ZyXEL Bolsters Its Award Winning Firewall/VPN Router Product Line with Unified Threat Management for Complete Network Protection; Next Generation ZyWALL Family First to Offer Anti-Virus/IDP Acceleration Card for 20 Times Faster Performance

Business Wire, Sept 9, 2005

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- As a leading provider of secure broadband networking and Internet connectivity and routing products, ZyXEL Communications announced the ZyWALL family of firewall and VPN router products with Unified Threat Management (UTM). The ZyWALL UTM products offer the most complete security features with up to 20 times the performance of other products in its class. By bundling key security capabilities with simplified management, ZyXEL's new ZyWALL UTM appliances integrate AntiVirus, Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), Spam Blocking and Web Content Filtering into one unified program designed to work together to protect information and computing assets.

UTM systems have emerged as the most complete method for managing threats at the network perimeter but until now have been impractical for small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) due to network performance degradation and high Total Cost of Ownership of multiple appliances. Due to the performance bottleneck, all security features cannot be enabled at the same time which is counter to the value of true UTM. ZyXEL has mitigated this problem with its acceleration card powered by ZyXEL SecuASIC chipset, which increases performance by up to 20 times compared to other firewall products in its class and enables the full benefit of UTM. The AntiVirus/IDP acceleration card combined with ZyXEL's advanced ZyNOS v4.00 network operating system integrates all security modules in a highly interactive and responsive manner.

"Threats from the Internet manifest themselves with never-ending mutations. The increasing sophistication in network threats has resulted into complicated security solutions," said Munira Brooks, ZyXEL's vice president of sales, marketing and business development. "Today SMBs, with a limited IT staff, are looking for an all-in-one security solution that reduces this complexity and is easy to maintain without sacrificing performance. The ZyWALL UTM appliances were designed to meet this need. Our customers can rest assured that their network is secured and performance is maintained."

The ZyWALL UTM product line boasts 8 integrated modules which provide an optimum security appliance for internet computing. These capabilities include:

1.  Firewall: defends the network against all kinds of intrusion
        attempts to keep the office environment free of infections or
        system exploits.

    2.  Virtual Private Network (VPN): constructs on-demand "data
        tunnels" among internet-connected but geographically separated
        computers.

    3.  Load Balance: utilizes multiple Wide Area Networks (WANs) to
        relieve the load on certain network areas. With the agile load
        balancing capability, users will see no performance impact
        when even part of the network is extremely busy.

    4.  Bandwidth Management: includes better analysis,
        categorization, prioritization and manual overriding control
        that will significantly boost the application performance
        while keeping the network traffic efficient.

    5.  Anti-Virus: protects computers online from virus infection.
        Virus protection service is provided by Kaspersky Labs, a
        security software developer and worldwide leader known for its
        fast response to new virus threats.

    6.  Intrusion Detection & Protection (IDP) protect against
        malicious attacks by constantly monitoring networking
        applications.

    7.  Spam Blocking: powered by MailShell, the number one provider
        of spam-filtering and anti-phishing software, spam blocking
        reduces unwanted email and relieves the load of mail servers
        and networks to save time and personal computing power.

    8.  Content Filtering: eliminates unproductive Web browsing in the
        office. Keywords and rules can be defined to keep the network
        healthy while reducing the bandwidth burden by slashing the
        unnecessary loads. Content filtering is provided by Blue Coat
        (previously Cerberian).

The new ZyWALL UTM family is designed for simplified management with a 6-step installation and set-up that does not require constant maintenance. All of the advanced features including redundancy and fail-over are standard out-of-the-box and do not incur an extra cost. ZyXEL offers a flat licensing policy that allows businesses to connect as many users as desired for unlimited nodes.

The ZyXEL ZyWALL UTM series has three models designed for SMBs with varying number of users. All ZyWALL models have been certified by ICSA and can ensure compatibility with major firewall brands in the market. The ZyWALL 70 is designed for business headquarters with 100 VPN users; ZyWALL 35 is ideal for a branch office with approximately 30-35 simultaneous VPN users; and ZyWALL 5 fits the needs of offices with 10 simultaneous VPN users.

Pricing and Availability

ZyWALL UTM family is available mid-September 2005. All products are available through ZyXEL's national network of authorized resellers. More information about the ZyWALL UTM can be found at http://www.us.zyxel.com.