NSS Labs Selects BreakingPoint As Standard For Testing Next Generation Content-Aware Network Equipment

Austin, TX - May 9, 2008 - BreakingPoint Systems, Inc., the content-aware network and application testing company, today announced that NSS Labs has selected BreakingPoint as its standard for testing content-aware network equipment in its laboratory. Today's announcement comes after more than a year of the two companies working closely together.

Announcement Details

• NSS Labs is migrating its layer 4 through 7 test methodologies to the BreakingPoint platform in order to take advantage of its powerful multi-protocol, high-throughput and live security attack capabilities.
• BreakingPoint is setting the pace of innovation to effectively test next-generation, content-aware equipment. The ability to simulate and test the volume and complexity of today's business network goes far beyond the traditional simulation of HTTP traffic. A true test of the performance and security of a network or network device must combine authentic converged business application traffic with live security threats.
• BreakingPoint is unique in its ability to test Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) of network equipment at 10 Gigabits per second and faster, which is essential for content-aware devices such as Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), load balancers, firewalls, VPN or WAN Optimization products.
• NSS Labs operates a transparent, scientifically repeatable certification process, ensuring the highest levels of independence, diligence and integrity. The company performs real-world product testing, employing full application layer traffic, real verifiable exploits and live hosts.
• NSS Labs' use of BreakingPoint's solutions offers the ability to test and certify network devices with natively generated application traffic, selecting from more than 37 application protocols including FIX, Microsoft CIFS SMB, MS SQL, Oracle, peer to peer, SSL and more.

Executive Quotes

Bob Walder, Founder and CTO, NSS Labs

“The sophistication of today's networks demands that we test equipment under a variety of real-world traffic conditions. Proper testing of a wide range of use cases requires the ability to generate blended application traffic with high session counts while maintaining multi-Gigabit throughput. BreakingPoint's extensible framework enables NSS Labs to efficiently create repeatable and scalable tests containing extremely complex applications.”

Des Wilson, CEO, BreakingPoint Systems

“NSS Labs is globally recognized for its commitment to the most rigorous real-world testing of the performance and security of network devices. The ability to work with this industry leader is an exciting opportunity for BreakingPoint and a validation of our mission. Legacy test products have not kept up with the pace of innovation and are not architected to properly test next-generation content-aware equipment. Evaluating and certifying content-aware equipment by testing with a single application, like HTTP, may seem suitable for other testing providers, but it is irresponsible when today's network devices are hammered by an increasing volume of business, recreational and malicious traffic.”

About BreakingPoint

BreakingPoint is the only company exclusively focused on application, performance, and security testing for content-aware devices. BreakingPoint was founded in 2005 by engineers with deep experience developing high speed networking devices at companies such as NetWorth, NetSpeed, Cisco, TippingPoint, and 3Com. The company is headquartered in Austin, Texas with offices and customers in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, and China. For more information, visit www.breakingpointsystems.com.