSS Labs also determined that the 3D4500 Sensor performed closest to its advertised performance. Promoted as a 2Gbps box, it achieved 1.9Gbps running its default policy within NSS Labs' rigorous testing environment, delivering 95 percent of the advertised performance using a real-world traffic mix -- far exceeding the vendor average. >>continued

>>Click here for more info on Sourcefire products

>>Click here to request a copy of the Executive Summary of the NSS Labs Network IPS Comparative Test Report

VSS network taps now feature Real-Time Packet Time and Port Stamping for accurate distributed monitoring of high performance and time-critical networks

Phoenix Datacom has announced UK availability of VSS Packet Optimization, a suite of real time packet processing capabilities for the VSS Monitoring Distributed Traffic Capture Systems™ range of distributed network access taps. VSS Packet Optimisation is particularly significant for data traffic capture from networks used for financial services and other high-performance time-critical applications such as media over IP.

The first two components of VSS Packet Optimization are VSS Time Stamping™ and VSS Port Stamping™. They add information to the copy of each packet destined for network monitoring tools indicating the time the packet arrived at the traffic capture device and the device's input port number. Network traffic remains unaffected since only the copy of traffic sent to the monitoring devices is stamped.

VSS Packet Optimization lets enterprises such as financial services firms with high-performance, real-time networks achieve total network visibility for the first time by deploying distributed traffic capture devices throughout their network. >>continued

>>Click here for more info on VSS Monitoring taps

>>Click here to download the press release (pdf)

Xena offers GigE and 10GigE stress testing at a fraction of the price of other traffic generators. 

Phoenix Datacom is now supplying Xena traffic generators for stress-testing the performance and functionality of ethernet devices and infrastructures. Xena offers a choice of chassis, simple multi-user licencing as standard, and high port densities (24 x 10GigE or 72 x GigE in a 4U chassis).

Xena provides a new class of test equipment for stress testing functionality and performance of Gig and 10Gig ethernet. Xena sets new standards for both price-performance and port density - and, best of all, takes a new approach to feature and user licensing - simplicity! With a price-per-port very much lower than the competition, Xena can be used to off-load testing from more expensive equipment or provide more intensive higher load testing than was economically feasible before. Xena is set to become a major player in ethernet testing and Phoenix Datacom is already working closely with Xena on new solutions for testing one-way latency and 40G and 100G ethernet.

>>Click here for more info

>>Click here to download a factsheet

Industry's First 10-Gigabit Distributed Traffic Capture Family - Launch of V 4.24 Distributed Filter Tap from VSS Monitoring

VSS Monitoring has started shipment of the first 10 Gigabit-per-second (Gb/s) Distributed Traffic Capture System™ for network monitoring. The high-speed tap captures data from any point on a network and feeds it to a central location for analysis, providing a complete, centralized and scalable view of large networks.

Available now, the V 4.24 10Gig Distributed Filter Tap ™ is a high port capacity tool with the ability to selectively aggregate and filter traffic to optimize the use of network monitoring devices. Additional 10 Gb/s distributed traffic capture taps with a range of capacity and speed combinations for different network environments will be available later this year from VSS Monitoring.

>>Click here for more info

>>Click here to see the complete press release

Phoenix Datacom launches NetWitness products in UK to address insider threats to information security and data leakage issues

Phoenix Datacom Limited has signed a reseller agreement with NetWitness Corporation, the leading provider of next generation network security monitoring technology, to sell its NetWitness NextGen™ platform to commercial and government organizations in the UK and Ireland. This strategic partnership represents a further strengthening of the Phoenix Datacom portfolio of IT security and compliance products.

>>Click here for more info on NetWitness NextGen™

>>Click here to see the complete press release

Phoenix Datacom brings award-winning Security Information and Event Management product to UK and Ireland

Phoenix Datacom has been appointed the UK and Ireland distributor for Trigeo Inc.. Trigeo's products have won SC Magazine's "Best Event Management Product" award in both 2007 and 2008 and are recognised as a key product that can help medium sized organisations meet IT compliance regulations. >>Click here for more info

New high performance, high reliability "beam-steering" optical switches from Polatis

Phoenix Datacom has introduced a range of high performance, high reliability optical switches manufactured by Polatis. Unlike other optical switch products, Polatis is NOT based on 3D MEMS silicon micro-mirrors, using instead a patented "beam-steering" technique which allows much more rugged designs with minimal susceptibility to vibration and shock, and cleaner optical paths for greater optical performance. >>Click here for more info

New filtering taps from VSS Monitoring

The VSS range of network access taps just got even better - with three new taps that feature traffic filtering as well as aggregation.

Filtering allows traffic to be distinguished according to source and destination address as well as by specific protocols, such as HTTP, VoIP, etc. The filter option also enables screening of the monitoring traffic to ensure zero packet loss during aggregation of heavily loaded networks. Management interfaces include Telnet, SNMP and HTTP web interfaces. >>Click here for more info

New Triple Play Analyser from Agilent Technologies

Triple Play converged IP-based networks carry data, voice and video over a single pipe, in real time, with conflicting demands on quality and performance. Agilent Technologies have released the Triple Play Analyser as a single analyser that makes it easy to see the total effect on the network of all three applications at once and then drill down into troubleshooting data, video and voice.

Agilent Triple Play Analyzer is the most complete monitoring and troubleshooting tool for installing and and troubleshooting IPTV, VoD, VoIP and data applications. In particular, a single instrument provides integrated analysis of the total traffic - voice, data and video - and their interaction together. (This is an important breakthrough as many test tools look at a single aspect of Triple Play, eg video or VoIP quality, without considering the effect of one application on another.) >>Click here for more info

First combined tester and analyser for 1, 2, 4 and 8G fibre channel SAN

Agilent Technologies have introduced the industry's only dual-purpose SAN tester and protocol analyzer for 8 Gb/s Fibre Channel (FC). Combining realistic network stimulus of the SAN tester application with sophisticated protocol analysis and troubleshooting capabilities allows engineers to speed up the design and development of next-generation storage devices.

Fibre Channel is the dominant technology used in the storage industry, and 8 Gb/s Fibre Channel is the interface for all next-generation storage devices. The new Agilent 8 Gb/s 1736 module with the de facto industry-standard SAN tester application helps storage equipment manufactures conduct realistic tests on their device under test (DUT) early in the development and qualification cycle. This helps ensure the DUT meets the stringent requirements of the data-storage industry. The same 1736 module can also be used as a protocol analyzer, which helps users quickly identify protocol or performance issues. These capabilities shorten test time and foster the development of next-generation Fibre Channel products.

The new 8 Gb/s module is scalable up to 64 ports and supports full line rate 8 Gb/s as well as 4 Gb/s, 2 Gb/s and 1 Gb/s, allowing users to fully test all supported Fibre Channel line rates with a single module. New capabilities of the SAN tester application include additional error-injection features and a sophisticated flow-control stress test that validates ASIC designs early on and increases the test coverage. The 8 Gb/s protocol analyzer includes Easy Flow and a context-sensitive display to help better visualize the protocol interactions; Agilent's unique dual-channel trigger sequencer to help them get to the root cause of problems faster; and post-processing capabilities that help users quickly identify protocol or performance issues. >>Click here for more info