Alcatel and Thales Partner to Secure IP Communications For Enterprises
Paris, October 14, 2004 – Thales (TCFP.PA) and Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) today announced a technological partnership to develop highly secure IP telephony solutions based on the Alcatel OmniPCX Enterprise IP communication server.
Under this new agreement, Thales will provide encryption modules that will be integrated with the Alcatel OmniPCX Enterprise to respond to the demand for increased security of IP telephony from large enterprises in sectors of business that are looking to protect themselves against the loss of sensitive and confidential information. Early adopters include financial services companies, high-level administrations or selected industrial companies with a need for secure communications.
The evolution towards IP telephony is generating new security challenges for today’s enterprises. To be protected, enterprises must secure not only the communications infrastructure but also the transmitted information of unications infrastructure at every point of access. To face this new challenge, Alcatel and Thales are combining their expertise to guarantee that Alcatel IP communication solutions ensure high levels of security for enterprises.
“Thanks to the encryption solution developed with Thales, our IP telephony solutions can offer a higher level of security than traditional telephony for those customers that need it to protect their business,” says Jean-Christophe Giroux, President of Alcatel’s enterprise solutions activities.
“Thales is leader in security technology that protects LANs and WANs from tampering. We are proud to be part of this partnership with Alcatel, providing our technology and expertise in security to the fast growing enterprise telephony market, which is migrating to IP. Our solution will provide the optimal balance between security and serviceability that today’s enterprise customers are demanding”, says Sylvie Ghez, director for Information Systems Security, Thales.
A hardware encryption solution based on Thales field-proven Mistral technology will be integrated into the Alcatel solution, enabling wirespeed hardware encryption that ensures security and system robustness without affecting the quality of service for communications. Additionally, the solution is protected against encryption deactivation (whether fortuitous or deliberate). Finally, keys auto-generation at all IP endpoints guarantees best of breed authentication and call control integrity, while avoiding the typical complexity linked to certificates management.
The first products to be developed by this partnership will be available in 2005 and are scheduled to be demonstrated in preview at the Alcatel Forum in Paris, taking place February 8-10, 2005.
About Thales
Thales is a world leader in professional electronics in three key markets: Aerospace, Defense and Information Technology & Services (IT&S). The Group employs 62,000 people worldwide, and generated revenues of over Euro 10.6 billion in 2003. For more information: http://www.thalesgroup.com
About Alcatel
Alcatel provides communications solutions to telecommunication carriers, Internet service providers and enterprises for delivery of voice, data and video applications to their customers or employees. Alcatel brings its leading position in fixed and mobile broadband networks, applications and services, to help its partners and customers build a user-centric broadband world. With sales of EURO 12.5 billion in 2003, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries.