Layer N Becomes Britestream

AUSTIN, Texas -- Layer N Networks, a catalyst for the creation of a ubiquitous private Internet, announced today that it has changed its name to Britestream Networks to more accurately reflect the company’s mission of intelligently and transparently securing data in the network flow. The company’s new web site (www.britestream.com) is also live as of today. Along with the name change, the company also announced the general availability of its BN1010 board that is the first security NIC (network interface card) that is completely self-contained and manages all facets of SSL (secure socket layer) processing on a single board.

Britestream’s president and CEO Bob Weinschenk, who joined the company in July of this year, looks forward to leading the innovative team at Britestream. He commented, “Our new name - Britestream – captures the essence of what we really are…namely a company that is delivering solutions that shed light on what has been a difficult problem – deploying predictable and scalable security to online networks easily. Our BN1010 solution is a breakthrough that enables companies to confidently streamline and strengthen their online security with no impact to other applications or the network’s performance. We’re delighted to announce its general availability after successful engagements with several OEM partners that we’ll be announcing in the next few weeks.”

Prior to joining Britestream, Bob Weinschenk was president and CEO of Pixim, a premier supplier of semiconductors and software platforms for digital image capture and processing, where he successfully raised over $55M in four rounds of venture capital financing. Before joining Pixim, he served as General Manager in the Microelectronics Division of Lucent Technologies where he supervised all computer accounts and the retail channel across Lucent's Microelectronics divisions. In this role, he oversaw nearly $400 million in annual sales and $1.3 billion in product design.

Britestream’s patented Instream Security Processing architecture, which incorporates full TCP/IP termination and SSL/TLS processing on the same board, enables businesses to quickly turn security on whenever and wherever they need it. This unique, self-contained combination of networking and encryption manages the entire security process transparently without relying on any external resources. Because the Britestream solution delivers drop-in integration capabilities, the solution simplifies design for OEM customers and can be deployed extremely quickly. Built-in security features, including key storage in hardware and tamper protection, further protect the network against hackers and operating system attacks. This combination of powerful simplicity, uncompromised performance, and fortified protection enables security to be more readily deployed not only in existing applications such as servers, load balancers, firewalls, and content switches but in fast-growing emerging applications such as SSL VPNs, XML/Web Services, and secure e-mail gateways as well.

Approaches toward solving the complex security problems of today’s networks have traditionally involved software or hardware co-processors. However, because these approaches are non-deterministic in performance, difficult to maintain, and extremely hard to integrate, security has continued to be a difficult proposition for designers and integrators, despite the growing demand for secure networks. By redefining the way security is viewed and deployed, Britestream is becoming a catalyst for the creation of a ubiquitous secure Internet.

“Britestream’s vision is an Internet where all traffic is secure and all data is private by default,” added Venu Shamapant, a director on Britestream’s board, and a partner with Austin Ventures. “We’re pleased to have the right management, the right solution and the right timing in the market to present a solution that will be a catalyst for their vision.”

Britestream Networks