Plus: Sprint PCS wants single platform for contact centers.
Nortel and Symantec are joining forces to beef up network security by using Symantec threat discovery technology in combination with Nortel network hardware to block attacks.
The alliance will bear fruit next year in the form of software upgrades for Nortel gear and services from Symantec, according to the companies. The two companies say they have a successful prototype that employs threat information gleaned from millions of customer endpoints and 20,000 sensors in the Internet. This information is pulled down by Nortel Alteon Application Switches, which inspect traffic going through them for signatures of attacks Symantec has identified. When they discover malicious traffic, the switches can turn off sessions or flows that contain the threat.
Nortel and Symantec say they have been collaborating on this security project for more than a year.
The companies have worked together before to let Nortel’s Tunnel Guard software determine whether PCs trying to connect to VPNs have the correct version of Symantec anti-virus software.
Sprint PCS is looking to unify 40 contact centers in seven countries on one platform that can handle up to 250 calls per second. It hired IBM Global Services, which chose technology from EADS’ commercial telecom division for the massive consolidation project.
The new Sprint PCS system will be based on EADS’ Centergy application suite, which is designed to let multiple contact centers operate as one. With it the wireless provider’s 20,000 agents can be located anywhere with a telephone and Internet connection – in a large call center or a small remote office, for example – and still be part of the same centrally managed contact center system.
When the Sprint PCS rollout is complete, EADS says it will be the largest known single-system contact center in the world.
