Ingram Micro Inc. this week picked up Network Engines Inc.'s NS Series Security Appliances firewall, the latest of a growing number of embedded security options.

Ingram resellers and ISVs will have access to Network Engines's entire NS Series family of security appliances, which are designed add "defense in depth" protection and provide application-layer filtering inside the traditional firewall.

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It is Network Engines' first distribution agreement for the product line in North America, and Ingram expects it to be popular with enterprise security resellers looking to add embedded security features, said Diane Lees, senior category manager at Ingram Micro.

"Security on appliances is really a growing area overall in the security market. That's because the end user can buy the appliance already loaded and configured. This really helps in the deployment and overall efficiency and decision making process of purchasing the different components [hardware and software]," Lees said.

The out-of-the-box nature of the appliance, which comes preloaded with Microsoft Corp.'s ISA (Internet Security and Acceleration) Server 2004, should also prove attractive to VARs, Ingram executives said.