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Business collaboration and communications solutions provider Avaya announced the release of Session Border Controller for Enterprise.
SBCE provides organizations with a solution to secure Session Initiation Protocol- (SIP-) based applications across networks and offers new security enhancements for enterprise collaboration.
The platform is designed to help companies more effectively manage bring-your-own-device (BYOD) strategies, where employees use a single device for both work and personal use. Enhanced security features include support for the Avaya Flare Experience on Apple iPad tablets—an interface with one-click access to real-time, enterprisewide audio, video and Web collaboration—as well as for Avaya one-X Mobile applications on iPhones.
“The Avaya Session Border Controller for Enterprise makes sense for businesses, as SIP connectivity grows and security becomes a critical requirement for BYOD implementations,” Dianne Myers, principal analyst at Infonetics Research, said in a statement. “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.”
In addition, users can dump clunky virtual private networks (VPN) for a secure, business-dedicated desk phone or soft phone that automatically authenticates to one IP address on a single SBCE. Secure SIP trunking and SIP-based remote worker applications help enable companies gain the benefits of SIP with greater protection. SIP extends rich unified communications (UC) features to distributed workers in a more efficient way, using an open-standards approach to drive flexible architectures.
“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,” Gary Barnett, senior vice president and general manager of collaboration platforms for Avaya, said in a statement. “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.”
The announcement comes as organizations of all sizes are dealing with the consumerization of IT, BYOD, mobile-device management (MDM) issues and how they all impact corporate security. According to a global study on mobility risks by Ponemon Institute, 51 percent of IT and IT security practitioners said their company experienced a data breach due to insecure mobile devices, and 60 percent have seen a jump in malware infections over the past year due to insecure mobile devices.
A similar study from Webroot found mobile threats are a clear and present—and costly—danger. While 74 percent of companies are very or extremely concerned about loss of company or customer data via mobile devices, and 70 percent 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, the study found.