Alcatel-Lucent has announced a Web Services network-security appliance intended to secure access to content and monitor for unauthorised transmission.

The Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess 8550 Web Services Gateway can be installed within the organisation's data centre or Internet perimeter 'de-militarised zone' (DMZ) to monitor XML-based traffic, said Cliff Grossner, Alcatel-Lucent product manager. The appliance acts as a secure proxy for application flow, inspecting packets to determine whether an end-user or machine is authorised to gain access to data.

"Microsoft Active Directory can be used for the role-identification information," says Grossner. "If there are policy violations, the OmniAccess 8550 can block them or notify the manager. This XML message inspection is to ensure information privacy."