Alcatel-Lucent and Securicom align to deliver managed firewall service in East Africa Region

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) and Securicom, a South Africa-based IT security consulting and management company, have announced a partnership that will see Securicom provide innovative managed firewall services to Alcatel-Lucent's African reseller network.

This partnership acknowledges Securicom as a leader in providing fully-managed service for the best-of-breed Alcatel-Lucent VPN Firewall Brick security portfolio. Securicom has provided a range of fully-managed, outsourced solutions to meet the IT security requirements of small, medium and large businesses in Africa for over five years and is the first and only company in Africa to offer a managed service around the Alcatel-Lucent VPN Firewall Brick - a virtually impenetrable security solutions developed by Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Laboratories research arm, with a proven 10 year track record of securing some of the most security-sensitive networks in the world.

Commenting on the partnership, Alcatel-Lucent Solutions Architect Craig Taylor said, "Network, asset and application level security are all vital to the successful protection of enterprises worldwide, and the Alcatel-Lucent security portfolio is second to none. We look forward to partnering with Securicom to implement our security solutions in the growing African market."

Securicom's Director of Operations, Dries Morris commented, "We are obviously thrilled about our partnership with Alcatel-Lucent. Not only is it a major kudo for Securicom to be associated with one of the world's leading telecommunications companies, but being recognised as a value-adding security partner to Alcatel-Lucent also confirms that companies are recognising the benefits and value of outsourcing IT security management to specialists. Our commitment to providing solutions rather than just software is being noticed."

A firewall is an important line of defence against a range of internet-based threats and plays a vital role in assisting companies to ward off attacks on their networks. However, managing a firewall is labour-intensive and requires specialised resources. Morris added, "The cost of a firewall is generally gauged by the purchase price, with little regard for the associated running costs such as configuration, training and on-going management. Yet these are critical aspects in the successful deployment of a firewall and, if ignored, will result in security breaches."

Securicom Managed Firewall Services supply businesses with state-of-the-art Alcatel-Lucent firewall technology coupled with access to security experts. It is an end-to-end service consisting of pre-implementation consultancy, design of a connectivity security policy, deployment of a firewall device, management and 24x7 monitoring and support.

Following each installation, Securicom, through the use of its 24-hour Network Operations Centre, implements active monitoring of the Alcatel-Lucent firewalls. Clients are also added to a security mailing list and receive e-mail notification on new viruses, worms, Trojans and vulnerabilities.