• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Alcatel-Lucent's OmniTouch My Teamwork Unified Conferencing and Collaboration Solution Performs Under Miercom Security Audit

Posted on: Monday, 30 April 2007, 15:04 CDT

PARIS, April 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) and Miercom today released findings that validate the robust security capabilities of Alcatel-Lucent's OmniTouch My Teamwork Unified Conferencing and Collaboration Server based on Miercom's performance reliability and security testing. The report confirms that despite numerous targeted Miercom DoS security attacks, the server continued to perform conference call setup and operations without failure. Furthermore, Miercom tested the solution's end-to-end security using TLS and SSL protocols with impressive results on maintaining secure IM (instant messaging) and data sharing (collaboration) applications.

Alcatel-Lucent engaged Miercom to independently substantiate the operation of the solution in the Miercom labs focusing on two main functions of the server -- security and reliability of telephony conferencing and data collaboration. Because OmniTouch My Teamwork uses SIP (Sessions Initiation Protocol) for call processing, some attacks were designed specifically to degrade or cause failure in SIP telephony servers. Miercom found the telephony conferencing features continued to perform call set-up and function properly despite the attacks. With the data sharing tests, attacks were mostly denial of service types and targeted different ports on the server. In this test bed, application sharing and instant messaging between two test users in a shared desktop environment continued to operate.

"In the Alcatel-Lucent OmniTouch My Teamwork conferencing and collaboration environment, any issues related to security or attacks on the network have shown in our testing to be resilient to failure and assure that the day-to-day business will continue within an enterprise," said Robert Smithers, CEO Miercom. "Security is a key issue at all levels of IT management. Conferencing and collaboration are tools that are supposed to help businesses do more with their employees' time and if these tools are under attack or threatened, it slows down the wheels of progress."

Miercom also monitored the traffic between the PC clients and the OmniTouch My Teamwork server to test the use of TLS (Transport Layer Security) and SSL (Secure Socket Layer) protocols to enhance encryption and security when engaged in a multimedia session. In this scenario, the results showed the communication was certificate-secured using both protocols for conference bridge set-up, instant messaging, and data sharing. "This was impressive from our perspective," added Miercom from the report. "The TLS and SSL protocols extend from 'end-to-end,' so wherever the client PC was located within the network, the connection through the network to the OmniTouch My Teamwork server maintained a secure protocol."

The Miercom tests were conducted using a commonly available HP Proliant DL320 server with OmniTouch My Teamwork server software running, three SIP hard phones, one soft phone, and two PCs running the OmniTouch My Teamwork thin client. The hacking computers did not traverse a firewall or IPSes.

"As voice and data communications on today's networks become more and more business critical, we are focused on addressing the security concerns facing both our enterprise and service provider customers," explains Jamie Kistler, VP of Enterprise Applications and Program Management with Alcatel-Lucent. "With a secure and reliable conferencing and collaboration network in place, enterprises the world over have the ability to use technology to deliver better business results and drive consistent, superior customer service. The work with Miercom is a clear example of our emphasis on security and we are pleased to share the results of these efforts and we maintain our commitment to ensuring our customers have the most reliable and secure solutions available regardless of whether they are deployed in a managed service or premise-base manner."

About Miercom

Miercom is a privately held network consultancy, and product-test center, specializing in networking and communications-related product testing and analysis. Our highly-skilled engineers, many with over 20 years of experience in the networking industry, pioneering the comparative assessment of networking hardware and software.

The results of VoIP, VPN testing and other technology research articles continue to appear in many prestigious industry journals. Founded in 1988 Miercom has over 18 years experience and pioneered the comparative assessment of networking hardware and software. Miercom continues to develop methodologies for testing products from ATM switches to network operating systems. In 1995, the company launched its "NetWORKS As Advertised" program, in which any vendor can submit its networking-related products for a comprehensive, independent assessment. For more information, visit Miercom on the Internet: http://www.miercom.com/ or contact Miercom 379 Princeton Hightstown Road, East Windsor, NJ 08512 609-490-0200.

About Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) provides solutions that enable service providers, enterprises and governments worldwide, to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. As a leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications, and services, Alcatel-Lucent offers the end-to-end solutions that enable compelling communications services for people at home, at work and on the move. With operations in more than 130 countries, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with global reach. The company has the most experienced global services team in the industry, and one of the largest research, technology and innovation organizations in the telecommunications industry. Alcatel-Lucent achieved adjusted proforma revenues of Euro 18.3 billion in 2006 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. [All figures exclude impact of activities transferred to Thales]. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/

About OmniTouch My Teamwork

OmniTouch My Teamwork is a premise-based, multimedia communication solution with full feature access from a single software-based server. Powered by SIP to the core architecture, OmniTouch My Teamwork supports the Alcatel OmniPCX Enterprise product line and other vendors' IP- and TDM-based telephony platforms. OmniTouch My Teamwork can be deployed on the customer premise for large and small businesses alike, as a managed service, or within the carrier infrastructure. As a pure software solution that runs on commodity hardware servers, OmniTouch My Teamwork guarantees enterprises investment protection by removing the initial and ongoing expenses associated with proprietary hardware-based products. With a software-based licensing model, upgrades and additional capacity are completed in minutes without the need for purchasing additional hardware. Furthermore due to its flexible scalability, OmniTouch My Teamwork meets the needs of small businesses, very large enterprises, and service providers. With thousands of enterprise users around the world at Fortune 100 and 500 companies, OmniTouch My Teamwork is sold both as a standalone product and as part of Alcatel's OmniTouch Unified Communications product suite.

Alcatel-Lucent

CONTACT: Press, Regine Coqueran, + 33 (0)1 40 76 49 24,regine.coqueran@alcatel-lucent.com, or Stephane Lapeyrade,+ 33 (0)1 40 76 12 74, Stephane.lapeyrade@alcatel-lucent.com, or Dick Muldoon(North America), +1-908-582-1616, rpmuldoon@alcatel-lucent.com; or InvestorRelations, Pascal Bantegnie, +33 (0)1 40 76 52 20,pascal.bantegnie@alcatel-lucent.com, or Maria Alcon, +33 (0)1 40 76 15 17,maria.alcon@alcatel-lucent.com, or John DeBono, +1-908-582-7793,debono@alcatel-lucent.com, all of Alcatel-Lucent

Web site: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/http://www.miercom.com/

Source: PRNewswire

More News in this Category