Siemens OpenScale Security Services Portfolio Enhances Security of Unified Communications
October 21 2008 - 6:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
New Offerings Deliver Professional Services and Solutions to
Support and Secure Unified Communications Environments BOCA RATON,
Fla., Oct. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Siemens Enterprise
Communications has significantly enhanced its OpenScale Services
and solutions portfolio through the introduction of four key
offerings to help businesses improve the security of their Unified
Communications (UC) solutions. Offering security-focused
professional and managed services, user training and maintenance
globally, Siemens provides greater peace of mind to businesses
concerned with the security of UC, which are inherently
multi-vendor and multi-technology environments. Siemens' enhanced
global OpenScale Security Services portfolio covers four key areas:
Business Continuity, Compliance, Identity and Privacy, Threat
Mitigation and Data Security. (Logo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070904/SIEMENSLOGO ) Security
is a major concern for businesses in all areas of IT, and UC is no
exception. Siemens' UC solutions such as OpenScape UC Server,
OpenScape Voice Application and other similar products already
include built-in security features. It is the nature of UC,
however, that the increased interaction with an organization's
committed desktop and collaboration strategy, enterprise business
applications and potentially Fixed Mobile Convenience (FMC)
applications increase complexity and exposure to security risks.
Siemens' OpenScale approach uniquely supports it's customers to not
only identify but to mitigate those risks. This enhanced global
security services and solutions portfolio is open and
vendor-neutral, so enterprises can take advantage of Siemens'
unique security expertise and value-added services regardless of
their UC solution vendors, making Siemens a true one-stop shop for
helping businesses mitigate their risks. Plus, with over 350
security professionals around the globe now part of Siemens' Global
Service Infrastructure, Siemens can provide security services to
enterprises in all major regions to ensure uniform policies and
processes across an organization. The new security services
portfolio builds on Siemens' existing global OpenScale Service
offering, which can deliver services to a variety of customers,
regardless of size, geographic reach, level of in-house expertise
or differing vendor solutions deployed. "While businesses are
excited by the many benefits of unified communications, many are
also concerned about the security risks," said Dana Rasmussen,
President, Siemens Enterprise Communications. "We have developed a
comprehensive portfolio of security services that combines with
Siemens' open unified communications expertise to address the key
areas of concern so that CIOs can be assured that their
communications are as secure as possible." Organizations are at
increasing risk of grey-net attacks via instant messaging and UC
systems (both proprietary and public). Given this, CIOs are
concerned with issues regarding UC security, particularly the
unauthorized interception of VoIP, Instant Messaging (IM) or other
traffic, spoofed caller ID or IM identities, and denial of service
attacks on the communications infrastructure. These breaches can
compromise confidential information and seriously disrupt business
processes. Deploying OpenScale Security Services and solutions from
Siemens can help organizations avoid these breaches. "As a
healthcare organization, the security of our facilities and systems
is of utmost importance to protect the privacy of our patients and
staff, and to keep our systems running smoothly," said Michelle
Keith, Executive Director Plant Operations, Hospital Construction,
and Safety Officer for Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System.
"Siemens understands this, and delivers solutions and services that
provide peace of mind that our corporate assets are as secure as
possible." Siemens' new OpenScale Security Services and solution
offering covers four key areas of security risk: Business
Continuity, Compliance, Identity and Privacy, Threat Mitigation and
Data Security. All of these services are designed to help
businesses deploying a UC solution to identify security gaps early
on, define effective measures to mitigate risks and provide ongoing
monitoring to ensure continued protection of data and assets.
Business continuity management is focused on planning, testing and
providing strategies to ensure an organization can recover key
elements of its UC environment in the event of system failure or
emergency. Siemens business continuity services can help build
policies and plans to ensure that all of these concerns are
addressed and businesses are able to provide a continuous, disaster
tolerant communication environment. Using Compliance services,
including audits, health checks and policy creation, an
organization can ensure its security and continuity arrangements
are meeting corporate governance and legislative objectives, such
as Instant Messaging policy, tracking and control with a UC
environment. Siemens will work with businesses to implement a
flexible, comprehensive information security governance policy that
mitigates organizational risk without compromising agility. UC
environments can also raise the concern of securing an individuals'
identity, so that all users can be assured that they are
communicating with the intended recipient. Attackers could create
spoofed caller ID or IM identities to suggest that they are
contacting employees in an official capacity (such as IT support)
in order to gain confidential information such as passwords, so
that further attacks or information leakage could occur. Siemens
Identity and Privacy services provide business processes, policies
and technologies that enable organizations to facilitate and
control user access to critical online applications and resources,
while protecting confidential personal and business information
from unauthorized users in a cost effective way. Threat mitigation
and data security services includes secure design, implementation
and testing of infrastructure and applications which are extended
to cover UC solutions, often, if not always, highly complex
multi-vendor environments. Siemens can provide data encryption
services and VPN solutions to ensure communications cannot be
intercepted as well as provide perimeter security and content
security solutions adapted to protect against threats inherent to
real-time applications. In the case of a denial of service attack,
which was virtually unknown with traditional telephony, today's
attackers could disrupt the UC infrastructure by swamping or
crashing devices, networks or applications, leading to the
organization being unable to communicate via email or phone,
rendering it effectively closed for business. About Siemens
Enterprise Communications Siemens Enterprise Communications is a
joint venture between the private equity firm The Gores Group, a
leading private equity firm, and Siemens AG. The joint venture
incorporates Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co. KG,
its worldwide affiliates and the businesses of Enterasys Networks
and SER Solutions, creating a new leader in enterprise
communications - strong in unified communications, contact centers
and secure networks. More than 14,000 employees worldwide follow an
Open Communications approach, providing enterprise communications
and data networking solutions for enterprises of all sizes. This
enables business processes to be more productive, faster and more
secure within any network or information technology infrastructure.
In fiscal 2007 Siemens Enterprise Communications generated revenues
of approximately 3.2 billion Euros. For more information about
Siemens Enterprise Communications, please visit
http://www.siemens.com/open. Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH
& Co. KG is a Trademark Licensee of Siemens AG. Note:
OpenScape, OpenStage and HiPath are trademarks of Siemens
Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co. KG. Siemens is a
registered trademark of Siemens AG or its subsidiaries and
affiliates. All other company, brand, product and service names are
trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
This release contains forward-looking statements based on beliefs
of Siemens management. The words "anticipate," "believe,"
"estimate," "forecast," "expect," "intend," "plan," "should," and
"project" are used to identify forward-looking statements. Such
statements reflect the company's current views with respect to
future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many
factors could cause the actual results to be materially different,
including, among others, changes in general economic and business
conditions, changes in currency exchange rates and interest rates,
introduction of competing products, lack of acceptance of new
products or services and changes in business strategy. Actual
results may vary materially from those projected here. Siemens does
not intend or assume any obligation to update these forward-looking
statements.
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070904/SIEMENSLOGODATASOURCE:
Siemens Enterprise Communications CONTACT: Jacob Rice,
+1-561-923-8347, , or Amy Martin, +1-408-492-2785, , both of
Siemens Enterprise Communications Web Site:
http://enterprise.siemens.com/open/
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