Centipede Networks and BSD Perimeter Create Open Source Firewall Support Partnership
Tulsa, OK, and Louisville, KY, July 10, 2007 - Centipede Networks, a dba of S4F Inc., and BSD Perimeter, today, announced a strategic partnership to provide commercial support for two prominent open source firewall projects, pfSense and m0n0wall. The agreement creates a valuable resource for companies wishing to tap into the security benefits of open source firewalls. Service offerings will include end-user support, developer support and support for vendors wishing to sell systems based on pfSense or m0n0wall. This partnership formally codifies an existing relationship of cooperation between Centipede Networks and the developers of pfSense and m0n0wall.
Centipede Networks' Chief Executive Officer Jeff Starkweather said, "We are very pleased to offer our support resources to two excellent open source projects. One of the challenges for end users adopting open source products is that service and support are rarely provided in a professional capacity. This partnership provides pfSense and m0n0wall users access to professional support services on par with those offered by commercial firewall vendors, at a far more affordable price."
BSD Perimeter's Chief Architect Scott Ullrich says, "pfSense and m0n0wall represent the state-of-the-art for open source firewall distributions. While more easily managed than considerably more expensive commercial firewall products, the ability to get timely, professional support from a vendor provides real peace of mind for our users. Indeed, this kind of cooperation between developers, vendors and customers is what really empowers open source projects to become so superior. "
BSD Perimeter's Chief Technology Officer Chris Buechler adds, "We are committed to supporting users over all aspects of the pfSense and m0n0wall projects. In addition to supporting end-users, we will be enabling developers to add on functionality to both products and working with vendors who wish to sell pfSense or m0n0wall-based products."
Direct Benefit to Projects
In addition to directly funding the development efforts of both the pfSense and m0n0wall projects, this partnership will provide developers with a conduit for interfacing directly with key corporate users of their products. Through this conduit, bug reports and resolutions can quickly be resolved by a team of support technicians and developers. A direct dialog between commercial users of the pfSense and m0n0wall products and their developers will take place, enabling the discussion of new features or modifications to existing features.
Support Plans
Centipede Networks will offer two commercial support options to interested customers. The Standard Support Plan will provide web based and email support to customers with a guaranteed response within 2 business days. The Premium Support Plan offers web based, email and live telephone support to customers. Both plans allow customers access to Centipede Networks' Support Portal containing useful documentation and walk-through examples for common configuration scenarios, support ticket creation and management, as well as Live Support Chat with Centipede Networks' Support Engineers. Standard Support is provided for $350 USD per year. Premium Support is available for $599 USD per year. Additionally, support plans are available for individuals or companies wishing to develop pfSense or m0n0wall and companies wishing to sell appliances based on either product.
About Centipede Networks
Centipede Networks creates and markets industry-leading network security appliances based on proven, best-of-breed open source security solutions worldwide. These network security appliances include web content filtering, spam and virus filtering and firewall solutions. Centipede Networks is a dba of S4F Inc.
About BSD Perimeter
BSD Perimeter was created by the founders of pfSense, and a core m0n0wall contributor, to meet the demands for commercial support from the users, resellers, and other supporters of the projects. Based in Louisville, Kentucky, BSD Perimeter provides crucial financial support and commercial backing to these two outstanding open source projects.
If you would like more information regarding this release, please contact Gary Buckmaster with Centipede Networks at (918) 524-1010 x 114 or at gary@centipedenetworks.com
