[March 13, 2006] Alabama Selects Blue Coat to Keep the Web Safe and Productive for State Business Tweet SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Blue Coat(R) Systems, Inc. , the leader in secure content and application delivery, today announced that the State of Alabama Information Services Division (ISD) has deployed Blue Coat proxy appliances as the foundation for its Web infrastructure. ISD manages the IT infrastructure and network resources for approximately 250 Alabama state agencies and boards with 35,000 network users. To maintain quality and control over its business-critical Web infrastructure, Alabama sought a comprehensive solution that could both control user access to specific Websites and protect against liability risks from the unintentional introduction of damaging content through email, peer-to-peer (P2P) communications, and Instant Messaging (IM). The state has deployed Blue Coat ProxySG(TM) appliances centrally within the state's network infrastructure, and all Web traffic flows through the proxy appliances. "Because the Web is a critical business backbone for the state, we determined that we needed to apply a proxy infrastructure to ensure critical control, protection and performance," said Jim Burns, CIO for the State of Alabama. "We selected Blue Coat due to the comprehensive capabilities, ease of deployment, management, and overall flexibility and power of its proxy appliances. We are also pleased with our network performance, already seeing a significant WAN bandwidth savings with the Blue Coat proxy appliances." One of the state's requirements was a content filtering solution with extensive logging capabilities to address potential liability issues. It selected Blue Coat WebFilter on ProxySG to control and monitor Web traffic. Unlike standalone filtering lists that only provide URL site blocking, the Blue Coat "on-proxy" solution enables granular control to allow or block content based on various criteria with a wide range of operational options, including inserting, deleting, limiting, redirecting or transforming various content objects. The appliances also prevent spyware at the gateway before it can load on individual computers and manage P2P, IM, streaming media and other applications. The ProxySG has patented proxy caching technology and enterprise policy controls, which are a powerful combination for achieving high levels of performance while strictly enforcing Web access policies. "Only a proxy infrastructure has the power to simultaneously control, protect and accelerate Web communications and applications," said Steve Mullaney, vice president of worldwide marketing, Blue Coat Systems. "We're pleased the State of Alabama chose Blue Coat to help make its Web environment and Internet use safe, productive and with the highest quality and responsiveness. Located in the network between users and the Internet, Blue Coat proxy appliances are an ideal platform for state, local or federal government organizations implementing comprehensive security and control for all types of Web communications." About Blue Coat Systems Blue Coat helps organizations make the Web safe and productive for business. Blue Coat proxy appliances provide visibility and control of Web communications to protect against risks from spyware, Web viruses, inappropriate Web surfing, instant messaging (IM), video streaming, and peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing -- while actually improving Web performance. Trusted by many of the world's largest organizations, Blue Coat has shipped more than 25,000 proxy appliances. Blue Coat is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and can be reached at (408) 220-2200 or http://www.bluecoat.com/. FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements, including statements regarding Blue Coat Systems' expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future, and including statements regarding the capabilities and expected performance of Blue Coat Systems' products. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based upon information available to Blue Coat Systems as of the date hereof, and Blue Coat Systems assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These and other risks relating to Blue Coat Systems' business are set forth in Blue Coat Systems' most recently filed Form 10-Q for the quarter ended October 31, 2005 and Form 10-K for the year ended April 30, 2005, and other reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. NOTE: All trademarks, trade names or service marks used or mentioned herein belong to their respective owners. Blue Coat Systems, Inc. CONTACT: press, Steve Schick, 408-220-2076, [email protected], or investors, Carla Chun, +1-408-220-2318, [email protected], both of Blue Coat Systems; or Kevin Kosh of CHEN PR,+1-781-672-3111, or [email protected], for Blue Coat Systems Web site: http://www.bluecoat.com/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]