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CHECK POINT SOFTWARE DEMONSTRATES Floodgate -1 FOR WINDOWS NT AT INTERNET SHOWCASE

Unveiled at Industry's Premier Internet Conference, Policy-Based Bandwidth Manager Ensures Performance of Mission-Critical Traffic Without "Starving" Other Applications

SAN DIEGO, CALIF., – January 28, 1998 – At Upside's invitation-only Internet Showcase conference here today, Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKPF) demonstrated its Check PointTM FloodGate-1TM policy-based bandwidth management solution on the Microsoft Windows NT platform for the first time.

Based on the Stateful Inspection technology patented and invented by Check Point, FloodGate-1 enables organizations to define and manage enterprise-wide policies that precisely control valuable bandwidth resources, optimize network performance and alleviate network congestion.

A core component of Check Point's overall strategy to address the convergence of network security and traffic management announced last September, the FloodGate-1 policy-based bandwidth management solution is the only product in the industry that enables users to define enterprise-wide traffic management policies that actively allocate bandwidth for inbound and outbound traffic based on relative merit or importance to all other managed traffic using ‘weighted priorities.' FloodGate-1 uniquely ensures the performance of mission-critical and other high-priority applications without "starving out" lower priority applications.

"We're pleased to debut the Windows NT version of our FloodGate-1 bandwidth management solution at the industry's premier Internet conference," said Deborah Triant, president and CEO of Check Point Software Technologies, Inc. "As an increasing number of Internet and intranet servers are deployed using the Windows NT platform, the need for a product such as FloodGate-1 that can alleviate the network congestion at those access points and enable organizations to achieve optimum network performance is essential."

FloodGate-1 allows organizations to dynamically control traffic on congested Internet/intranet links by managing network traffic at an aggregate level to deliver reliable performance for critical applications and users. An enterprise-wide traffic management policy manages all inbound and outbound IP-based traffic by applying user-defined rules to control bandwidth usage for entire classes of traffic, not just individual connections. Because FloodGate-1 supports thousands of simultaneous connections, the product is highly scaleable for large enterprise networks. FloodGate-1's powerful, real-time traffic monitoring capabilities diagnose the source of network congestion to help the network manager set the appropriate policy and ensure the availability of critical services.

"Electronic communications is a mission critical task for every business. We just can't survive without it in today's environment. But some message traffic is more important that others, and companies need to be able to monitor and adjust data flow," said David Coursey, executive producer of Internet Showcase. "What impressed me about this product is the way in which it assigns relative weights to traffic, so that all traffic reaches its destination, but the most important and urgent traffic is delivered first."

Benefits of Deployment with FireWall-1

FloodGate-1 can be deployed as a stand-alone traffic management solution or can be used in concert with FireWall-1 on the same system. Customers can utilize the same user-defined network objects in both solutions, enabling easier policy definition, system configuration and close integration of an organization's security and traffic management policies.

Most importantly, customers deploying FloodGate-1 together with FireWall-1 gain distinct performance and security benefits over deployment of separate vendors' network security and bandwidth management solutions. Because both products use Check Point's patented Stateful Inspection traffic inspection technology and share state table information, network traffic is only inspected once at each network access point, rather than twice: once by the network security product and another time for bandwidth management considerations. This equates to the most efficient traffic inspection and performance in the industry. In addition, FloodGate-1's tight integration with FireWall-1 provides the unique ability to enable users deploying the solutions in tandem to define bandwidth allocation rules for encrypted and network-address-translated traffic.

Supporting data rates of up to 10 Mbps (20 Mbps full duplex), FloodGate-1 improves quality of service by eliminating the burst-and-delay effect inherent in most Internet traffic. Comprehensive logging capabilities provide detailed log information to show the allocation of bandwidth by user, application and connection.

Array of Policy Setting Mechanisms

Rules are established for traffic control via a combination of traffic classifications and bandwidth control criteria. Network managers can classify traffic on the basis of Internet service or application (HTTP, FTP, Telnet, BackWeb), source, destination, group of users, groups of Internet services, Internet resource (ex. URL), and traffic direction—inbound or outbound. FloodGate-1 even allows network managers to classify traffic by a specific channel within a "push" application. Once traffic is accurately classified, FloodGate-1 applies one or more control criteria to actively manage bandwidth allocation. These criteria can be used alone or in any combination to define powerful and flexible bandwidth management policies. Control criteria categories include:

  • Weights—Allocates bandwidth for users and Internet services based on designated merit or importance. The weight assigned to a particular class determines the basis upon which traffic competes for available bandwidth and ensures that no traffic is starved of bandwidth.
  • Guarantees—Provides guaranteed bandwidth for critical applications or designated users and groups.
  • Limits—Sets bandwidth restrictions for discretionary network services or user applications which are not time sensitive.

 Three-Tier Client/Server Architecture

FloodGate-1 consists of three components, all of which can run on a single platform or be distributed across multiple workstations and servers for maximum flexibility. These components include:

  • FloodGate-1 GUI—The policy editor, a Java-based application, can run on a variety of platforms and is used to create and modify the traffic management policy and define the network objects.
  • FloodGate-1 Management Server—Controls and distributes the traffic policy to all FloodGate-1 modules.
  • FloodGate-1 Module—Implements the traffic management policy at network access points to control the flow of inbound and outbound traffic.

Pricing and Availability

FloodGate-1 for Windows NT (FloodGate-1 Module and Management Server) will be available through all Check Point distribution channels on or before March 2, 1998. The FloodGate-1 Management GUI for Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT are available now. FloodGate-1 pricing begins at $4,995 for dial up lines up to 256K, $9,995 for T1 and E1 lines and $18,990 for 10Mbps.

About Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. is a leading provider of policy-based enterprise security and traffic management solutions. Through its patented Stateful

Inspection technology, the company is uniquely positioned to deliver Secure Enterprise Connectivity solutions that protect information assets and enhance the performance of enterprise networks. Check Point offerings include the world's leading enterprise security suite, Check Point™ FireWall-1, and the industry's premier policy-based bandwidth management solution, Check Point FloodGate-1™. The company has U.S. headquarters in Redwood City, California and international headquarters in Ramat-Gan, Israel. For product information, please visit our web site at http://www.checkpoint.com

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1998 Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. Check Point, the Check Point logo, Check Point FireWall-1, FireWall-1, SecuRemote, FireWall-First!, OPSEC, INSPECT, FloodGate-1 and IQ Engine are trademarks or registered trademarks of Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. All other product names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners.