FOSTER CITY, CALIF. - May 10, 2007 - FaceTime
Communications, the leading provider of solutions for securing and
managing IM, P2P and Web-based greynets in the enterprise, today
announced that Watts Regulator Company, North Andover, Mass., has
adopted FaceTime's Internet security suite to prevent malware,
control enterprise instant messaging and unauthorized public IM
use, and manage Web browsing. The corporate wide implementation
protects U.S.-based employees at more than 30 facilities around the
country.
Employees at Watts' 30 U.S. locations depend on the Internet for
real-time communications and collaboration, using new networked
applications that make up an increasing portion of all Internet
traffic. With employees expanding their Internet use beyond e-mail
and Web surfing, to include IM, Web conferencing and other
real-time applications, companies can face new challenges.
Greynets, or real-time, network-enabled applications, can expose a
company to outbound information leakage, inbound malware threats
and new compliance concerns.
The helpdesk at Watts Regulator Company was struggling to keep
up with the number of PCs and laptops being sent in for rebuilding
because of spyware and malware infections. On average, they were
re-imaging up to 10 PCs every week, and the same situation was
impacting the company's distributed facilities.
"At one to two hours to re-image each PC, we were losing more
than one man-day every week at every facility," recalls senior
desktop and LAN specialist Frank Lanteri. "We were getting so far
behind on our regular company projects that it was clear something
had to be done."
At the same time, the technical staff at Watts had become aware
of a significant increase in the unsanctioned use of various public
instant messaging applications that users had installed on the
corporate network.
Knowing how unsafe such communications channels could be, the
company planned a move to an enterprise-grade instant messaging
platform with the goal of creating a more secure and collaborative
environment for real-time communications. It added an enterprise IM
system to its existing e-mail installation to provide the benefits
of real-time communications in a streamlined and manageable
way.
"Unfortunately, our users continued to download public IM
clients," says Lanteri. "And because these kinds of applications
are so evasive, it was impossible for us to track down who was
doing what with IM, which we were convinced was compounding the
spyware problem."
"The scenario that Watts Regulator Company experienced is all
too common," said Frank Cabri, vice president of marketing for
FaceTime Communications. "The majority of Internet traffic today is
generated by greynet applications which by their nature are highly
evasive on the network. Companies like Watts are looking for a
single point of control for managing employee access to these
applications while meeting network performance and compliance
requirements.."
The FaceTime Solution
Watts installed FaceTime's RTGuardian and Greynet Enterprise
Manager and began to see results immediately, with far fewer calls
coming in to the helpdesk about spyware issues. Lanteri
subsequently added RTGuardian's Web filtering module to establish a
single point of policy enforcement for all Web and real-time
communication channels, and FaceTime's Greynet Enterprise Manager
(GEM) to provide additional controls, including targeted malware
remediation for infected PC endpoints and centralized management
for the multiple RTG units.
"The functionality and ease of use of Real-Time Guardian looked
to be tailor-made for what we needed," said Lanteri. "And with the
addition of GEM, the spyware problem has to all intents and
purposes gone away," says Lanteri. "We haven't had to rebuild a
machine in months."
The automatic updates and clear reporting have also proved a
boon to Lanteri's team, and the visibility of instant messaging
application usage means individual users can be targeted for risk
education and their real-time communications redirected back
through IT authorized channels.
"Now that we know exactly what's going on with instant messaging
and other real-time communications tools on the network, we're in a
much better position to manage because we're doing so from a
position of strength," says Lanteri. "Quite simply, this is a
beautiful product for us."
About Watts Regulator Company
Founded in 1874, Watts Regulator Company leads the market in
backflow prevention, protecting potable water supplies from
contamination. Part of the Watts Water Technologies family of
companies, with operations in North America, Europe, and Asia,
Watts Regulator designs, manufactures, and sells a wide range of
flow control products for the water quality, residential plumbing,
commercial, and OEM markets. The company employs 7,500 people
located in the US and facilities around the world.
About Actiance, Inc. (Formerly FaceTime Communications, Inc.)
FaceTime Communications became Actiance, Inc on January 11, 2011 following an agreement to
transfer the FaceTime trademark to Apple.
FaceTime Communications enables the safe and productive use of Unified Communications and Web 2.0,
including instant messaging, blogs and social networking. Ranked number one by IDC for five consecutive
years, FaceTime's award-winning solutions are used by more than 1,500 customers for the security,
management and compliance of real-time communications. FaceTime supports or has strategic partnerships
with all leading IM, unified communications providers and social networks including AOL, Google, Yahoo!,
Skype, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
FaceTime is headquartered in Belmont, California. For more information visit
http://www.facetime.com or call 888-349-3223.
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