Winner: Cisco Systems for Cisco ASA 5585-X
www.cisco.com
The increasing need for users to access dynamic real-time content from multiple sources, coupled with the requirement to access data anytime, anywhere and from a wide range of devices, has placed extraordinary demands on network speed, as content is pulled from multiple sources, yet expected by users in “real-time.” In response, enterprise data centers have grown exponentially over the past several years to keep pace with the increasing demands for network connectivity.
Moreover, compliance, data security and fear of the unknown have led to Band-Aid fixes applied to the old data center scheme. Data centers need to deliver high-performance connectivity, while ensuring those connections remain secure.
Many datacenters are now full, and therefore require more efficient methods to deliver secure, high performance connectivity. The Cisco ASA 5585-X fills this need by delivering unprecedented scalability, superior performance and leading-edge security – in a compact, 2RU form factor.
The Cisco ASA 5585-X combines a proven proven firewall with the a comprehensive IPS and a high performance VPN. The ASA 5585-X hardware delivers 8X performance density of competitive firewalls by supporting the highest VPN session counts, twice as many connections per second, and 4X the connection capacity of competitive firewalls to meet the growing needs of today's most dynamic organizations – all in a compact 2RU footprint.
The tool provides enterprise data centers with best-of-breed firewall, IPS and VPN. It significantly reduces initial procurement costs by 80 percent, power consumption costs by 85 percent, and rack space requirements by 88 percent – in addition to significant reductions in overall integration and management complexity and costs. Enterprise data centers will also benefit from corresponding cooling costs with 80 percent power reduction. Rather than incurring additional management and deployment costs by requiring solutions from two different vendors with the Cisco ASA 5585-X, enterprise data centers get a proven firewall and a comprehensive, effective IPS.
Additionally, the ASA 5585-X provides the option to have a fully integrated chassis, or to integrate additional services as the needs of the business grow. The ASA 5585-X also provides headroom for new services and capacity growth.
Finalists
• Cisco Systems for Cisco ASA 5585-X
• Fortinet for FortiGate-3950B
• McAfee for McAfee Firewall Enterprise
• Palo Alto Networks for Palo Alto Networks PA-4000 Series next-generation firewalls
• SonicWALL for SonicWALL E-Class Network Security Appliance (NSA) E8500
