Lucent intros new firewall

Lucent Technologies last week introduced a new Internet firewall designed to enable service providers to offer managed firewall services to multiple customers from a single platform.

The new product, the Lucent managed firewall, uses Lucent's Inferno software. Key features are security, scalability, ease of management and an open architecture, said Howie Gittleson, director for Lucent Internet Security Products Group.

Planet Access, an Internet service provider with 3000 regional users, has been testing the new firewall. The platform allows the ISP to better serve its private-network customers than previous firewalls, said Jeff Cartwright, communications technology director at Planet Access.

The Lucent firewall is unique because it targets service providers and distributed applications, said Rebecca Wetzel, Internet consulting director for TeleChoice. Others have been designed for enterprisenetworks.

"It's a niche that hasn't been filled, and I predict it is going to take off in the very near future," Wetzel said.