Blue Coat (News - Alert) Systems Inc., a company that provides Web security and optimization, recently announced an agreement to acquire Crossbeam Systems, Inc., a company that provides scalable network security.

The acquisition will allow Blue Coat to optimize its networks and further expand its business operations.

Crossbeam (News - Alert) is the creator of X-Series – a family of open, adaptable platforms with the ability to provide security application processing from 5Gbps to 140Gbps. X-Series will be integrated with Blue Coat's Unified Security solution, providing users with an ideal control point in the network for managing applications that secure both inbound and outbound traffic from any location.

"Our service provider and enterprise customers are excited we are bringing together two complementary technologies," said Greg Clark, chief executive officer at Blue Coat Systems. "With Crossbeam, Blue Coat gains a best-in-class support infrastructure and a high performing platform that scales to meet the needs of even the most complex enterprise IT environments."

"As enterprises seek to improve corporate agility with mobile and cloud-based solutions, the dual demands for greater capacity and improved threat response force enterprises into a cycle of constantly expanding networking and security infrastructures," said Christian Christiansen, IDC's (News - Alert) program vice president of security products and services. "Blue Coat and Crossbeam have a history of embracing emerging security ecosystems, and this acquisition potentially enables customers to further tap into even more synergistic security and networking solutions."

Blue Coat Systems also recently updated Blue Coat PacketShaper appliances to enable businesses to fully embrace Web, cloud and mixed-use recreational applications on the corporate network, while providing a high-quality user experience for maximum employee productivity.

The newest advances for PacketShaper appliances provide visibility into Web applications and operations, as well as the group and user-level policies that allow businesses to gain control over the shadow IT infrastructures that arise from the introduction of applications onto the corporate network without IT departments’ knowledge.

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