Blue Coat Ships First WAN Optimization Client With Integrated Security and Control

ProxyClient Software Accelerates Files and Applications to Remote Employees While Implementing Usage Policies & Malware Protection

Blue Coat Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:BCSI), the leader in WAN Application Delivery and Secure Web Gateway, today announced the general availability of its Blue Coat® ProxyClient® software, the first WAN optimization client with integrated security and control. ProxyClient software combines application acceleration, security and control for teleworkers and other remote employees. According to Nemertes Research, 86 percent of employees work away from corporate headquarters and 18 percent telecommute either part-time or full-time. Most remote employees suffer from slow applications and file access and represent a weak link for enterprise security.

“Locating employees in corporate headquarters is becoming increasingly less relevant,” said Robin Gareiss, executive vice president and senior founding partner, Nemertes Research. “Today it is critical to bring the corporation to the employee, rather than the other way around. Companies and organizations need to extend enterprise security, control and application performance to any place the employee is located.”

ProxyClient software accelerates remote applications and file transfer and extends Web security and policy control to remote enterprise users, regardless of location. The addition of ProxyClient software to Blue Coat security and acceleration solutions for branch offices, data centers and headquarters can provide the enterprise with protection, performance and control across its entire organization.

WAN Optimization Plus Web Filtering and Malware Protection

ProxyClient software has WAN optimization technologies, including byte caching, to accelerate access to files, such as spreadsheets and presentations, and speed response time of remote Web applications. It also uses the Blue Coat WebPulse™ service, the real-time cloud computing security service, to enforce a company’s centrally managed Internet usage policies and to protect against malware, spyware, mobile malicious code and phishing exploits.

Dramatic Acceleration

The policy-based acceleration in the ProxyClient software significantly increases performance for remote applications. Deployments have shown improvements of up to 35 times improvement in user wait times and bandwidth usage. In one evaluation, a 6.7 megabyte Word file took nearly one and a half minutes to download without the use of the ProxyClient software, but it took only four seconds to download with the ProxyClient software enabled and achieved bandwidth savings of 99 percent. The ProxyClient dashboard displays acceleration results.

Protection in Numbers

ProxyClient software works with the WebPulse cloud service that acts as a large community of users for detecting malware sources. The WebPulse service analyzes an average of over one billion user requests per week to detect malware, spyware, phishing or other Web-related threats. The WebPulse service also provides a real-time rating service for newly published or unrated Web content.

Location Awareness

ProxyClient software uses a unique location awareness technology to enable it to automatically apply appropriate WAN optimization and security or policy measures, depending on whether the user is working remotely or at a branch office where a Blue Coat® ProxySG® appliance provides acceleration and protection.

“Since most enterprises and organizations have large numbers of employees working from home and remote locations, it is critical to extend corporate application performance, Internet usage policies and malware protection to users away from a branch office or headquarters,” said Bethany Mayer, senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, Blue Coat Systems. “With the release of our ProxyClient software, Blue Coat leads the WAN optimization market with a solution that meets the productivity and security needs of remote users while removing the burden of licensing and additional cost.”

Available Free of Charge to Customers and Without Licensing Constraints

The base ProxyClient software with WAN optimization is available free of charge to customers with ProxySG appliances. ProxySG appliance customers that have a current license to Blue Coat WebFilter™ software can receive the addition of remote Web control and protection in ProxyClient software free of charge. Blue Coat does not require a registration process for customers to obtain licenses for the ProxyClient software. With ProxyClient software, Blue Coat customers can extend enterprise performance and security to all of their remote employees without additional software costs.

About Blue Coat Systems

Blue Coat secures Web communications and accelerates business applications across the distributed enterprise. Blue Coat’s family of appliances and client-based solutions – deployed in branch offices, Internet gateways, end points, and data centers – provide intelligent points of policy-based control enabling IT organizations to optimize security and accelerate performance between users and applications. Blue Coat has installed more than 40,000 appliances worldwide. Blue Coat is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and can be reached at (408) 220-2200 or www.bluecoat.com.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements, including statements regarding Blue Coat Systems’ expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future, and including statements regarding the capabilities and expected performance of Blue Coat Systems’ products. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based upon information available to Blue Coat Systems as of the date hereof, and Blue Coat Systems assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These and other risks relating to Blue Coat Systems’ business are set forth in Blue Coat Systems’ Form 10-Q for the quarter ended July 31, 2008 and Form 10-K for the year ended April 30, 2008, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Blue Coat, ProxySG and the Blue Coat logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Blue Coat Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.

Contacts

Blue Coat Systems
Steve Schick, 408-220-2076 (Media)
steve.schick {at} bluecoat(.)com
Daniel Levy, 408-220-2318 (Investors)
daniel.levy {at} bluecoat(.)com
or
Merritt Group (for Blue Coat Systems)
Ben Merritt, 703-926-0290 (Media)
merritt {at} merrittgrp(.)com