The flexible option for unified protection
The new USG Flex range of security appliances are Nebula-ready, giving Zyxel customers and partners the opportunity to switch to remote management when they time is right for them, which is good news all round, says Thorsten Kurpjuhn, Market Development Manager Europe at Zyxel.
As we all know, everything changes and that’s certainly true with network protection. The threat landscape evolves so quickly that we need to keep an almost real-time check on new developments and share information and updates immediately to ensure customers are as safe as they possibly can be.
Zyxel always has its finger firmly on the pulse of network security and is constantly developing its products to make certain that customers are fully protected. That applies whether you are using equipment and appliances you purchased some time ago, or one of our very latest solutions. Zyxel will always support its products for their full lifetime.
Continuous change
But we also continue to develop new solutions as the needs of our customers change. One of our biggest innovations of recent times was the introduction of the Nebula cloud management platform, which enables customers, or their or reseller or service provider, to monitor and manage networks and devices remotely.
Nebula has become very popular with Zyxel customers in recent months and while it won’t suit everyone yet, it’s an option we will look to offer on more of our solutions over time. This is why we are now introducing the USG Flex line of unified security gateways. We’ve already announced the first models in this range – the USG Flex 100, 200 and 500, which offer up to 250Mbps, 450Mbps and 700Mbps throughput respectively – and more will follow in due course.
The idea of USG Flex, as we hope the name suggests, is that it gives you all the protection you need along with the added flexibility to switch from managing the device locally through a controller, to managing it through Nebula, at some point in the future. As soon as this capability is enabled on the Nebula cloud (which should be in the third quarter of 2020), it will be possible to install and to control USG Flex devices through the Nebula Control Centre, along with other Nebula-enabled devices.
Optimised performance
That will be good news for the thousands of customers who are already using Nebula – and the many others who are now leaning towards this method of managing their networks. It is also great news for the many Zyxel partners who now use Nebula as a central pillar of their managed services; it means they will be able to offer management of USG devices as an additional service to their customers.
All round, it’s good news, and as the new USG Flex devices use many of the technologies deployed in the new ATP series of advanced protection appliances, they deliver faster performance and additional features, so they really do have a lot to offer. For customers who want to be Nebula-ready, they are going to be the best way to optimise performance and investment protection.
