BOSTON--Covergence introduced a smaller version of its IP edge security appliance today.

The new CXC-50 has all the security features of its larger predecessors, the 350 and 550. But it’s two inches tall instead of two rack units, and with a list price of about $6000, it’s less expensive, making it a good fit for small and medium businesses (SMBs), Covergence said.

The CXC-50 can’t handle as many sessions as the bigger gear, however. While the 350 can handle 4000 concurrent sessions per box (the higher-end 550 allows the addition of an extra 8000 sessions, and the boxes are sold in clusters to increase those numbers to a maximum 20,000 sessions per chassis), the CXC-50 handles 200 sessions per box and between 1,000 and 1,500 registered users.