Light Reading today has published another free research tool to help equipment vendors and their customers. The new Light Reading security technology directory helps readers learn their way around an increasingly important technology market, while giving buyers a way to identify the products meeting their requirements.

Use of the directory is free of charge for registered readers of Light Reading and may be accessed by clicking on this link (and agreeing to copyright conditions). It can also be accessed via Light Reading's home page, where it sits alongside other directories covering Ethernet services and IP services software, together with Light Reading's original "Light Pages" vendor directory.

So far, the security product directory lists 148 products from 41 vendors. This is a fair number of entries, but Light Reading expects (and hopes) to see a flood of other vendors submit product information now that they can have a play with the directory and understand its value. The directory gives vendors free publicity while serving as a useful research tool for their prospective customers.

Vendors can submit product information for inclusion in the directory, free of charge, by downloading, completing, and returning a simple questionnaire on the directory's first page. Alternatively, they can download the questionnaire by clicking on this link.

Light Reading launched this project in April by publishing a report setting out its plans for identifying security products according to their principal functions, the security threats they addressed, and various other criteria. The report invites comments and also lists vendors and invites readers to point out omissions (see Who Makes What: Security Appliances).

The directory is based on these plans and on feedback from readers. It lists products targeting not just service providers but enterprise users and other vendors as well. It's available not only on Light Reading, but on its affiliate Websites -- Byte and Switch, Unstrung, and Next-Gen Data Center Forum, which have a combined readership of several hundred thousand unique monthly readers.

— The Staff, Light Reading