Cisco Announces Phase III of its Enterprise Virtual Private Network Strategy

Wide Range of New VPN Products and Services Extend Cisco's Existing Comprehensive Suite of VPN Offerings for the Enterprise

Related Release: Cisco Unveils High-End VPN Router, Press Release

More Information about Cisco VPN-Related Information

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- May 3, 1999 -- Cisco Systems, Inc. announced today the third phase of its comprehensive Enterprise Virtual Private Network (E-VPN) strategy. Providing enterprise customers with accelerated VPN deployment options, new products and features unveiled today span scalable platforms, security, services, appliances and management-marking a significant extension to Cisco's existing VPN product family.

Included in this phase three E-VPN roll out is:

The Cisco 7100 integrated VPN router
The Cisco VPN Client
The Cisco PIX 515 firewall appliance
Further extensions to the Cisco IOS Firewall Feature Set
The Integrated Services Adapter (ISA) for Cisco 7200/7500 Series and the Integrated Services Module (ISM) for Cisco 7100

"We've seen rapid acceptance of VPN technology from our customers as they've extended their classic WAN networks with the added connectivity enabled by VPNs," noted Richard Palmer, VP of Marketing for Cisco's Enterprise Line of Business. "Cisco-listed this year as the preferred enterprise VPN vendor by leading market analysts-is extremely focused on the VPN arena. Through our award-winning VPN-optimized routers, nearly 60,000 unit installed base of PIX and Cisco IOS firewall appliances, as well as IETF leadership and a prominent role in driving new industry standards, we are continuing to earn our leadership position in enterprise VPN networking."

Commenting on Cisco's VPN solutions, James Olson, CIO at Waterbury Hospital, noted, "Our challenge was to find a VPN solution that was easy to configure and manage, while also providing secure network connectivity-all without impacting network performance or access. We chose Cisco because of their standards-based approach to VPN deployment, coupled with their end-to-end networking expertise."

Cisco 7100 Series of VPN Routers

The Cisco 7100 Series of VPN routers is a full-featured, high-end, integrated VPN solution melding high-speed, industry-leading routing with a comprehensive suite of VPN services. With a combination of tunneling, data encryption, security, firewall, advanced bandwidth management and service level validation, the Cisco 7100 Series provides a secure, scalable VPN platform for central site enterprise VPN applications.

Cisco VPN Client

Cisco will license technology from third-party supplier Information Resource Engineering (NASDAQ/NM: IREG) to deliver a VPN client to customers. This will provide Cisco customers with a best-in-class solution that supports the remote access VPN requirements for e-commerce, road warrior and telecommuting applications. The Cisco VPN client will provide Microsoft Windows. 95/98 and NT 4.0 users with complete implementation of IPSec standards, including support for DES and Triple DES encryption and authentication with digital certificates, one-time password tokens and pre-shared keys.

Cisco PIX Firewall 515

The PIX 515 is a dedicated firewall appliance that extends Cisco's price/performance leadership in the firewall market. It provides two integrated 10/100 Ethernet ports and two accessory slots, supporting up to 125,000 concurrent connections at wire speed. The low cost and reduced form factor of the PIX 515 extend the availability of high-performance perimeter security to a wider range of customers.

Cisco IOS Firewall Feature Set

The Cisco IOS Firewall is a security-specific, value-add option to Cisco IOS. software, which provides integrated firewall functionality and policy enforcement for a wide range of Cisco IOS-based routers, including the Cisco 1720, 2600, 3600 and 7200. As part of today's announcement, the Cisco IOS Firewall's capabilities have been expanded to include embedded intrusion detection and VPN authentication and authorization.

Integrated Services Adapter/Integrated Services Module

The ISA for Cisco 7200/7500 Series and ISM for Cisco 7100 Series provide high performance, hardware-assisted IPSec providing confidentiality, integrity and data origin authentication services. Up to 2000 DES or Triple DES encrypted and compressed tunnels over a full duplex DS-3 at line rate (90 Mbps) may be terminated with minimal impact on system resources. This solution also enhances the key exchange and tunnel creation process, supporting 20 tunnel establishments per second. In addition, these adapters support the industry-standard IPPCP layer-3 compression services providing a single solution for compression and encryption requirements. Using a 7x00 Series router with an integrated service accelerator enables VPNs to support 2000 concurrent remote users, remote offices, or extranets in a single router.

"As evidenced by the breadth of security enhancements announced today, Cisco is committed to providing customers with security solutions designed to meet their requirements for building secure networks and enabling mission-critical business," said Elizabeth Kaufman, general manager of the Security Internet Services Unit at Cisco. "These requirements become more complex as VPN deployment moves from remote access on to intranet and extranet applications, which is why our security solutions will continue to evolve in time with the market-providing comprehensive, easy to deploy and manage security options for a wide range of customer needs."

Pricing and Availability

Cisco is referring customers with immediate requirements for deploying IPSec-based remote access VPNs directly to IRE to purchase licenses for SafeNet/Soft-PK software. IRE sells SafeNet/Soft-PK starting at $79 per client and in large quantities as low as $10 per client. In Q3CY99, Cisco will make the VPN client software available directly via multiple license levels priced to suit the range of Cisco VPN platforms. The PIX Firewall 515 will be available in

June for a base list price of $5,000. Available in early July, the new extensions to the Cisco IOS Firewall range from $900 to $5000, depending on the platform. The ISA and ISM will be available in Q399, with pricing announced at that time.

Cisco will feature a VPN demonstration exhibit during the Spring Networld + Interop exhibition in Las Vegas, May 11-13, 1999. Customers, press and analysts are invited to visit the Cisco booth, #7053, at any time during the show.

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