GSA adds BorderWare, Alacritech

The holiday spirit delivered this week for a couple of information technology companies looking to make waves in the federal sphere.

BorderWare Technologies Inc., a security software solutions firm, and Alacritech Inc., which provides solutions that speed up the performance of applications across a network, have both earned a place on the General Services Administration schedule.

Several federal agencies, including some military outposts and departments within the Treasury Department already use BorderWare's Firewall Server. The product was awarded a Common Criteria EAL4 certification this year, making it the first firewall product to acquire that international recognition. EAL4 is one of the Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Levels for evaluating the security of IT products and systems.

The firewall starts at $1,200 for a 10-user license with first-year support. It took Toronto-based BorderWare about five months to get on the GSA schedule, said John Alsop, president and chief executive officer of BorderWare.

In a separate announcement, Alacritech said its products will be available on the GSA schedule and that CDW-G Inc. will resell its products. Alacritech specializes in TCP/IP acceleration solutions that boost the performance of network-attached devices.

"The Alacritech network adapters are great solutions for government agencies seeking to get more out of their server investments," Barry Haaser, vice president of marketing for Alacritech, said in a release. "Our existing customers are finding network-intensive applications — like backup, computer-aided design, imaging and groupware — operate 30 [percent] to 70 percent faster with our adapters. By doubling server performance, federal agencies can delay or postpone purchases on new servers, freeing up money for other IT expenditures."