Ending the firewall nightmare for ISPs: Check Point delivers management tool

Check Point Software is betting on a New Year's resolution with its most recent offering, Provider-1, which lets service providers offer managed services and virtual private networks with little operational overhead. The vendor is hoping managed security services will be one of the biggest concerns of 1999 for Internet service providers' corporate customers.

In today's environment, managing customers' separate firewall policies is a network operator's nightmare. Provider-1, allowing ISPs to manage multiple security customers through a single server, puts the management functions into one unit while separating the individual requirements for each customer.

"Without Provider-1, network operators must remember each customer's IP password, log-in information and customer policy. With a server management environment, they manage the customers from one console and drill down to each customer's firewall information," said Zohar Alon, product manager for managed service providers at Check Point.

"It's a daunting task to manage hundreds of firewalls through a central interface when each customer file must be kept separate," said Mark Sims, president and CEO of Netrex, a vendor of voice-over-data products. Previously, Netrex was building management scripts in-house.

For Netrex, Provider-1 has reduced operational costs and decreased the typical 10 to 20 procedural steps to two or three clicks. It also improves security by more tightly integrating operations with management capabilities, Sims added.

Provider-1 includes system alerts, log-in data and an interface so it can interconnect with other network systems such as billing. However, some ISPs may need to create application programming interfaces. "Provider-1 will make it easier for ISPs to offer new services since it doesn't require time and planning," said Melanie Posey, an analyst for IDC. "As more ISPs offer managed security services, they'll need products like this to play in the advanced Internet services market."

Competitive local exchange carrier 2nd Century Communications will use Siemens' 36190 ATM core switch as its network base. 2nd Century signed a contract to purchase 20 of the switches over the next two years.

Cisco Systems and Conectiv Communications, a Newark, Del.-based CLEC, teamed to deliver DSL technology to Conectiv's customers in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Frontier Corp. secured a two-year, $15 million carrier services agreement with Touch 1 Communications, a long-distance and toll-free service provider. Under the contract, Touch 1 will use Frontier's Optronics Network to deliver long-distance, toll-free and travel card services.