High Performance Proxy Server  With Content Security

BlueCoat Secure Proxy Servers:
First generation proxy servers - software-based applications running on general-purpose operating systems - offered a point of control for securing network access. But the performance, degrades under today's heavy Internet and Intranet usage. In addition, as organizations look to maximize administration resources, the management, scalability and reliability of these existing software proxy servers demands improvement. BlueCoat Systems Web security appliances provide next-generation proxy functionality that delivers business and technology benefits to Web-dependent enterprises. 

BlueCoat Proxy Servers Provide: 

• Optimised appliance for Web security well beyond traditional proxy caching to enable content security, Web virus scanning and bandwidth management
• Centralised device management and policy configuration for "one-click" distribution across all Blue Coat products in the organisation
• Granular, exceptions-based approach provides flexibility to control exactly who, what, when, where and how users can access the Web

The BlueCoat Solution


Configured as a proxy caching server deployed between corporate users and the Internet, these optimized appliances intelligently manage user requests for content. When a user selects a URL, the request goes first to the BlueCoat Proxy Appliance for authentication and authorization. If the objects from the requested page are already in cache on the BlueCoat appliance, they are immediately served to the user. If the objects are not stored locally, the BlueCoat security appliance acts as a proxy for the user by communicating to the origin server via the Internet. When the objects are returned from the origin server a copy is delivered to the user and also stored on the systems cache to serve all subsequent requests. The entire transaction is monitored and logged for reporting and planning purposes. 

The BlueCoat Technology Advantage
Blue Coat's unique Web Knowledge Framework allows enterprises to handle all Web protocols, including HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, Microsoft streaming (MMS and HTTP streaming), Real streaming (RTSP and HTTP streaming), QuickTime streaming (over RTSP), MP3, Flash, and hundreds of other Web object types. 

Our Patent-pending Policy Process Engine provides the power to define a comprehensive set of rules for protection, control and acceleration, and to tie those rules to any number of policy conditions - leveraging user information in existing directories/databases. The solution uses an authenticated identifier to trigger all actions and rules. Web requests can be authorized and managed based on any combination of known identifiers. 

The examples below illustrate the powerful policies that are possible using BlueCoat Systems: 

• Security administrators facing a new security threat could implement a policy that restricts the use of browsers susceptible to a security flaw, and only allow access to certain web sites that are mission critical to business operations for a given group of users.
   
• Network managers with a need to control access to Web resources could create a policy that allowed access to multimedia content only to users with membership in the group marketing, using Microsoft Media Player, requesting an .asp file, from www.media.com, during the hours of 8am and 5pm, and using the HTTP protocol. BlueCoat's Web virus scanning enables security and network administrators to assure that the files stored in the proxy cache are safe and free from virus, worms and other network threats. Without virus scanning this content, existing proxy caches simply serve dangerous content more quickly.