Brocade has released what it claims is the first native port-based encryption functionality for modular routers. This offering delivers encryption embedded in-line with the I/O ports, enabling customers to avoid the significant performance loss, operational complexity, and prohibitive cost associated with services blades or external appliances used for encryption. 

 
“In a recent survey of IT professionals across North America, respondents stated they experienced a 75 percent decline in network performance when security appliance capabilities are enabled such as firewall, anti-virus, deep packet inspection, and encryption,” said Zeus Kerravala, founder, ZK Research. “Additionally, 44 percent cited trade-offs being required between network performance and security, with nearly 40 percent of respondents stating they either decline to enable, or completely turn off, functions in their security devices to avoid impacting networking performance.”
 
The new security functionality added to the Brocade MLXe routers includes both 256-bit IPsec encryption and 128-bit MACsec encryption for end-to-end data protection. Both of these security protocols can be enabled at wire speed for up to 44 Gbps (IPsec) or 200 Gbps (MACsec) throughput per module to achieve high levels of network performance requirements.
 
The updates eliminate the need for expensive specialized switch/router encryption services blades or third-party security appliances, while also eradicating performance-inhibiting latency and complex operations that are inherent with these types of add-on devices. 
 
“Historically, performance and cost have been key barriers to broad adoption of network encryption technology,” said Jason Nolet, senior vice president Switching, Routing, and Analytics Products, at Brocade. “By utilizing innovative, I/O-based encryption in Brocade MLXe routers, organisations can now deploy up to 44 Gbps of wire-speed IPsec encryption per trunk and over 1 Tbps per router, achieving five times the performance at a third of the cost -- and without the operational complexity -- of comparable solutions.”