Crossbeam Systems is headquartered in Boxborough, Massachusetts

Boxborough, Massachusetts

Boxborough is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 4,996 at the 2010 census. The town name is often spelled "Boxboro" on highway signs and official documents, but the correct spelling is, in fact, Boxborough....

 and has offices in Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific. The company makes an open, high-performance hardware and software network security

Network security

In the field of networking, the area of network security consists of the provisions and policies adopted by the network administrator to prevent and monitor unauthorized access, misuse, modification, or denial of the computer network and network-accessible resources...

 platform that is designed to deploy network security applications from third-party security software vendors (including McAfee

McAfee

McAfee, Inc. is a computer security company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA. It markets software and services to home users, businesses and the public sector. On August 19, 2010, electronics company Intel agreed to purchase McAfee for $7.68 billion...

, Sourcefire

Sourcefire

Sourcefire, Inc develops network security hardware and software. The Sourcefire 3D System is based on Snort, an open-source intrusion detection engine.-Background:...

, Trend Micro

Trend Micro

Trend Micro Inc. is a computer security company. It is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan and markets Trend Micro Internet Security, Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security, OfficeScan, and other related security products and services...

, Websense

Websense

Websense is a San Diego-based company specializing in Web security gateway software. It enables clients to block access to chosen categories of websites.-History:Websense was founded by Phil Trubey in 1994...

, Check Point

Check Point

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. is a global provider of IT security solutions. Best known for its firewall and VPN products, Check Point first pioneered the industry with FireWall-1 and its patented stateful inspection technology...

, IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

, Imperva

Imperva

Imperva , is a data security company headquartered in the United States, which provides solutions for high-value business data protection and prevents sensitive data theft from hackers and malicious insiders by securing data across three main areas: databases, file systems, and web...

, Actiance

Actiance

Actiance Inc is an American based multinational corporation that develops the platforms required to enable the security, management and compliance of unified communications, Web 2.0 and social media channels...

 and Sophos

Sophos

Sophos is a developer and vendor of security software and hardware, including anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam, network access control, encryption software and data loss prevention for desktops, servers, email systems and other network gateways....

) within large networking environments, including enterprises, service providers and government agencies. The industries that Crossbeam serves include energy, financial services, government, healthcare, higher education , managed/ service providers and mobile operators

Company History

Crossbeam Systems, Inc. was incorporated on November 23, 1999 by Stephen Justus and Mike Akerman, with Throop Wilder joining as a founding team member in 2000 . Since the beginning, Crossbeam has been focused on designing and manufacturing a range of very high-performance network security platforms, with the philosophy that security solutions should be open and offer choice to the customer in the security applications they use. Today, Crossbeam is the only manufacturer of a dedicated open network security platform. On 12th October 2011, Crossbeam announced the introduction of the latest generation Network Processing Module that dramatically enhanced performance across the portfolio to 140Gbps as measured by a real-world IMIX traffic profile. This new technology also enabled Crossbeam to introduce a new mid-range data center product - the X50.

Peter George led the company from 2001 to June 2007 as CEO and president. Pete Fiore took over the company in 2007 and led the company to growth and profitability until his death in December 2009. Mike Ruffolo joined Crossbeam in March 2010 and continues today as CEO and president.

Products

The company’s key innovation is its X-Series network security platform , which was introduced in September 2001 as a way for telecommunications operators to consolidate their security server or appliance infrastructure into one chassis , which acts as a virtual security architecture or ‘network in a box.’ The X-Series architecture consists of five major components including a chassis, an operating system

Operating system

An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...

 and three types of hardware blades or modules:

– Network Processor Module (NPM)

– Control Processor Module (CPM)

– Application Processor Module (APM)


Over the past 10-plus years, the X-Series platform, including the modules and operating systems, has gone through five major generational upgrades. In October 2010, Crossbeam announced the latest expansion of its X-Series family of network security platforms to include the X20, X30, X60 and X80-S.

X-Series Chassis

Chassis Type	Module Slots	Lifecycle
X20	4-Slot	2010–Present
X30	4-Slot	2010–Present
X40	8-Slot	Replaced by X60
X45	7-Slot	Replaced by X60
X50	4-Slot	2011-Present
X60	7-Slot	2010–Present
X80	14-Slot	2001–Present

X-Series Modules

Generation	Network Processor Modules	Application Processor Modules	Control Processor Modules
1st (2001)	NPM 4100	APM 4200	CPM 4100
2nd (2003)	NPM 8100	APM 8200	CPM 8100
3rd (2005)	NPM 8200	APM 8400	CPM 8400
4th (2007)	NPM 8600	APM 8600	CPM 8600
5th (2009)	NPM 8620/50	APM 8650
6th (2010/11)	NPM 9610/50	APM 9600	CPM 9600

X-Series Operating System (XOS)

The component technologies are tied together by a specialized Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

-based operating system called XOS that provides the ability to run several applications together in series or parallel and allows a single application to run across any number of processor cores or APM blades.

Major XOS Version	Ship Date
9.6	November 2011
9.5	November 2010
9.0	April 2010
8.5	October 2009
8.1	January 2009
8.0	March 2008
7.2	August 2007
7.0	November 2006
6.0	November 2005

C-Series (2004–2010)

Similar to the X-Series, the Crossbeam C-Series provided the ability to deploy any certified security application, but was limited to one application per appliance and had a fixed form factor. The C-Series ran a different operating system to the X-Series, called COS. The C-Series was discontinued in 2010.

Major COS Version	Ship Date
6.2	December 2009
6.1	March 2008
6.0	July 2007
5.1	February 2007
4.0	February 2006

Partners

Crossbeam’s business model is to partner with third-party security vendors, allowing customers to run multiple security applications on a single X-Series platform. Customers can choose to install any number of active and certified products onto the X-Series platform.

Partner	Product Certified to run on Crossbeam	Partnership Status
Enterasys	Dragon IDS/IPS	Not Active
Secure Computing	SmartFilter	Now McAfee
McAfee	Firewall Enterprise	Active
Sourcefire	IPS, RNA	Active
Trend Micro	IMSS, IWSS	Active
Websense	Web Security Suite	Active
Check Point	FireWall-1, NGX, VPN-1 NGX, FireWall-1 GX, Power-1 VSX, Security Gateway	Active
IBM	Proventia IPS	Active
Imperva	SecureSphere	Active
Actiance	USG	Active
Sophos	PureMessage	Active

Branding

Crossbeam Systems, Inc. dropped ‘Systems’ from day to day operations in March 2010 when it rebranded the company with a new look. A new logo was introduced.

Company tag lines:

2005–2008	Safer, Simpler Networks
2008–2010	Consolidation. Virtualization. Simple. Security
2010 –	Rethink the network

Current Customers

Select Crossbeam customers include:

• Axpo Informatik AG

• Baylor University

Baylor University

Baylor University is a private, Christian university located in Waco, Texas. Founded in 1845, Baylor is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.-History:...

• BT

• Centrica

• Cox Communications

• Fiserv

• NTT Communications

• Portugal Telecom (PT)

• Scottrade

• Sportsbet

• Telefónica UK

• Temple University

• The Weather Channel

• Volkswagen Group

• Globe Telecom

Patents

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) awarded Crossbeam a patent in December 2010 for its approach to network security services delivery. Specifically, Crossbeam was awarded a patent for the underlying architecture of its X-Series platform, which provides a method for distributing applications and services in and throughout a network.