Enterprise Firewall Magic Quadrant Positions iPolicy Networks in 'Visionary' Quadrant in Enterprise FireWalls Market

FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 22, 2004--iPolicy Networks, the only provider of an Intrusion Prevention Firewall for real-time network protection, today announced that industry analyst firm Gartner, Inc. has positioned iPolicy in the coveted "Visionary" category of its 2004 Enterprise Firewall Magic Quadrant report. The report is a widely recognized and highly regarded that evaluation of security vendors in terms of their ability to execute and the completeness of their vision.

According to Gartner, deep packet inspection technology is driving the firewall market to an inflection point that is characterized by rapid changes in product evolution and the vendor space. As network traffic becomes increasingly malicious or unwanted due to worms, viruses, scans, spam and file sharing, network-traffic-handling devices must evolve from "stoplights" to "border checkpoints." The first devices to evolve beyond simple "pass/go" logic will be the firewalls offered by visionaries and leaders on the Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Firewalls, 2H03.

According to Gartner Visionaries have a clear vision of market direction and are focused on preparing for that, but they can still improve in terms of optimizing service delivery.

iPolicy Networks' unique, programmable ASIC-based Intrusion Prevention Firewall provides customers with the most complete protection from viruses, worms, MMC (mobile malicious code), undesirable content, protocol and traffic anomalies, DDoS, and complex threats. At the heart of its firewall technology is a Single Pass Inspection (SPI) Engine™ that examines data packets exactly once, utilizing the results simultaneously across all security applications.

"iPolicy has established a clear lead in security technology innovation by responding to the demand for next-generation security solutions that address the full range of network threats while maintaining high performance," said Prabhu Goel, iPolicy Networks chairman and CEO. "Gartner's recognition of iPolicy as a visionary security company affirms our business foresight, product excellence and our commitment to our customers."

For this report, Gartner took a fresh look at network security and modified the previous criteria used to determine visionary leadership positions on the Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Firewalls, 1H03. Gartner's key criteria for placing security vendors along the Vision axis included:

• Recognizes and blocks attacks based on protocol anomalies, signatures of attacks, content inspection, behavior (usually based on history of use) and traffic volume.
• Builds solutions that address enterprises' needs.
• Invests in specialized network processing hardware - application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) - to perform deep packet inspection at wire speeds.
• Enables central management of many remote devices.
• Able to load balance or configure in a "highly available" mode.
• Provides logging and reporting functionality.
• Quickly rolls out new application defenses based on the ability to perform deep packet inspection.

Gartner Inc. is a research and advisory firm that helps more than 10,500 clients leverage technology to achieve business success. For more information or to view the report, visit www.gartner.com.

* Magic Quadrant Disclaimer
The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About iPolicy Networks
iPolicy Networks is the developer of the world's first and only Intrusion Prevention Firewall delivering real-time, adaptive security enforcement for enterprises, managed security service providers, and government agencies worldwide. The company's ipEnforcer is a visionary product family, that reduces network security risk and total cost of ownership by addressing the convergence of multiple, disparate network security services, including intrusion detection and prevention, DDoS and attack mitigation, deep application inspection firewall, VPN, anti-virus, surveillance, and URL filtering into one purpose-built, security system capable of wire-speed throughput ranging from 100Mbps to 5Gbps with sub-millisecond latency. The ipEnforcer is powered by a Single Pass Inspection(TM) (SPI) engine to deliver wire-speed throughput, negligible latency, and real-time threat prevention. A sophisticated Unified Security Manager provides centralized management and consistent enterprise-wide security policy enforcement. By implementing a unified security system, customers can dramatically reduce capital expenses and operating expenses with stronger security compared to any other security solution offered today.

iPolicy Networks is located in Fremont, Calif., and is privately held. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.ipolicynetworks.com or call +1.510.687.3287.