5/3/2005 -- Cisco Systems announced today at the Interop Las Vegas 2005 conference new and updated product lines aimed at providing scalable integrated functionalities and services for increased security and networking mobility.

The company says its Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) 5500 series brings together the abilities to adapt to and defend against security threats; monitor and regulate network and application traffic more efficiently; and deliver VPN connectivity through remote access services such as IPSec and SSL VPN. The multi-function security appliance suite also features QoS, routing, IPv6 and multicast support.

"The integration of multiple technologies in the ASA 5500 solves the problem of multi-device security management, and makes it operationally and economically feasible to deploy comprehensive security services to more network locations," said Joel Conover, principal analyst, enterprise infrastructure, at consultancy Current Analysis.

In the same vein, Cisco also introduced several additions to its portfolio of integrated services routers with its 1800 and 800 series. The new routers deliver concurrent services, including IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN capabilities and advanced security with VPN, IPSec AES and 3DES encryption. Network admins can also benefit from their remote management features and backup WAN links.

Both the security appliance and router lines will be available later this month. The Cisco ASA 5500 series lists from $3,495 to $16,995. The Cisco 800 and 1800 router series list from $399 to $1,295. -Dan Hong