| Security is a top concern for the
operators of critical networks. Government agencies, service providers
and large enterprises all face rapidly evolving threats such as denial
of service (DoS) attacks, network worms and attacks on the routing
infrastructure itself.
According to Arbor Networks' co-founder Dr. G. Robert Malan, "Distributed threats cannot be effectively
addressed with perimeter-only solutions such as firewalls and intrusion
detection systems." That fact helps to account for the phenomenal
success of Arbor Networks' flagship product, Peakflowª, a distributed
network anomaly detection system that had its start in the UM research
lab of Dr. Farnam Jahanian,
professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the College
of Engineering, and the thesis work of Malan, his then-graduate student.
Peakflow closes the gap between the detection of a threat and its
resolution, protecting the availability of critical networks. In the
late 1990s, Jahanian and Malan decided to create a commercial version of
their research prototype, originally devised to protect UM's educational
network from DoS attacks. With funding from Battery Ventures and Cisco
Systems, they officially launched Arbor Networks in February of 2001.
Today, Peakflow is being deployed by a
broad range of government agencies, leading service providers and
corporations. The past year was filled with milestones. Despite a
generally weak economy, Arbor Networks experienced solid growth and won
key customer accounts. In August, the company announced that it had
raised $22 million in Series B financing from top-tier venture capital
firms and strategic investors. Most of the new funding is earmarked for
new product development. Arbor Networks has also been recognized as one
of UPSIDE Magazine's Hot 100 Private Companies in 2002, Red Herring's
Ten to Watch 2001 and Network World's Ten Start-Ups to Watch in 2001.
Co-founders Jahanian and Malan are quick
to acknowledge early contributions made by the Office of Technology
Transfer. "I credit Tech Transfer with helping us move through the
start-up process judiciously and getting our technology to market
quickly," says Professor Jahanian. "It would have taken us an additional
six months otherwise, and we would have missed important opportunities
to raise money and capture emerging markets."
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Michigan |
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