FaceTime Offers Low Cost IM and P2P Security
RTShield provides quick and complete IM and P2P security with regulatory compliance; includes free AIM identity services
FOSTER CITY, Calif.-July 13, 2004-FaceTime Communications, the leading provider of solutions that secure, manage, and extend instant messaging (IM) and other forms of real-time communications, today announced RTShield, an integrated solution that bundles FaceTime's IM management security and policy enforcement capabilities onto a single, easily deployable and cost-effective solution for the small and medium enterprise market. RTShield will be available in two license configurations: 1) fewer than 50-employee organization and 2) 50 to 1000-employee organization.
The explosion of IM in the enterprise, coupled with the high cost of IM management solutions, has put small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) at a disadvantage. These businesses typically opt for one of three approaches:
prohibit IM without a blocking solution
prohibit IM while trying to actively block usage with complex firewall filters and other stop-gap measures
continue using IM without an IM management solution in place
As a result, most businesses are either preventing their workers from participating in what has become a preferred method of communication among partners and customers, or they are compromising the security of their networks and corporate data in addition to regulatory compliance. RTShield allows smaller businesses to leverage the same universal reach, productivity and cost savings benefits of multi-network IM as large enterprises without compromising their information and network security or regulatory compliance.
RTShield and AIM Identity Services
RTShield comes bundled with ten free seats from America Online's AIM Identity Services for a period of one year. AIM Identity Services allows companies to match AIM screen names with corporate e-mail addresses for greater professionalism and preservation of corporate identity. Customers can then easily expand their AIM Identity Services to include:
Provisioning of all or selected AIM users with digital certificates to enable encrypted communications with other security-enabled AIM users. Hosted edition, which allows companies to quickly activate domain screen name services without requiring special software installations on company premises. On-premise edition, which allows companies to control AIM authentication from the corporate user store. "We support FaceTime in this innovative packaging to help simplify the managed use of AIM in small and medium enterprises," said Ed Fish, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Desktop Messaging, America Online, Inc. "FaceTime has been a trusted partner for the past four years, and we look forward to working with them as a Certified AIM Partner going forward."
RTShield - Integrated Solution for Small and Medium Businesses
With RTShield, smaller businesses with few available IT resources can safely embrace multi-network IM through the layered approach required for proper management and security of all IM and P2P communications. FaceTime's industry-unique "defense-in-depth" approach employs both user policy management and application behavior management that distinguishes between authorized and unauthorized use. Together, these capabilities form a complete, integrated solution that aligns all IM and P2P communications with an organization's business objectives, corporate policies and government regulations.
Channel Friendly
RTShield follows the tremendous worldwide success of FaceTime's first appliance for large enterprise, the RTG500, as driven by its global network of resellers.
"We are very excited to take this latest FaceTime product to market to meet the growing demand we see in small and medium enterprises to manage and control IM and P2P," said Rob Wolfe, President and CEO of AvcomEast. "The appliance and its ease of use form factor is particularly helpful for us in those highly regulated industries that need a solution today but find the setup, configuration and maintenance of other products too complicated."
"Securing, managing and extending IM and P2P in the small and medium enterprise has to date been prohibitively expensive and complicated," said Kailash Ambwani, FaceTime president and CEO. "With the introduction of RTShield, small businesses can now safely embrace IM and other forms of legitimate real-time communications, while blocking P2P and meeting all corporate and regulatory compliance guidelines."
RTShield will be available for distribution in September, 2004. Pricing has not yet been released.
About FaceTime Communications
Founded in 1998, FaceTime Communications is a leading provider of extensible real time security and management solutions that address network and information security, regulatory and corporate compliance, and call center customer service. FaceTime has strategic partnerships with leading public and private IM network providers, including AOL, Microsoft, IBM, Bloomberg, Jabber and Reuters. For more information on FaceTime, visit http://www.facetime.com or call 888-349-FACE.
FaceTime and the FaceTime logo are registered trademarks of FaceTime Communications Inc. FaceTime IM Auditor, IM Director, IM Guardian, RTG, RTShield and RT Monitor are trademarks of FaceTime Communications Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.