AOK Selects Blue Coat To Secure Web Use For 10,000 Users
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Apr. 21, 2004 — Blue Coatâ„? Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: BCSI), a leading provider of proxy appliances, today announced that AOK, the largest health insurance company in Bavaria, Germany, has deployed Blue Coat’s ProxySGâ„? appliances to monitor and secure Web communications and content for 10,000 users throughout Bavaria. Blue Coat partner Siemens Information and Communication Networks (ICN) was instrumental in the deployment.
Blue Coat’s ProxySG proxy appliances were selected to replace the existing software-based proxy servers, which lacked scalability and proved expensive to maintain with constant patching. The ProxySG appliances deployed quickly and easily at AOK’s network perimeter, leveraging the company’s authentication systems and serving as a complement to the existing network security systems. The proxy appliances from Blue Coat allow AOK to centrally manage and secure employee Internet use, including the use of Web-based email, Web browsing and multimedia streaming.
“The proxy is crucial to our security infrastructure and a necessary component for keeping our Web communications secure,” said Wolfgang Geitner, project manager for AOK Bavaria. “Blue Coat’s proxy appliances exceeded our expectations with extensive features and easy-to-administer controls for URL filtering, Web anti-virus and Web content security.”
“Unlike software-based proxies, Blue Coat proxy appliances provide the performance, scalability and control required in today’s more demanding Web environments,” said Steve Mullaney, vice president of marketing for Blue Coat. “Whether an organization has 1,000 or 100,000 users, Blue Coat proxy appliances enable administrators to consolidate URL filtering, Web anti-virus and other security services with simplified management and lower total costs of operations.”
AOK Bavaria is the largest health insurance company in Bavaria, Germany. About 10,000 employees take care of 4.3 million insurants. With a budget of more than 10 billion Euro, AOK is one of the leading companies in the service industry throughout Bavaria.
About Blue Coat Systems
Blue Coat enables organizations to keep “good” employees from doing “bad” things on the Internet. Blue Coat wire-speed proxy appliances provide visibility and control of Web communications to address today’s new business risks – such as inappropriate Web surfing, viruses brought in via back door channels such as instant messaging and Web-based email, and network resource abuse due to peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing and video streaming. Trusted by many of the world’s most influential organizations, Blue Coat has shipped more than 18,000 proxy appliances. Blue Coat is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and can be reached at (408) 220-2200 or www.bluecoat.com.