Rohati Unveils its Layer 7 Network-Based Entitlement Control

Rohati Systems, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California, unveiled its high-performance network-based entitlement control (NBEC) solution for simplifying the way that enterprises define and enforce network policies in a highly scalable way. The solution is aimed at providing wider access to data center applications, where security concerns are evolving to required a deeper understanding of "who is using the network? what are applications are they using? when are they accessing the network? where are they located ? and how can I control them?"


The Rohati Transaction Networking System (TNS) addresses this problem by using -standard XACML (Extensible Access Control Markup Language) to define and enforce per-transaction policies across all types of users and applications. This eliminates the need for client or server agents, or changes to network topology.


Unlike traditional firewalls that are limited in the depth and relevance of controls they are able to provide, and by identity and access management (IAM) products that are complex to manage, Rohati has developed a high-performance platform enables enterprises to inspect and correlate individual transactions to network policies. Previous network security devices implement policies using Layer 4 access control lists (ACLs) that grant access based on the IP address and application identified by port number. Rohati's solution support the much richer Layer 7 ACLs, enabling granular entitlement definition and enforcement to support the new methods of business collaboration. Significantly, Rohati's approach requires no changes to applications, servers, user clients, or network topology


Rohati's platform is powered by 16-core processors capable of providing Layer 7 intelligence on thousands of simultaneous connections/flows at wire-speed. Two models are initially offered. The TNS 100 is scalable to 4 Gbps and handles 250,000 flows. This platform is aimed at medium sized data center environments and departmental server farms. The TNS 500 packs up to eight 10 Gbps XFP interfaces, up to 132 cores of processing power, and up to 6 million flows. This larger model is designed specifically for large data center environments.


Rohati Systems was founded by a number of former engineers from Cisco Systems, including Prashant Gandhi, Abhijit Patra, Kirti Prabhu, Anant Thakar, and Nagaraj Bagepalli. The company is headed by Shane Buckley, President and CEO, who previously served as Chief Operating Officer at Nevis Networks, Inc. a leader in network access control. Previously, he was Vice President of Worldwide Operations for Juniper Networks. Rohati is backed by Matrix Partners and Foundation Capital.http://www.rohati.com