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.

Phoenix Datacom will be on Stand E30 at Infosec 2012

Infosec 2012 runs at Earls Court from 24th to 26th April. If you are visiting the exhibition come and see us on Stand E30 on the main aisle, where we will be showcasing solutions from VSS Monitoring, Sourcefire, Niksun, FireEye and BreakingPoint Systems - and answering the following questions in our "5 Hot Topics" theatre.

• Do you really know what happened - and what's happening now?
• How do you know your defences work if you haven't tested them?
• How do you really protect networked systems against malicious activity?
• How do you really stop zero day attacks and advanced malware?
• How do you get the most effective network visibility for monitoring systems?

>>Click here to register for free entry to Infosec 2012

Protecting against Cyber Attack and Malware - the next Phoenix Datacom Security Seminar is on 9th February 2012

This interesting seminar takes a topical look at the latest ways to protect vital systems against live hacking and advanced malware, combining the experiences of excellent speakers from four of the world's leading network security product manufacturers. The day includes a unique opportunity to see a cyber test network in operation with a "threat traffic" generator set against network defences and monitoring systems. This event is provided without charge to professionals involved in the security of IT systems, networks and networked data and applications.

>>Click here for more info and to register

>>Click here to see more detail on our products related to network security

Phoenix Datacom now supplies FireEye systems to protect systems from signature-less and "zero day" attacks and embedded malware.

FireEye threat protection appliances include a Web Malware Protection System, an Email Malware Protection System, and a Malware Analysis System. Together they block the advanced threats that conventional defences such as firewalls, IDS and anti-virus miss - and also provides near-zero false positive rates for a rapid security ROI.

FireEye protects both inbound and outbound traffic - and a signature-less analysis engine that uses a sophisticated virtual execution environment to stop advanced threats introduced by either web traffic or email content and attachments.      >>more on FireEye

Phoenix Datacom now represents SwiftTest in the UK and Ireland - testing performance, functionality and behaviour of networked storage infrastructure, devices and services

SwiftTest devices are exceptionally powerful and flexible test traffic generators used to prove the characteristics and peformance capabilities of both data storage systems and storage-aware network devices and infrastructure.

SwiftTest systems test Network Attached Storage systems to the limit by generating very high-volumes of CIFS/SMB, NFS, iSCSI, and HTTP traffic in any combination, simulating hundreds of thousands of concurrent sessions from millions of users.    >>more on SwiftTest

Phoenix Datacom Presents Topical Seminar on Low Latency and Network Timing Issues - 8th September 2011

Phoenix Datacom is presenting the latest in its popular series of "Hot Topics" seminars on Thursday 8th September in Greenwich. This half-day seminar looks at the issues of measurement and verification of timing accuracy, stability, propagation and latency on low latency networks - vital to the performance and security of applications such as High Frequency Trading. Sessions include:

• Testing the consistency of timing characteristics across the network
• Testing the latency of network infrastructures and components
• Establishing and verifying absolute timing accuracy
• Time-stamping and aggregating monitored data for accurate event capture and analysis

>>Click here for more info and to register

>>Click here to see more detail on our products related to network timing

Sunrise Telecom's new RxT modular comms tester is now available

The new RxT handheld modular tester is now available, building on the previous success of the MTT. RxT represents the next-generation in integrated modular toolkits for field technicians, combining advanced multi-service testing capabilities with built-in and web-based workflow efficiency and productivity applications. 

The RxT is designed for Carrier Ethernet and offers Sunrise Telecom's IntelliSAM, with working bandwidth profile test coverage of the full range of CIR/CBS/EIR/EBS/CM/Traffic Policing, the industry leader in second generation Y.1564 testing.

IntelliSAM offers a number of enhanced tools to service providers that help them in verifying SLAs, eliminating the laborious and excessive test permutations that had been established by the older test methodologies. The solution also enables them to test multiple streams and test each frame on a consistent basis to enhance the latency tests.

>>Click here to see more on RxT

>>Click here to see more on IntelliSAM Y.1564 testing

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

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