Adtran Plants Flag In UTM Market With New Appliances

Adtran on Wednesday unveiled several new products that effectively expand the vendor into the unified threat management (UTM) market as well as broaden the range of security products its VARs can offer.

The appliances, dubbed the NetVanta 2000 series, are especially intended for small and midsized businesses looking to mitigate security threats in the application layer and in cloud-based applications.

"We think cloud is going to be really applicable to SMB -- places where there's a small IT staff and they can have some of the computing resources in the cloud," said Todd Luttanzi, senior product manager, Adtran Enterprise Networks Division. "We're running into cases where a lot of different attacks can come in -- think of all the Web sites with Flash out there, for example -- and what we're seeing now is that requirements from a security standpoint are becoming agnostic to the size of the business. Threats don't care."

All of the NetVanta 2000 appliances come with a limited lifetime warranty and 12 months of continuous threat protection, SSL and IPSec VPN clients, anti-virus and anti-spyware clients, and management under a centralized management system.

The appliances include NetVanta 2630 ($1,055), intended for distributed enterprise sites, branch offices and SMB, and supporting 3G and analog capabilities, and NetVanta 2630W ($1,255), which adds secure 802.11b/g/n wireless LAN capabilities to the 2630's feature.

Then there's the NetVanta 2730 ($1,885), for branch offices and midmarket networks, which can scan every packet in real time for threats and uses a multicore processing platform to keep UTM protection from hindering network performance. Finally is the NetVanta 2830 ($3,965), designed for larger enterprises and to handle central sites and more complex distributed networks.

"The secret sauce is just that: a deep dive into what's happening in each packet, and we don't care how big the files are," Luttanzi said of the higher-end models. "A lot of competing products can't handle that. We do it in a manner that doesn't impact performance and lowers operating costs."

Adtran has further partnered with SonicWall to offer centralized NetVanta 2000 management through SonicWall's Global Management Solution, which provides real time monitoring, anti-spam, firewall, backup and recovery, secure remote access and compliance- and policy-based reporting. GMS software begins at $2,995, and increases per node based on the number of units that need to be managed.

"We felt like SonicWall should be our partner in the UTM space because their technology is the best available," Luttanzi said. "Both of us have strong channel programs, with lots of VARs, but there isn't really a lot of overlap, either.

The list price for each NetVanta appliance includes one year of continuous threat protection, but customers can buy two- and three-year packages as well. Those subscription-based services are not part of Adtran's Custom Extended Services (ACES) maintenance program, so they offer additional recurring revenue for VARs, Luttanzi explained.

"The value of a UTM appliance is the recurring updates," he said. "As their current subscription expires, you have a great opportunity to ping them and say, 'FYI, in three months, your security service is going to expire, and oh, by the way, what else is going on that we can talk about?'"

Next: Adtran Bulks Up NetVanta Switches, Optical Networking

Adtran earlier this month made a number of other product announcements following its partner conference at the end of November. Among them was its Optical Networking Edge (ONE) portfolio, an optical networking product set for service providers that includes transport modules and network management tools. The ONE portfolio will begin trials starting in early 2011, according to Adtran.

Adtran also added security features to its NetVanta routers and switches, with specific functions for vertical markets such as health care and hospitality. The switch upgrades provide Power over Ethernet Plus, or 802.3at.

Among the security features are NetVanta Security Audit, which identifies common network vulnerabilities, and NetVanta Desktop Audit, which offers details on the strength of security and the types of security settings on client computers and other network-connected devices. Denial of Service Protection covers the identification and blocking of common DoS attacks, and two diagnostic solutions, Network Diagnostics and Cable/Small Form Factor Pluggable Diagnostics, are for network management.

The switches themselves are the NetVanta 1534P and 1544P Layer 3 PoE+ switches, the former a managed Layer 3 switch designed for SMB deployments, and the latter a managed, Layer 3 Lite switch for LAN applications.

All new security features come with the updated version of Adtran's operating system, AOS version 17.9, with no additional charge. The NetVanta 1534P switch is listed at $2,895, and the 1544P at $3,495. PoE+ support will be available for the products in Q1 of 2011, according to Adtran.