Security Appliance Integration

Today's business models and technology integrations used to integrate web filtering into security appliance solutions is suboptimal for both the end customer and the security appliance vendor.

A growing trend is for enterprises to address web filtering is integrating it with security appliances. Unfortunately, the various models for integrating web filtering with security appliances available today are suboptimal for both the customer and the security appliance vendor.

The Customer Challenges

Security Gaps

To implement a web filtering solution, even one integrated with a security appliance, the customer is faced with a series of challenges. Most important are those associated with security issues. Many of today's web filtering solutions integrated with security appliances lack key functionality, such as:

• No support for real time updates.
• No realtime URL classification for previously uncategorized URLs.
• No or limited feedback loop for catching uncategorized URLs.

These functionality gaps can result in security loopholes, opening the door for a variety of internet based threats or unsanctioned web surfing.

Onerous TCO

In many cases, the customer incurs significant additional operational costs in order to implement third party web filtering with a security appliance, such as:

• Adding additional servers in order to deploy the web filtering vendor's "off box" directory integration, management, and reporting features.
• Train their IT staff on separate software such as the management console and reporting infrastructure, which again are different for web filtering and the security appliance.

OEM Challenges

From the OEM's perspective, integrating with today's third party web filtering solutions is also fraught with technology and business model compromises:

• Customer ownership - Oftentimes, the web filtering vendor feels they should own the customer, and may even try to sell the customer a security solution that overlaps or even competes with the OEM's solution.
• Channel conflict - Channel pricing may vary between the OEM and the web filtering vendor, leading to reduced margins.
• Multiple policy, directory, and reporting systems and software - As noted above, customers are burdened with deploying several overlapping technologies.

The BrightCloud Web Filtering Service

The BrightCloud Service, when integrated with an OEM's security appliance addresses each of the shortcomings of today's solutions while offering significant additional value.

Superior Customer Web Filtering

• Real time updates.
• Real time classification of non-cached URLs.
• Real time feedback loop.

No Additional TCO Costs

And on the operational side of things, BrightCloud directly addresses the TCO issues:

• No additional hardware to deploy.
• Directly integrated into the OEM's management console, directory integration, and reporting system.

BrightCloud Optimizes Web Filtering for Security Appliance OEMs

BrightCloud provides OEMs with a service that is optimized from both a business and technology standpoint for integration with their security appliance product lines:

No Customer Ownership Issues

As an OEMed service, BrightCloud is branded and sold by the OEM.

Tight Integration with OEM Product

As shown in the diagram below, the BrightCloud Service can be directly integrated into the OEM's appliance policy engine, management console, and reporting system.

Local Database Support

The BrightCloud Appliance Integration supports a database of arbitrary size resident on the appliance. This enables vendors to deploy the BrightCloud solution across a variety of hardware implementations, ranging from near zero hardware configurations to resource rich appliances that can store a large number of URLs locally on the appliance.

A typical BrightCloud Appliance Integration is depicted in the diagram below:

Summary

OEMs and, even more importantly, their end users can both benefit from implementing web filtering via an OEMed hosted model. No longer do those two constituencies have to content with awkward technology integrations or incongruous business models in order to incorporate the much needed security and productivity benefits into their enterprise security solutions. The BrightCloud Web Filtering Services for OEMs provides a superior implementation for OEMs and their customers can reap the benefits of a unified and cohesive solution.