Securing the perimeter - and the hole in the middle as well

Escaping from launch fever here at ZD Towers, I've spent Tuesday morning with an interesting LAN security start-up called Nevis Networks.

When I was first told of the company, the headlines immediately sprang to mind: Security start-up facing mountainous challenge; Nevis peaks with security capabilities... There were many more. But in the end, none of my pre-formed judgements had been correct.

Nevis has a team of some 190 employees creating silicon which helps to protect enterprise networks through either an appliance or a switch-based approach.

Now this is quite cool as neither product sits on the edge of the LAN, they actually sit in it between the other switches.

It's a rapidly growing area and one which is worth paying a bit of attention.

If you no longer know where the perimeter of your network is - due to mobile workers, contractors, extranets, mobile workers etc, then a security appliance or switch such as Nevis's might be what you are looking for.

Not to forget that there are a number of other companies doing this as well.

Consentry is one start-up worth looking at - it pretty much competes head-on with Nevis.

Router favourites Cisco Systems and Foundry Networks also have their own offerings: the former with NAC and the latter with secure switches.

It's interesting to compare not only the differing type of security protection available from these four firms, but also the price as well.

And of course the old trick to mind the costs of mandatory upgrades must be borne in mind as well.