New Jersey Education Association Standardizes On Blue Coat For Web Communications Security And Control
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sep. 27, 2004 — Blue Coatâ„? Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: BCSI), a leading provider of proxy appliances, today announced that the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) is leveraging Blue Coat’s ProxySGâ„? appliances to increase the control and security of Web communications throughout 23 office locations and 180,000 membership users.
As Web use continued to grow, NJEA required a powerful proxy appliance that could filter out unwanted Web content while keeping up with the real-time performance of Web traffic on the network. Blue Coat’s high-performance proxy appliance platform was selected to replace existing Microsoft software-based Internet Access Servers because of Blue Coat’s increased security, performance and ease of maintenance.
“Proxies are the most effective way to improve the security and control over our Web communications, and deploying a proxy appliance that enforces multiple policy controls without impacting network performance was paramount,” said Richard Roche, associate director of systems administration for NJEA. “Blue Coat’s proxy appliances allow us to filter out dangerous and inappropriate Web content before it lands on our network, and the custom Blue Coat appliance architecture keeps our Web traffic running with good performance.”
As a middle-man between users on the network and the Internet, the Blue Coat ProxySG appliances enforce Web use policies that safeguard the NJEA network from inappropriate and malicious content. Dramatic Web performance gains are achieved on the NJEA network via Blue Coat’s object pipelining technology that downloads Web objects in parallel, and advanced caching technology that serves up repetitive Web objects locally to users.
“Unlike other platforms, Blue Coat proxy appliances provide a 10-times performance increase for Web filtering, which allows organizations to keep Web traffic flowing at the ‘real-time’ speeds they demand,” said Steve Mullaney, vice president of marketing for Blue Coat. “Without having to compromise performance, NJEA and large organizations alike are able to enforce numerous Web use policies down to the individual user and user group. This gives NJEA the flexibility and control to limit Web use for certain user groups, while also allowing the Association’s leadership and staff unlimited use.”
About NJEA
The New Jersey Education Association was founded in 1853 by a group of educators with a desire to improve public education and elevate the teaching profession. The Association took a leading role in the creation of normal schools for teacher preparation, the advancement of physical education, special facilities for disabled children, and increased financial support of education. Today, NJEA continues to serve members’ professional and personal needs by providing comprehensive services. Supporting and strengthening public education, offering opportunities for professional growth, protecting members’ rights, and working for improved member recognition and compensation are all part of NJEA’s commitment to great public schools.
About Blue Coat Systems
Blue Coat enables organizations to keep “good” employees from doing “bad” things on the Internet. Blue Coat wire-speed proxy appliances provide visibility and control of Web communications to address today’s new business risks – such as inappropriate Web surfing, viruses brought in via back door channels such as instant messaging and Web-based email, and network resource abuse due to peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing and video streaming. Trusted by many of the world’s most influential organizations, Blue Coat has shipped more than 18,000 proxy appliances. Blue Coat is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and can be reached at (408) 220-2200 or www.bluecoat.com.