"By incorporating the mobile user, Blue Coat can offer a complete solution to customers looking to extend the availability, security and performance of applications out to the far reaches of the organisation," said Cindy Borovick, director for IDC's data centre networks program.
"It is becoming critical to deliver the same level of network services to remote employees as those in the corporate headquarters."
Control for both application security, acceleration at the endpoint
Currently available endpoint security solutions protect the endpoint operating system; VPN solutions protect packet flows; and network access control solutions set criteria for corporate network connections. None of these solutions control all user-application interactions at the endpoint. The new SG Client architecture extends policy-based application security and acceleration to all users, regardless of location.
As with Blue Coat SG appliances for branch and remote offices, the SG Client architecture is designed to accelerate a full range of business-critical application traffic and provide appropriate levels of security and control - at the critical application layer. SG Client will incorporate Blue Coat's patent-pending MACH5 application acceleration technology, which provides protocol optimisation, object and byte caching and compression - to speed applications and content and reduce bandwidth usage - in accordance with enterprise policy.
Offering end-to-end application delivery, the Blue Coat SG Client is designed to protect the remote client and information residing on it during a secure session. It enforces corporate policies by controlling content and applications, protecting against spyware and other forms of malware and performing appropriate URL filtering. Since SG Client is designed to provide application control, data can be protected, for instance, with active information controls to prevent printing, saving, copying or "print screening".
Managed, unmanaged endpoints with persistent or on-demand client
The Blue Coat SG Client is being designed to accommodate the needs of any user, including mobile workers, teleworkers, branch offices of one or two people and even partners - using managed devices (such as desktops, laptops and PDAs) controlled by corporate IT - or unmanaged devices, such as employee's home computers, Internet kiosks in airports or hotels and computers in partner organisations.
To control application performance and security on managed endpoints, Blue Coat SG Client loads as persistent, resident client software. For unmanaged endpoints, SG Client can be applied dynamically using an on-demand version of the software. The on-demand version is also appealing to organisations not wanting permanent client software.
The ability to deliver application acceleration and security to both managed and unmanaged endpoints extends control of application experience and security to all users regardless of location. It provides business continuity that could prove essential in the event of a disaster that prevents employees from coming to the office and helps organisations accommodate an increasingly mobile workforce.
Extension of enterprise infrastructure for security, acceleration
SG Client is part of Blue Coat's ControlPoint Architecture for enterprise application delivery infrastructure, enabling IT organisations to establish critical "points of control" throughout the enterprise - even out to individual endpoints. Enterprises can then provide consistent policies, management and delivery "experience" across its entire organisation.
The Blue Coat SG Client, delivered in several phases over the next year, is based on a modular architecture that enables functionality to be added or modified as needed, while fully integrating functions with consistent policy and management. The first release is scheduled for availability in the first quarter in 2007.
"Blue Coat's goal is 'no user is left behind' - that no one is cut off from enterprise application performance and security," said Steve Mullaney, vice-president of worldwide marketing for Blue Coat Systems. "Organisations have been able to control application performance and security inside their own networks, but once users are outside, they have been beyond the reach of that control. With Blue Coat SG Client, organisations will be able to seamlessly extend application security and performance to remote employees anywhere."
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