New WatchGuard XTM 5 Series Breaks Price/Performance Barriers and Redefines Next-Generation Unified Threat Management (UTM)

6 Aug 2012 – WatchGuard® Technologies today announced the release of its New WatchGuard XTM 5 Series network security appliances.  As next-generation UTMs, the New WatchGuard XTM 5 Series has the fastest throughput in its price class without compromising the highest levels of security, manageability and ease of use.  The New XTM 5 Series also provides complete BYOD protection with the ability to create highly secure virtual private network (VPN) tunnels for mobile devices running iOS and Android 4.0 and above.

New WatchGuard XTM 5 seriesThe New XTM 5 Series gains substantive performance improvements compared to the previous XTM 5 models.  Appliance packet filtering is increased by nearly 40 percent; gateway antivirus is 190 percent faster; intrusion prevention (IPS) is up 220 percent; and overall UTM performance is improved by more than 150 percent.

“For midsize businesses, there is no faster, fully featured and easy to manage UTM appliance on the market today than the New XTM 5 Series,” said Roger Klorese, Director of Product Management at WatchGuard Technologies. “Packed with key security features as well as next-generation Application Control capabilities, the New XTM 5 Series gives businesses an unparalleled solution to block the latest web threats, as well as the ability to improve employee productivity.”

Ideal for businesses with 50 to 500 employees, the New WatchGuard XTM 5 Series is available in four new models: XTM 515, XTM 525, XTM 535 and the top-performance XTM 545.  Basic firewall throughput starts at 2 Gbps for the XTM 515 and increases up to 3.5 Gbps for the XTM 545. Throughput with the full security offered by enabling next-generation UTM services starts at 850Mbps for the XTM 515 and increases up to 1.23Gbps for the XTM 545.

Security that is driven by awareness of application and user context defines a UTM appliance as truly ‘next generation’.  With WatchGuard Application Control, businesses get in-depth, granular control over Web 2.0 applications such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and hundreds more.  Not only does WatchGuard Application Control protect against the next-generation of threats that leverage these popular applications, now businesses are able to rein in how individual employees use them, directly from the corporate firewall.

In addition to the integrated firewall, IPS and Application Control features that are the bare essentials for next-generation security, customers have the option to add Gateway Anti-virus, WebBlocker, SpamBlocker and Reputation Enabled Defense – WatchGuard’s context-aware, cloud-based security service – to best meet their business needs.

The New WatchGuard XTM 5 Series also takes advantage of the ability to create highly secure virtual private network (VPN) tunnels for Apple iPad, iPhone and other iOS-based devices, as well as smartphones and tablets powered by Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) or later.  This way, businesses can provide complete BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) protection for popular devices that employees use in the office.