Scaling Protection: The Network Now Plays a Roll in LAN Security
By Michael Goldgoff, SECURITY PRODUCT MARKETING - EXTREME NETWORKS, INC.

Organizations are relying upon their network to deliver all information and communications, and due to wide ranging attacks, security is critically important. Until now, because of limits of technology, IT managers have had to make choices, deciding which links are the most crucial to protect, as opposed to securing the entire network.

Many vendors have been solving security by integrating security appliances as line cards into switches, hoping to inject monitoring and response into the switch. But these line cards work on a distributed basis, where all traffic is fed into one. These line cards, even though placed within the switch, are not scalable to the full bandwidth capabilities of the switch, especially at 10 Gigabit speeds. Additionally, this architecture takes away from the port density of the switch and can have a measurably negative impact on network performance.

A Better Solution

Extreme Networks' network-wide security solution incorporates the CLEAR-Flow security rules engine and Virtual Security Resources (VSR) to scan all traffic, even across 10 Gigabit links, and brings mitigation time for Day Zero threats (attacks with no signature or published behavior pattern) down to seconds. It provides a scalable response solution to monitor, detect, contain and mitigate attacks instantaneously. CLEAR-Flow examines all traffics flows from within the core switch and can immediately take action on suspicious traffic that it encounters or can act to hand-off the traffic to a separate appliance, Extreme's VSR, to perform inspection.

Extreme Networks' Sentriant VSR appliance provides threat analysis and mitigation using behavior-based detection rather than signatures. The combination of Extreme Networks' CLEAR-Flow and the Sentriant VSR appliance takes a crucial step beyond just measuring traffic or sounding alarms - it delivers automated enforcement, containment and mitigation capabilities throughout the network. This reduces the time for Day Zero threat mitigation from days down to just seconds.

NetAdmins can implement security at the network level using the core switch as the centerpiece for threat monitoring and response instead of placing multiple security appliances to protect each network link.

Extreme Networks reduces the mitigation time for first order network attacks with integrated behavioral analysis on the switch performing at Layers 2/3. CLEAR-Flow and the Sentriant VSR appliance provide an automated response against attacks while working at the network level instead of a device level. This extends protection throughout the network and has minimal impact upon network performance or the overall cost of the infrastructure.

• CLEAR-Flow and VSR provide network-wide protection with the ability to respond and quarantine malicious behavior, regardless of signature, at 10 Gigabit speeds.
• CLEAR-Flow Security Rules Engine brings Layer2/3 packet inspection to core switches without the expense of specialized line cards.
• CLEAR-Flow allows the VSR to offer its security capabilities throughout the network, thereby allowing it to protect a 10 Gigabit network in its entirety and without compromising network availability.

The business case for CLEAR-Flow and the Sentriant VSR appliance is derived from the productivity improvement it brings to the table and its ability to keep the network available with the least amount of devices deployed.