Accelerated Networks (www.acceleratednetworks.com) today released details on an ASIC-based wire-speed security product including a firewall, 3DES encryption, URL filtering and public key infrastructure.
Internet Companion, which the company is selling as a stand alone product or as part of its integrated access devices, enables a carrier to offer such services as managed firewall service, and managed IPsec-based VPNs for teleworking or site-to-site connections. The ASIC-based solution operates at wire speed and can support classes of service.
"Today voice provides the majority of revenue, but we think this will rapidly go away. There's a drive toward more IP-centric services going forward and toward more application-level services hosted by ASP-type service providers using ICP infrastructures or being offered by ICPs themselves," says Joachim Hallwachs, senior director of the IAD product at Accelerated. "That requires a trusted relationship when you get into an intranet like that."
Early manifestations of business-to-business networks via the Internet included networks among suppliers in such sectors as the automotive industry, says Hallwachs. But if price lists and logistics are to be exchanged among such partner companies, that will require total confidentiality, he says. Managed firewall, VPNs and IP tunneling are already producing significant revenues for network operators today, he says, and that will continue.
"A good amount of revenues in the future will rely on the secure service infrastructure," Hallwachs says. "We think security is going to move down the stack from the application level into the infrastructure."
Adds vice president of marketing Kevin Walsh: "The whole ASP phenomenon will not happen without a security access infrastructure."
