BELMONT, Calif. - December 8, 2008 - FaceTime
Communications, the leading provider of solutions that manage Web
2.0 and unified communications in the enterprise today announced
its patented application inspection and classification technology
is now available for license to network security equipment
manufacturers who are interested in offering more application
control in their products. Dubbed ACE, for Application
Control Engine, the perimeter-based application filter
identifies and categorizes more than 1,400 Web 2.0 applications and
more than 50,000 additional application "widgets" distributed via
social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Orkut. Backed
by FaceTime Security Labs' exclusive application analysis and
categorization, ACE automatically updates its database to stay
current with new application detections.
At its core, ACE is the technology that sets FaceTime's
award-winning
Unified Security Gateway appliance apart from all other network
security appliances. The USG enables enterprises to control
real-time communications integrating management, security and
compliance of Web communications, consumer-driven applications such
as public IM, Skype and P2P and enterprise-class unified
communications suites such as Microsoft's Office
Communications Server and IBM Lotus Sametime.
"The widespread adoption of email was a key driver for the
anti-virus scanning industry, and the Web browser led to a standard
requirement for URL filtering databases," said Frank Cabri, vice
president of marketing for FaceTime Communications. "In the same
way, the current explosion of real-time and Web 2.0 applications is
prompting a need for application filtering to examine, classify and
control the evasive applications that are running over corporate
networks today."
"The competitive landscape in markets such as UTM and network
firewalls has escalated with increasing pressure from customers who
require deep inspection of the application traffic entering the
enterprise at the network perimeter," said Brian Burke, program
director for IDC's Network Security Service. "To remain
competitive, incumbent vendors must provide this comprehensive
application visibility and control - and partnering will provide
the fastest and most efficient path."
Market Requirements for Application Identification and
Control
As revealed in the research report The Collaborative
Internet: Usage Trends, End User Attitudes and IT Impact
commissioned by FaceTime and based on an independent study by
NewDiligence, 62 percent of IT respondents reported eight or more
Internet applications installed on their enterprise networks -
representing a 300 percent increase over the first study conducted
in 2005. Further, they noted that about one-third of end users
continue to download the applications they want to use on their
desktops, regardless of company policy - and these applications are
used about equally for business and personal reasons.
While many Web-based applications can be identified and blocked
by a URL signature, newer Internet applications are typically not
browser-based and therefore require specialized handling to
effectively identify and classify their true nature. Identifying
these applications presents a new challenge for enterprise IT. As
more and more applications masquerade themselves as HTTP, FTP, SMTP
and Telnet traffic, while exhibiting evasive techniques, it becomes
increasingly difficult for Unified Threat Management (UTM),
Firewall, Secure Web Gateway (SWG) and IPS solutions that rely on
simple signature matching techniques to accurately identify, and
therefore control them.
Application control is identified as one of the six key
evaluation criteria for the September 2008 Gartner report
Magic Quadrant for Secure Web Gateway. In the report,
analysts Peter Firstbrook and Lawrence Orans conclude that
"application control is the most immature SWG feature. IM, Skype
and peer-to-peer (P2P) applications are the most commonly
supported; however, few SWG solutions can do more than block or
allow access on a group or user level. Even fewer use application
network signatures versus more-easily evaded URL or Internet
Protocol (IP) address blocking."
Likewise, application identification is one of four key areas
noted as recommended components of the Next Generation Firewall, by
Gartner analysts Greg Young and John Pescatore in their November
2008 report Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Network
Firewalls. The report proclaims that "simply enforcing
proper protocol use on standard ports is no longer of sufficient
value in this environment. If firewall vendors do not make these
changes, enterprises will demand price concessions to reduce
firewall costs substantially."
About ACE
The Application Control Engine™ (ACE™) enables security and
network solution providers to embed application filtering
technology to accurately identify and manage real-time applications
on the network. ACE employs patented technology to enable
high-performance detection and categorization of more than 1,400
distinct applications - regardless of port, protocol, or evasive
technique used to traverse the network. Based on the same
technology integral to FaceTime's Unified Security Gateway, the ACE
software developers kit (SDK) allows solution providers to easily
extend their offerings to help customers manage instant messaging,
peer-to-peer file sharing, social networking, Web 2.0,
voice-over-IP, anonymizers, IPTV, multimedia, games, virtual
worlds, and unified communications.
FaceTime's U.S. patent for classifying and identifying network
traffic flows forms the technology foundation for ACE. Available
only from FaceTime, this technology provides unparalleled accuracy
and application coverage through active monitoring and dynamic
correlation of network, content, traffic and other session
characteristics. ACE creates a profile of both the specific
application in use along with the unique feature being executed
(e.g. a file attachment sent via instant messaging) allowing ACE
Program Partners to deliver granular policy and control over
real-time applications within their products.
Purpose built for today's applications, the engine includes
built-in support for daily auto-updates of new applications
provided by FaceTime Security Labs. These updates occur through the
ongoing collection, analysis and categorization of application
information from hundreds of thousands of end-points deployed
throughout the world both in enterprise networks and on consumer
PCs. This data is analyzed and confirmed by FaceTime Security Labs'
researchers to insure that its application database is current.
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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