Infonetics Study Examines Buyer Experience and Real-World Deployments
of Network-Based Intrusion Prevention System Market Leaders
A new study conducted by communications market research firm Infonetics
Research and commissioned by intrusion
prevention systems (IPS) vendor TippingPoint examines buyer
experience with IPS solutions in real world deployments. Investigating
how customers purchase, deploy and use solutions from Cisco, IBM-ISS,
McAfee, Sourcefire and TippingPoint, the study found that many “IPS”
products from key vendors are either not being used in line or have a
limited number of filters set to “block”
malicious traffic.
Nearly 170 customers – all using and directly
managing IPS products – were anonymously
surveyed via phone and responded to a variety of questions concerning
in-band blocking, filter effectiveness and ease of use. “This
survey shows great variability among IPS vendors with regard to IPS
security performance and ease of manageability,”
according to Jeff Wilson, principal network security analyst at
Infonetics Research. “Customers showed strong
confidence in TippingPoint’s ability to
deliver in-band solutions and block attacks; TippingPoint also led the
pack when customers were asked about IPS configuration experience and
plans for new purchases.”
Report highlights include:
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Respondents had more than 90 percent of their TippingPoint
IPS devices deployed in-band; significantly higher than the other
IPS vendors covered in the report. The top reasons stated for not
deploying competing vendors’ solutions
in-band are reliability, performance and false positive issues.
-
Over 70 percent of TippingPoint’s
customer-activated filters are set to block traffic, which is higher
than all other vendors covered in the report.
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The average number of attacks blocked per month for customers
protected by TippingPoint IPS’s was in
excess of 235,000 – more than double the
number of the next nearest competitor.
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Other questions asked respondents to rate their IPS vendors on ease of
use, including IPS turn-up time and ease of filter configuration.
