Network security a la carte: Check Point's software blade strategy paying off

When companies take on the task of making their corporate networks secure, they are facing, to say the least, a huge rigmarole. Hundreds, if not thousands, of employees access their corporate networks from all over the world at all hours. They come in via desktop computers, laptops and netbooks running on various operating systems. Mobile devices such as BlackBerry's and iPhones all want in to the networks, too. For the managers of these networks, making them accessible to all these devices is daunting. But making them secure is critical.

Tel Aviv-based Check Point Software Technologies (CHKP), which offers security software such as firewall technologies and encryption technologies, has the fix and is capitalizing on the problem. Under its chief executive, Gil Shwed, the company embarked on a new strategy of creating "software blades" around its security software last April. The idea: Instead of buying software from various vendors and piecing them together, corporate customers can turn to Check Point and cherry pick from a library of software blades -- say one for firewalls, another for intrusion prevention -- to get the exact security protection they need and the ability to tailor the software on the fly.