FaceTime announces program to eliminate URL filtering fees, saving customers 100s of thousands of rands

FaceTime Communications, the leading provider of solutions to secure and manage Web 2.0 and unified communications in the enterprise, today announced its program to eliminate URL (Web) filtering fees for new purchases of its Unified Security Gateway (USG) appliance.

With the “Forget the Fees” program, a 1 000-seat organisation can save up to R300 000 over a two-year contract period based on typical industry pricing, while deploying a more complete secure Web gateway solution that not only monitors Web browsing traffic, but also controls Web 2.0 applications, blocks malware at the gateway and enables the safe and productive use of unified communications (Microsoft OCS, IBM Lotus SameTime, and public instant messaging).

FaceTime also recently announced version 2.0 of its Unified Security Gateway (USG), a secure Web gateway appliance purpose-built for the new Internet. USG 2.0 provides a single point of control for preventing malware, controlling Web 2.0 applications and managing information leakage in corporate networks. Unique to this new version, IT managers can detect and control 1 400 Web 2.0 and real-time applications with the same granular policies they have come to expect from dedicated URL filtering solutions (see related announcement).

"While URL filtering has become a feature of broader secure Web gateway products, the associated fees remain an annual expense and significant budget requirement for most organisations," said Frank Cabri, vice-president of marketing for FaceTime Communications. "During challenging economic times, this new program allows IT managers and purchasing agents to realise tremendous value by getting malware prevention and application control in addition to URL filtering, for less than the cost of URL filtering alone."

The presence of Web 2.0 applications in corporate networks has grown exponentially in recent years, often undetected by IT managers and unchecked by legacy security products. FaceTime gathered live application tracking data from commercially deployed USG units at more than 80 mid-to-large enterprises worldwide during the fourth quarter of 2008, which shows an average of 49 Web 2.0 applications installed across each of the reporting locations. In contrast, during the same timeframe, FaceTime asked a large sample of IT managers how many Web 2.0 applications they believed were in use on their networks, and one-third estimated the number at less than eight.

The “Forget the Fees” program is available on new contracts signed before 29 May 2009. “Forget the Fees” terms and conditions apply. IT managers should contact Seven Days Technologies - (011) 807-2480 or mailto:sales@7daystech.com) to find out how much they can save with FaceTime's Forget the Fees program.