13-Aug-2013
Avaya recently announced new security enhancements for enterprise collaboration, designed to protect today’s increasingly distributed businesses that have remote, home-based and mobile employees around the globe. The new release of Avaya Session Border Controller for Enterprise (SBCE) provides organizations with a simple, flexible and cost-effective solution to secure Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based applications across networks, enabling workplace collaboration to remain productive and protected from any location.
The Avaya SBCE helps companies more effectively manage ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) strategies—where employees use a single device for both work and personal use. This is essential as companies face mounting threats from Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, viruses, configuration errors—along with the need to meet security compliance guidelines—as mobile collaboration continues its rise in the workplace. Key capabilities of the Avaya SBCE include:
• Enhanced security for mobile collaboration is provided through new Avaya SBCE support for the Avaya Flare® Experience on Apple iPad* devices, as well as for Avaya one-X® Mobile applications on iPhones. By securing wireless unified communications (UC) over public data networks, workers have protected access to mobile UC capabilities (including instant messaging (IM), presence and video), helping to ensure privacy when using a mobile device.
• VPN-less capabilities improves convenience for employees accessing rich UC functionality and simplicity from a remote location. Now, users can have a secure, business-dedicated deskphone or softphone that automatically authenticates to one IP address on a single SBCE, without connecting to a virtual private network (VPN). This approach reduces operational costs by eliminating the need for a VPN and optimizing IP address usage.
• Secure SIP trunking and SIP-based remote worker applications enable companies to gain the benefits of SIP with greater protection. SIP extends rich UC features to distributed workers in a more efficient way, using an open standards approach to drive flexible architectures. This provides a safer way for employees to use presence, IM, voice, cloud-based services and other SIP-powered applications on multiple devices. As companies evolve their collaboration, the Avaya SBCE secures SIP traffic going in and out of a network.
Teleperformance Secures Their Place in the Collaboration Era
An organization that selected Avaya SBCE to secure collaboration is Teleperformance, a leading provider of outstanding customer experiences and contact center operations. With more than 138,000 employees across 260 contact centers in 46 countries, Teleperformance requires a sophisticated solution that can handle large volumes of calls with maximum security. The Avaya SBCE helps them achieve this in a cost-effective way, while maintaining high customer satisfaction. It enabled them to integrate with client networks easily and securely, protecting client and customer conversations, as well as overall call flow. Additionally, the Avaya SBCE significantly reduces the number of public resources (i.e. address space) that Teleperformance exposes, a key benefit that helps combat hacker attacks and other security breaches. The Avaya business partner for Teleperformance was Sunturn.
Executive Quotes:
“Customer service is at the heart of what we do, and as a leader in outsourced contact center services, our clients count on us to ensure superior functions and secure service. The Avaya SBCE delivers this, and does so with an eye towards cost-savings. We can reduce our hardware expenses, simplify implementations, and use fewer resources, saving us time and money. Avaya SBCE is critical in helping protect our network, while delivering the cost-saving benefits of SIP trunking.”
–Richard Blake, manager, IT Telecom, Teleperformance
“The Avaya Session Border Controller for Enterprise makes sense for businesses, as SIP connectivity grows and security becomes a critical requirement for BYOD implementations. As more companies deploy UC interfaces on smartphones and tablets, the VPN-less capability found on the Avaya SBCE will enable businesses to simplify, speed and ultimately increase collaboration across a remote workforce.”
–Diane Myers, principal analyst, Infonetics Research
“Advancements in enterprise collaboration are taking off, and with an Avaya Aura platform in place, businesses can accelerate their own collaboration evolution with speed and simplicity. But with threats to networks on the rise, the need to take action on security is essential. The Avaya SBCE brings the rock-solid security needed to ensure business collaboration and mobility initiatives are strengthened and protected against those with malicious intent.”
–Gary E. Barnett, senior vice president & general manager, Collaboration Platforms, Avaya
Additional Information:
• 51 percent of IT and IT security practitioners said their company experienced a data breach due to insecure mobile devices (smartphones, tablets laptops); 60 percent have seen a jump in malware infections over the past year due to insecure mobile devices.1
• While 74 % of companies are very or extremely concerned about loss of company or customer data via mobile devices and 70% are highly concerned about mobile malware infections, more than half of firms with company-provided mobile devices have not installed security on their smartphones or tablets.2
• According to IDC, tablets and smartphones will grow another 20% in 2013, with smart mobile devices as a whole representing 57% of the IT industry’s overall growth.3
• This is version 6.2 of Avaya Session Border Controller for Enterprise, globally available in calendar Q2, 2013. A customized version is also offered for small and mid-size enterprises. For more information, visit here.
1Source: Global Study on Mobility Risks by Ponemon Institute LLC, sponsored by Websense, February 2012.
2Source: Webroot Study: Mobile Threats are Real and Costly
3Source: IDC Predictions 2013: Competing on the 3rd Platform, November 2012, Doc #238044.