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ALISO VIEJO, Calif., May 13, 2003 - QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq:QLGC), the
company that powers storage area networks (SANs), today announced
plans to enhance security in its award-winning SANbox2 line of
switches by implementing the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
standard Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS)
protocol, which is implemented in the Internet Authentication Service
(IAS) component of Windows 2000 Server and the recently released
Windows Server 2003. QLogic is working with Microsoft to broaden
industry usage of Microsoft's RADIUS implementation.
"Microsoft is pleased to work with QLogic and the storage industry to
proactively drive enhanced and simplified storage security
management," said Rakesh Narasimhan, General Manager of the
Enterprise Storage Division at Microsoft Corp. "With a
standards-based approach, customers gain a more cost-effective and
reliable means of securing SANs."
"Security is a primary concern in our product development process,"
said Frank Berry, vice president of marketing, QLogic Corp.
"Bringing SAN security into the fabric will greatly simplify life for
IT professionals in small, medium and large enterprises."
Internet Authentication Service is Microsoft's implementation of the
IETF-standard RADIUS, a widely adopted protocol, in Windows 2000
Server and Windows Server 2003. IAS through RADIUS standard protocol
and domain integration with Active Directory helps administrators
centrally manage network access policies based on group membership,
time of day, type of access and more. With both standard and
vendor-specific action support, IAS can push access controls to a
broad variety of network access methods. IAS also simplifies access
management and enhances network security.
"RADIUS serves as a trusted third party in a complete security
strategy, providing access control, authentication and authorization
across the entire IT infrastructure," said Robert Snively, chairman
of the INCITS Technical Committee T11. "QLogic and Microsoft both
serve on the INCITS Technical Committee T11 which is actively
extending the security capabilities of Fibre Channel SANs to include
authentication mechanisms that can be integrated with a RADIUS
environment."
The IETF working group ANSI T11 acknowledges the need for a mandatory
protocol for switch security and recommends RADIUS as an essential
component for enhanced security. RADIUS, an IETF-standard protocol,
is widely used today for authenticating, authorizing and auditing
users and devices in a network to previously defined permissions,
based on existing enterprise policy. The use of RADIUS in Windows
Server for SAN security enables customers to integrate with existing
enterprise security and to more easily implement a security model for
users and devices.
QLogic SANbox2 switches make it easy for small and medium-sized
enterprises to connect many new or legacy servers to shared storage devices, fully
leveraging the power of SANs. QLogic SANbox2 switches enable high-performance
switched storage networking at affordable prices while protecting investments
in 1Gb equipment. With SANbox2 switches, businesses can easily build powerful
storage networks that are interoperable with servers, networking equipment and
storage subsystems. Certified with every major storage management application,
SANbox2 switches are fabric-ready out of the box.
Powered by QLogic
Over 40 million QLogic products have shipped inside servers, workstations, RAID
subsystems, tape libraries, disk and tape drives, delivered to small, medium and
large enterprises around the world. Powering solutions from leading companies
like Cisco, Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, IBM, Network Appliance, Quantum,
Sony, StorageTek and Sun, the broad line of QLogic controller chips, host bus
adapters, network switches and management software move data from storage devices
through the network fabric to servers. A member of the S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100,
QLogic was recently named to Forbes' Best 200 Small Companies for the fourth consecutive
year and was named to Fortune's 100 Fastest Growing Companies list for the third
consecutive year. For more information visit www.qlogic.com.
Note: All QLogic-issued press releases appear on the company's web
site (www.qlogic.com). Any announcement that does not appear on the
QLogic web site has not been issued by QLogic.
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