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ConSentry Delivers Integrated User and Application Control to LAN Access Edge with Intelligent Switching Architecture
January 2008 by Marc Jacob
Bringing disruptive innovation to the LAN access edge, ConSentry® Networks introduced its Intelligent Switching architecture, a breakthrough in user and application control implemented through a new release of the field-proven ConSentry LANShield™ Switch. Deployed in the wiring closet for the tightest control, Intelligent Switching integrates user, role, and application knowledge with a programmable, wire-speed switching platform to allow IT to bring business context into the LAN, dramatically simplify deployment and operations, and keep pace with evolving business requirements.
The following new LANShield Switch features provide support for Intelligent Switching in the LAN:
Application-based quality of service (QoS) at Layer 7
Increased control of Web-based applications and instant messaging (IM)
Complete LAN visibility by user, role, server, and file
Automatic device and role discovery, drawing from existing identity stores
New security and policy features to protect against MAC spoofing and avoid static IP address mapping of web destinations
ConSentry customer Adaptec (NASDAQ:ADPT) has standardised on ConSentry’s Intelligent Switching to replace existing Cisco access switches across its global operations.
Editors Note: See the announcement “Adaptec Selects ConSentry LAN Access Switch as ‘Best in Class’ for Network Upgrade and Future Growth,” also released today, for more details of the Adaptec deployment.
Legacy LAN Architectures Cannot Support Intelligent Switching
Today’s IT organisations are being asked to simultaneously support a more dynamic, collaborative, and diverse workforce; rapidly roll out new LAN services such as VoIP and wireless; and optimise application performance to ensure high user productivity, all while protecting corporate assets and logging user activity in detail.
The legacy access-switch architecture complicates these tasks because it operates on IP addresses and Layer 3/Layer 4 ports and has no inherent understanding of users, user roles, devices, applications, or the interplay of these factors. IT must create and maintain complex VLANs and ACLs and/or deploy third-party applications and devices to implement even the most basic user and application control. To align LAN operations with business needs requires smarter networks that have the processing performance and native understanding of users and applications to deliver complete control, right in the wiring closet.
ConSentry’s LANShield Switches incorporate an Intelligent Switching architecture that combines a multi-threaded, multi-core, custom packet processor with enterprise-class merchant switch silicon and a mature software suite to provide detailed Layer 7 visibility and dynamic control of users and applications across the LAN.
The research firm Gartner has defined the five dimensions of network design as access/location, user, application, device, and activity.
ConSentry was founded to deliver the next generation of switching platforms, and the company has spent the last two years tuning its systems to support the most demanding LAN applications, such as wire-speed access security. Now the company has extended its support to the full range of user and application control in a high-performance, intelligent switch that leapfrogs legacy architectures.
The ConSentry LANShield Switch authenticates users and devices against standard identity stores and automatically learns their roles. Then for each traffic flow, it identifies the application in use, applies policies based on role, and fully tracks all activities. Rolling out new services and supporting shifting workforces becomes much simpler because the need to manually separate traffic onto different VLANs, implement and update ACLs, and configure QoS policies is eliminated.
Incident response and troubleshooting is also faster and easier. Instead of combing through logs of IP addresses and Layer 4 ports, IT gets a complete and consolidated dashboard view of who is doing what on the LAN, with username, role, application, and server all tied together. This tight integration enables granular control, down to file-based views of individual and global application use.
ConSentry has been awarded five patents for its LANShield processor related to wire-speed packet handling.
– Pricing and Availability
ConSentry LANShield Switches with Intelligent Switching are available today at a base price of $7,995 and the latest version of the LANShield OS is available as a free upgrade to ConSentry switch customers with a current support contract.
