Designed for high-volume transaction environments and emerging Enterprise Service Buses (ESB), the SecureSpan Gateway, XSpeed edition combines Layer 7’s patent pending Policy Driven XML Stream Processor with Tarari’s next-generation XML ASIC on a performance-optimized 64-bit appliance.

With growth in the use of XML and XML-derived integration technologies like Web services and .Net, the need for fast, low-latency processing of XML has never been more imperative in financial services, telecom, manufacturing and government. XML and Web service operations like data transformation, content inspection, threat detection, service virtualization and WS-* security each require enormous processor cycles. When these atomic policy instructions are combined into complex, sometime branching Web services policy expressions, the need for raw performance is compounded by a need for policy-optimized processing algorithms and matching custom silicon.

"Many current generation XML acceleration products depend on technology that either predate today’s diverse XML security requirements, or fail to account for the growing complexity of XML and Web services policy operations,” said Sirota. “XSpeed is the first Web services Gateway that combines unmatched processing horsepower with technology optimized for executing complex and diverse XML and Web services policy instructions.”

Layer 7 Technologies' SecureSpan product suite is designed to govern XML and Web services transactions spanning departments, business units and partners. The SecureSpan Gateway is a policy-optimized XML firewall and Web services Gateway that protects and controls how shared Web services are accessed by and exposed to external client applications. The SecureSpan Gateway is available in a variety of form factors tailored to different architecture and performance requirements:

XServer – XML security Server software designed for inside the firewall, application server deployments. XBlade – IBM eServer BladeCenter XML blade designed for high availability and scalability datacenter requirements. XScreen – ASIC accelerated bi-directional XML firewall for the perimeter DMZ. XSpeed - ASIC accelerated, 64-bit Web services Gateway for high transaction XML, Web services and ESB environments.

• Layer 7 Exec Comments on IBM's Acquisition of DataPower