Check Point

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

Type	Public (NASDAQ: CHKP)
Founded	1993
Headquarters	Tel Aviv, Israel (before may 2007 : Ramat Gan)
Key people	Gil Shwed, Founder, CEO Marius Nacht, Founder
Industry	IT security Computer software Computer hardware
Revenue	▲ US$ 808.5 million (2008)
Net income	▲ US$ 324.0 million (2008)
Employees	2,200 (2009)[1]
Website	www.checkpoint.com

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP) is a global provider of IT security solutions. Best known for its firewall and VPN products, Check Point first pioneered the industry with FireWall-1 and its patented stateful inspection technology. Today the company develops, markets and supports a wide range of software and combined hardware and software products that cover all the aspects of IT security, including network security, endpoint security and security management.

Founded in 1993 in Ramat-Gan, Israel, Check Point today counts approximately 2,200 employees worldwide, and more than 100,000 customers across the world, including 100% of the Fortune 100 and 98% of the Fortune 500. Check Point's solutions are sold, integrated and serviced by a network of over 2,200 certified partners in 88 countries.^[1]. The company's development centers are located in Israel, California (ZoneAlarm), Sweden (Former Protect Data development centre) and in Belarus. The company also has offices in the United States, in Redwood City, California and in the Dallas, Texas area, as well as in Canada in the Ottawa, Ontario area.

History

Check Point was established in 1993, by the company’s current Chairman & CEO Gil Shwed, at the age of 25, together with two of his friends, Marius Nacht (currently serving as Vice Chairman) and Shlomo Kramer (who left Check Point in 2003 to set up a new company – Imperva, where he serves as President and CEO). Gil had the initial idea for the company’s core technology know as stateful inspection, which became the foundation for the company’s first product (simply called FireWall-1); soon afterwards they also developed one of the world’s first VPN products (VPN-1).^[2]

Initial founding, of only $600,000, was provider by BRM Group, a venture capital fund established by brothers Eli and Nir Barkat (which on November 11, 2008 was elected as mayor of Jerusalem).^[3]

The company’s first commercial breakthrough came in 1994 when Check Point signed an OEM agreement with Sun Microsystems ^[2], followed by a distribution agreement with HP in 1995.^[4] The same year, a US head office was established in Redwood City, California.

By February 1996, the company was named worldwide Firewall market leader by IDC with a market share of 40 percent.^[5] On June 1996 Check Point raised $67 million from its initial public offering on NASDAQ.^[6]

In 1998, Check Point established a successful partnership with Nokia, which bundled Check Point’s Software with Nokia’s computer Network Security Appliances^[7], by 2000 the company became the world’s leading provider of VPN solutions (in terms of market share).^[2] During the 2000’s Checkpoint started acquiring other IT security companies, culminating in the acquisition of Nokia’s network security business unit in 2009, just over 10 years after first estbalishing their partnerships.^[8]

Products

Check Point's products fall into the following main categories:

• Security Gateways - Check Point's core business, with products such as Power-1 appliances, UTM-1 appliances, IP Appliances, VSX-1, Connectra, Safe@Office and Software Blades such as Firewall, IPS or IPSEC VPN.

• Endpoint Security - Single security agent that combines firewall, antivirus, anti-spyware, full disk encryption, media encryption with port protection, network access control (NAC), program control and VPN on the end point.

• Security Management - Allows administrators to manage events, set policy and apply protections across the entire security infrastructure from a single interface. Solutions are based on the Software Blade architecture, with a portfolio of 10 management software blades including event analysis, correlation and device provisioning.

Acquisitions

• SofaWare Technologies, in January 2002 (partial acquisition).^{[citation needed]}
• Zone Labs, makers of the ZoneAlarm personal firewall software, in 2003, for $205 million in cash and shares.^[9]
• Protect Data, the holding company for PointSec Mobile Technologies, in a cash deal valued at $586m in late 2006.^[10] Prior to their acquisition by Check Point, Protect Data acquired Reflex Software.^[11]
• NFR security, an intrusion prevention system developer, for $20 million in late 2006, following its failed plan to acquire the larger IPS vendor Sourcefire.^[12]
• Nokia Security Appliances division, was acquired in April 2009 .^[8]

In 2005, Check Point tried to acquire intrusion prevention system developers Sourcefire for $225 million,^[13] but later withdrew its offer after it became clear US authorities would try to block the acquisition.^[14]

Certification

Check Point has a long-running history of training and certification on their products, including the following:

• CPCS - Check Point Certified Specialist
• CCSA - Check Point Certified Security Administrator
• CCSE - Check Point Certified Security Expert
• CCSE+ - Check Point Certified Security Expert Plus
• CCMSE - Check Point Certified Managed Security Expert
• CCMA - Check Point Certified Master Architect
• CCLE - Check Point Certified Licensing Expert^{[citation needed]}

External links

• www.checkpoint.com — corporate website
• www.zonealarm.com — ZoneAlarm division website
• www.opsec.com — Open Platform for Security website
• Check Point Official Forums
• CPUG: The Check Point User Group
• www.sofaware.com — SofaWare corporate website

See also

• ZoneAlarm
• VPN-1
• Silicon Wadi

References

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