Cisco partners with Red Creek on IPsec work

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January 26, 1998, TechWeb News

Cisco partners with Red Creek on IPsec work
By Loring Wirbel

San Jose, Calif. - Cisco Systems Inc. last week signed a development pact with Red Creek Communications Inc. (Newark, Calif.) to integrate Red Creek's PCI-based Ravlin security technology into Cisco's Pix Firewall systems. The deal with Red Creek is part of Cisco's strategy to standardize in both hardware and Internetwork Operating System firmware on the IPsec security-adjunct protocol for Internet Protocol, an area in which Red Creek is a specialist.

Red Creek's CryptoCore architecture merges encryption, compression, key management and secure tunneling duties in small hardware platforms-the Ravlin family-that range in access speeds from 4 to 155 Mbits/second. Red Creek was an early supporter of both IPsec and the Internet Security Association Key Management Protocol, or ISAKMP. Kurt Kruger, product manager for Pix Firewall at Cisco, said that "the combination of all the IPsec features drove us to Red Creek, but certainly key management was a very important factor in being able to scale firewall technology."

In addition to using the Red Creek PCI card in the Pix platforms, Cisco will use Red Creek's client software for both Windows NT 4.x and Windows 95. The version of Cisco IOS shipping in the spring will include Cisco's own IPsec with integrated ISAKMP/Oakley key management support, including licensed software from Cylink Corp. and RSA Data Security Inc.

Cisco's vote of confidence in the Red Creek architecture gives the young company the backing of the strongest internetworking OEM, though Red Creek already had integration pacts in other remote-access markets, such as one with Com21 Inc. (San Jose) for cable modems. The Cisco decision to standardize on IPsec carries additional weight, giving the work of the Internet Engineering Task Force leverage over other security concepts, such as the point-to-point tunneling protocol.

Cisco also will work directly with Microsoft to integrate IPsec technology into Windows NT Server 5.0. Microsoft will license Cisco's ISAKMP software and will work with Cisco on network-layer security protocols.

Kruger said that partnerships such as Cisco/Red Creek will help drive home the message that firewall technology belongs on a remote-access or virtual-private-network hardware platform, rather than on a Unix server. Software-only firewall products tend to fall victim not to their own weaknesses, he said, but the weaknesses of a client/server OS.

Tom Steding, president of Red Creek, said that the company recognizes the value of partnering not only in embedded hardware components, but also in software modules that can be integrated with real-time embedded kernels. He said Red Creek will be aggressive about selling standalone Ravlin platforms but will also look for integration and licensing opportunities "wherever it makes sense."