Siemens OpenScale Security Services Portfolio Enhances Security of Unified Communications

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.

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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. 

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