Blue Coat

The Blue Coat SG family of appliances delivers a scalable proxy platform architecture to secure Web communications and accelerate delivery of business applications.

Based on a custom, object-based operating system with integrated caching and compression, these proxy appliances leverage existing authentication systems to enable flexible policy enforcement on content, users, applications and protocols.

Blue Coat SG appliances are typically deployed:

1. At the Internet gateway (forward proxy) to protect internal users and networks from spyware, phishing attacks, inappropriate web usage, and potential legal liability – while actually improving web performance.

2. At the edge of an organization’s application delivery infrastructure for controlled acceleration of key business applications, including file services, rich media applications, and e-mail.

3.In the DMZ (reverse proxy) to securely isolate web servers from direct Internet access and accelerate web-based applications and public websites.

Blue Coat Director enables policy, configuration, and device management for Blue Coat appliances. Built as a management appliance, Director reduces management cost and complexity by providing centralized management of Blue Coat appliances across the distributed, global enterprise. From a single easy to use Web interface administrators can deploy hundreds of appliances, monitor and enforce security policies and re-configure their distributed application delivery network to respond to emergencies with the click of a button.

Director solves three challenges associated with application delivery networks. First, Director can automate the deployment of remote Blue Coat appliances during rollout, allowing appliances to be shipped to remote locations with only two IP address pre-configured, plugged in, and automatically populated with the latest policy and network topology for nearly instant setup. Second, once deployed Director allows easy monitoring of events within the application delivery network, including device status and events and critical changes in the flow of the network through a convenient dashboard. Finally, Director allows you to pre-stage policy to rapidly respond to sudden changes in the network, including disasters and outages, with plans thought out well in advance. Fast deployments, steady monitoring and rapid response make Blue Coat-enabled networks the most agile choice in Application Delivery.