Consentry Broadens Secure Switch Portfolio With Availability Of 24-Port Switch In The UK
New LANShield Switch Increases the Range of Networks and Companies Able to Adopt Secure Switching in Their Next Network Upgrade
London – November 15, 2007 – ConSentry Networks, the leader in secure switching, announced that its LANShield Switch CS-4024 will be available in the UK next month. The 24-port gigabit Ethernet switch joins the CS-4048, a 48-port version that began shipping just over a year ago. This smaller switch makes it easier for existing customers to deploy secure switching in more locations and enables new prospects to adopt the embedded security and control needed to protect their enterprise assets.
“ With the LANShield Switch, we’ve been able to provide controlled network access to our contract workers and gain visibility and control across our remote locations,” said David Francis, CIO of Espeed (NASDAQ: ESPD). “ This smaller version of the switch will let us economically extend that security out to even our smallest sites, providing us with consolidated but comprehensive knowledge of and control over users and applications across our business.”
The combination of visibility and control has been a useful asset to UK businesses. Even during brief evaluation periods, UK customers have been able to identify misuse of the network, such as movie sharing, uploading of vacation photos, and visits to inappropriate websites. Simply gaining that level of visibility, tied to the username, has improved IT’s knowledge of LAN traffic. Being able to implement access controls based on policy gives that visibility even greater value.
The 24-port switch is part of ConSentry’s broader secure-switching strategy, which enables enterprises to migrate their LANs beyond “blind trust” connectivity to a service delivery solution that controls every user and secures every port. Enterprises need their LAN infrastructure to catch up with evolving business models characterised by outsourcing, offshoring, distributed collaboration, and mobility. To simplify that transition, ConSentry’s secure switching provides full control over all users and devices, along with in-depth application knowledge, across a family of wire-speed appliances and switches.
Pricing and Availability
The CS-4024 is available next month, December 2007. In the UK, it has a list price of £3,750.
Additional Key Company Milestones
News of the CS-4024 switch’s availability follows ConSentry’s announcement last month covering several key corporate milestones:
Customers and Growth
ConSentry last month secured its 150th global customer, and the company reported consistent sales growth of 25 percent quarter-over-quarter, a rate that applied for the first two quarters and which the company expects to maintain next quarter as well.
[[Editors Note: For more information about ConSentry’s 150th customer, see this release, “Fayetteville State University Standardizes on ConSentry Switches for Role-based LAN Segmentation and Access Control,” announced October 8, 2007.]]
Key ConSentry Q2-Q3 customer sales facts:
•LANShield Switch platforms represent more than half of ConSentry’s 2007 shipments to date
•Eighty-five percent of ConSentry customers have Cisco switches. ConSentry wins against the incumbent infrastructure vendor when customers want more control over users than simply authenticating them to the network and scanning their machines.
•40 percent of orders in the last two quarters represent repeat orders from existing customers expanding NAC deployments.
•Top vertical markets for the company remain financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, and education; guest access remains the initial application.
•Multiple customers have standardised on ConSentry to provide pervasive LAN security across their enterprises and have consequently purchased substantial, repeated orders of LANShield Controllers and LANShield Switches.
Customers ConSentry has announced in the last two quarters include Alliance Imaging, the nation’s leading provider of diagnostic medical imaging services; Mercy Medical Center of Baltimore; global steelmaker POSCO; Dallas-based North Town Bank; NSSL Satcom-Solutions, a U.K.-based satellite solutions provider; and CCR Group, a subsidiary of Commerzbank with close to $25 billion in assets under management. In addition, ConSentry OEM partner Alcatel-Lucent recently announced Mineola Free Union School District as a customer. Alcatel-Lucent markets the ConSentry solution under the OmniAccess SafeGuard brand across its global enterprise market.
Funding
ConSentry also announced last month $21 million in new financing from lead investor Teachers’ Private Capital and new investors Translink Capital and NCD Investors. Existing venture backers Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, INVESCO Private Capital, and DAG Ventures also participated in the round. ConSentry has raised $72 million in total funding to date.
International Channel Expansion
Outside the United States, ConSentry sells its LANShield solutions exclusively through channels and has trained more than 120 staff at its worldwide channel partners to date. Over the last six months, the company has expanded sales support around the globe:
•EMEA: A new sales-support office in Paris expands EMEA coverage beyond current support locations in the U.K. and Germany.
•Asia-Pac: The company now operates support offices in Singapore and Korea, in addition to its current in-country support office in Japan.
•CALA: ConSentry also opened a local sales-support staff office in Mexico City.
•Alcatel-Lucent: ConSentry has trained more than 40 ALU sales personnel and is working jointly with the global infrastructure leader on more than 30 international projects for the OmniAccess Safeguard solution.
