17 April 2008
by Billy MacInnes
Just under a year after it entered the unified threat management (UTM) market, Check Point has broadened its range with the launch of three models, including a sub-$5,000 (£2,540) appliance, and introduced a line of high-end appliances that it claims can provide a price/performance ratio of less than $4 per Mbps.
Despite coming late to the UTM market, the security specialist claimed its product range had been a "tremendous success".
However, Nick Lowe, managing director at Check Point Northern Europe, said it had been keen to get to a lower price point and provide a complete set of UTM applications. He argued the sub-$5,000 price was "a ground-breaking price point for us".
Bob Egner, vice-president of product management at Check Point, claimed the UTM-1 products combined "the latest security technologies on a single appliance allowing for optimal protection of businesses’ small, medium and remote offices".
Check Point’s high-end appliance range, known as Power-1, has been introduced in response to demand from customers for high-performance products.
Lowe claimed Check Point’s big brand competitors were charging $8-$10 per Mbps: "We’re half if not 60 per cent cheaper."
The launch of the Power-1 range is viewed as a significant step for Check Point because it brings the vendor into head-on competition with Cisco, Juniper and Nokia.
Ian Kilpatrick, managing director at Check Point distributor Wick Hill, welcomed the launch of the two ranges. The price and power of the latest UTM-1 models put the vendor "in a significantly stronger position", he argued.
Wick Hill expected Check Point’s growth in the UTM sector to be above the market average. Kilpatrick added that a number of other vendors had entered the low-end UTM market and crashed and burned, whereas Check Point had won market share.
Commenting on the launch, Charles Kolodgy, research director of secure content and threat management research at IDC, said it was imperative that organisations’ security measures did not become a productivity bottleneck, given the increasing reliance of businesses on web-based applications and corresponding increases in bandwidth consumption.
