NEXSI SYSTEMS AMONG HANDFUL TO RECEIVE FULL VPNC CERTIFICATION FOR IPSEC VPN COMPLIANCE.

Nexsi Systems, a provider of high-performance, mission-critical network systems, recently announced that the Nexsi 8000 Content Services System (CSS) is one of a handful of products to have passed all three levels of Virtual Private Network Consortium's (VPNC) security tests. This accomplishment is a testament to the interoperability and ease of management of the Nexsi 8000, which complements the company's achievements in exceeding customers' performance and reliability expectations.

The Nexsi 8000 is a multi-gigabit CSS that aggregates and delivers a comprehensive suite of secure Layer 4-7 networking services, including 8-Gigabit per second IPSec VPN throughput and support for up to 300,000 concurrent VPN tunnels. The Nexsi 8000 enables on-demand delivery of individually tailored IP services at line rate for up to 100 secure content domains. This expandable, mission-critical networking system enables service providers and enterprises to quickly and cost-effectively deploy a rich suite of security, bandwidth management and content services, while eliminating the performance restrictions and operational complexities currently experienced with specialized point products.

According to VPNC's director, Paul Hoffman, "With security threats increasing every day, choosing robust and comprehensive security solutions has become even more critical for both enterprises and service providers. By meeting the stringent VPNC standards, the Nexsi 8000 has proven to be fully compliant with leading-edge IPSec VPN technology."

The VPNC is an independent organization chartered with providing unbiased information on the VPN industry. In addition, the VPNC serves as a forum for VPN manufacturers and assists the press and potential users in understanding VPN technologies and standards. VPNC tests are designed to determine conformance with IPSec standards.

"Considering the complexity of IPSec standards, it is quite an accomplishment for a young company like Nexsi Systems to pass all three levels of tests," said Michael Howard, principal analyst and co-founder of Infonetics Research. "This is a measure of Nexsi's success in integrating multiple value-added services into one system."

The VPNC conformance procedure consists of three tests -- Basic, Rekeying and Certificates -- that must be passed on two separate test gateways. Basic and Rekeying confirm the system can establish an IPSec tunnel utilizing Triple DES for encryption, SHA-1 for hash, 1024-bit key exchange, and a pre-shared secret for authentication, in addition to automatically rekeying the Phase 2 SA. Certificates, the most comprehensive test, verifies that the system has the ability to create an IPSec tunnel using the same standards for the Basic test, but using PKIX certificates instead of a pre-shared key.

"We are delighted to have proven the quality and completeness of our system by meeting the high standards of all three levels of VPNC testing," said John McFarlane, CEO of Nexsi Systems. "This certification is proof positive of our commitment to exceeding customer expectations and delivering world-class software with the performance-leading, multi-gigabit Nexsi 8000."

The Nexsi 8000 is the world's first Content Services System that delivers a rich suite of mission-critical networking services, including firewall, IPSec VPN, bandwidth management, Web switching and SSL acceleration for hundreds of secure content domains at multi-gigabit speeds. Breaking the artificial barriers of current generation solutions, the 8-Gigabit Nexsi 8000 enables a revolutionary service-delivery paradigm that leads to an investment payback of less than five months by delivering 10-100 times the performance of competitive devices, eliminating the need for up to 500 dedicated network devices, and significantly reducing network management complexity and operations costs.

VPNC is the international trade associate for manufacturers in the VPN market. The group has over 40 vendor members worldwide representing the entire range of VPN servers and client products. Full information on the consortium, as well as technical information on VPNs and the IPSec standard, can be found at www.vpnc.org. Nexsi Systems is a pioneer of Content Services Systems, a new breed of network infrastructure solutions. Nexsi's CSS is a scalable, mission-critical networking system that aggregates and delivers a rich suite of security, bandwidth management and content services for multiple secure content domains. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., Nexsi is supported by leading investors, including Amerindo Investment Advisors, Capital Research Group, Mitsui Corp., Presidio Venture Partners, Raza Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Soros Investments. [sections]