IronPort Extends Leadership With New E-mail Security Appliances

SAN BRUNO, CA--(Marketwire - October 8, 2008) - IronPort® Systems, a leading provider of solutions that protect businesses against spam, viruses and malware, and now part of Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), today announced hardware platforms for its enterprise- and carrier-grade e-mail security appliances that dramatically extend IronPort's performance advantage over its competition. The new IronPort C-Series™ and IronPort X-Series™ e-mail security gateways, as well as the new IronPort M-Series™ security management appliances, more effectively handle the increasing amount of spam worldwide. The appliances offer up to a 150 percent performance improvement over previous versions and provide customers with up to five times the throughput of competitive solutions. These continued performance improvements, along with industry accolades and market share gains, highlight the strength of IronPort's e-mail security offerings.

"IronPort has long been a leader in e-mail security," said Tom Gillis, vice president of marketing for Cisco. "Now that IronPort is part of Cisco, we have been able to break further away from the pack. Our solutions and our pace of innovation help our customers remain protected against rapidly changing Internet threats. Our latest hardware releases are a great example of our ability to significantly raise the bar for e-mail performance while extending our leadership position for anti-spam accuracy."

Spam continues to be one of the biggest threats to e-mail performance and network security. Currently, spam accounts for 78 percent of the e-mails sent each day. That percentage is expected to rise to 83 percent within four years, according to an August 2008 report from the Radicati Group titled "E-mail Security Market: 2008-2012."

IronPort's performance in the e-mail security appliance market has been recognized by both Gartner and the Radicati Group. IronPort is also ranked as the world's largest vendor of e-mail security appliances by IDC. IronPort's products now protect more than 200 million mailboxes, including those at 42 of the world's 100 largest companies.

IronPort's SenderBase® Network and Threat Operations Center monitor messaging traffic and virus outbreaks around the globe and together comprise the world's first and largest traffic monitoring network. With IronPort appliances deployed at eight of the 10 largest ISPs and more than 40 percent of Global 100 companies, SenderBase measures more than 30 percent of the world's messaging traffic -- receiving over 30 billion queries per day. More than 100,000 organizations now participate, ensuring that IronPort's SenderBase offers the industry's most accurate traffic monitoring. Additionally, IronPort's Threat Operations Center is staffed by experienced industry analysts who monitor virus outbreaks in real time and can quickly issue outbreak rules to protect IronPort customers.

Commenting on IronPort's products, James Piper, assistant vice president, systems administration manager of the fourth largest Los Angeles-based financial institution said, "As we faced an ever-increasing volume of spam and virus-ridden e-mail, it became readily apparent that unless we found a way to somehow filter out these messages, our e-mail system would quickly become a liability rather than a productive tool. At the time, IronPort was the only vendor that offered to send someone to our location; install and configure the appliance; and allow us to spend 30 days evaluating the product, no strings attached. We receive over 160,000 e-mails a day and the performance, accuracy and simplicity of the product went well beyond our expectations. Our 30-day evaluation turned into what is now our fourth year with IronPort. Much to our continued amazement, our two appliances filter out over 95 percent of spam and virus ridden e-mails through its reputation and spam filtering software while maintaining a nearly flawless false-positive ratio. Choosing IronPort was a great decision in 2005 and continues to be a great decision today."

Pricing and Availability

IronPort's C360, C660 and X1060 e-mail security appliances, as well as the M660 and M1060 management appliances, are available now. For more information please visit www.ironport.com.

About IronPort Systems

IronPort Systems, now part of Cisco Systems, is a leading provider of email security, Web security and security management appliances for organizations ranging from small businesses to the Global 2000. IronPort appliances utilize SenderBase®, the world's largest email and Web threat detection network and database. IronPort products are innovative and easy-to-use, providing breakthrough performance and playing a mission-critical role in a company's network infrastructure. To learn more about IronPort products and services, please visit: http://www.ironport.com/.

Copyright © 2008 Cisco IronPort Systems, LLC. All rights reserved. IronPort, the IronPort logo and SenderBase are registered trademarks of Cisco IronPort Systems, LLC. All other trademarks are the property of Cisco IronPort Systems, LLC or their respective owners. While every effort is made to ensure the information given is accurate, IronPort does not accept liability for any errors or mistakes which may arise. Specifications and other information in this document may be subject to change without notice.

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Contact Information: Press / Analyst Contact David Oro IronPort Systems 707.558.8585 oro@ironport.com