Oman’s Largest Telecommunications Provider Selects TippingPoint for Network Security and Improved Quality of Service to Customers

TippingPoint a leader in network security and a division of 3Com (Nasdaq: COMS), announced today that Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel), has deployed the TippingPoint^® Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) to protect its network from zero day attacks and the threats that jeopardize unpatched systems. Omantel selected TippingPoint primarily for its ability to scan for security threats with a minimum of latency, but also for its breadth of protection and its overall ease of use. The resulting deployment has helped Omantel provide its subscribers with uninterrupted services and a cleaner, clearer Internet connection.

Omantel is the largest telecommunications company in the Sultanate of Oman and is responsible for operating and maintaining all types of telecommunication services for residential, corporate and government customers in the region. As a service provider, maintaining constant uptime is imperative. To ensure the network is up and running without incident, IT security staff has a strict patching process for its applications that includes scheduled time frames for installation, as well as a rigorous testing process to make sure the patch won’t interrupt operations. However, the time between discovering application vulnerabilities and the security attacks that exploit them is shrinking significantly. Omantel’s security staff knew they needed a better way to protect the network from the viruses, worms and malware threatening its service.

"We were running two different intrusion detection systems (IDS), but these were too reactive and caused false positives. My staff was spending too much time chasing down security issues,” said Salim Al-Mazroui, general manager of IT from Omantel. "Instead, we opted for the TippingPoint IPS, which provides more proactive protection.”

As part of a thorough evaluation of the top IPS vendors, Omantel’s staff assessed each solution based on performance, availability, scalability, security effectiveness and ease of management. Based on how the solution performed against these criteria, Al-Mazroui and his staff selected the TippingPoint IPS.

"TippingPoint outperformed all the vendors in the evaluation,” said Al-Mazroui. "They showed strong marks across the board, including in-band deployments, effectiveness of security filters in the Digital Vaccine^® service and ease of IPS configuration. They were also able to meet all our performance and scalability parameters especially with their pay-as-you-grow model where we can scale from a 2 Gbps solution to a 20 Gbps solution over a period of time.”

For Omantel, the deployment of TippingPoint IPS sensors before the server farm has helped its system and security teams to go through its step-by-step patch management processes without rushing into any emergency patching measures. Further, removing bandwidth hogging traffic – like viruses/worms/trojans/botnets/zero-day attacks – from the network pipe has allowed the company to provide its subscribers with a cleaner, more consistent, Internet connection.

About TippingPoint and 3Com

TippingPoint is the enterprise security brand of 3Com Corporation (NASDAQ: COMS), a $1.3 billion global enterprise networking solutions provider that sets a new price/performance standard for customers. 3Com has three global brands—H3C, 3Com, and TippingPoint—that offer high-performance networking and security solutions to enterprises large and small. TippingPoint leads the advancement of network security with a modern network security platform and intrusion prevention system (IPS), purpose-built to protect today’s next-generation data center network from evolving, global security threats. TippingPoint helps organizations reduce security operating costs while ensuring maximum business continuity. For more information on TippingPoint, please visit www.tippingpoint.com, or the press center at www.tippingpoint.com/press.

Copyright © 2010 3Com Corporation. 3Com, 3Com logo, TippingPoint, Digital Vaccine and H3C, H3C logo are registered trademarks of 3Com Corporation or its wholly owned subsidiaries in various countries throughout the world. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective holders.