McAfee Rolling Out New Web Security Appliance

McAfee, Inc. announced Email and Web Security Appliance 5.5, with several new features designed to protect SMB users while also lightening the load on a network, will become available to its partners later this quarter. Here’s a quick look at the move.

Version 5.5 includes appliance clustering to help share the task of scanning, URL filtering, content policy wizards, a simplified installation utility, and Artemis and TrustedSource database integration to help identify new network threats.

We’re intrigued. But rivals are quick to downplay McAfee’s move. David Oro, a spokesperson for Cisco, one of McAfee’s rivals in this market, says they’ve had this update’s main innovations for years. McAfee merely combined the previously-separate e-mail security and web security products into one box, he asserts. “All they’ve done here is put it in one appliance,” Oro says.

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