Polycom Announces Breakthrough Video-Aware Network Address Translation and Firewall Solutions for Secure IP Video Without Boundaries
Business Editors/High-Tech Editors
PLEASANTON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 7, 2005--
All-in-One, Standards-Based Enterprise and Service Provider Solutions Enable Simple, Secure Voice and Video Communication Between Organizations and Across the Internet Polycom(R), Inc. (Nasdaq:PLCM), the world's leading provider of unified collaborative communications solutions, today announced breakthrough video-aware networking and security solutions that solve firewall and network address translation (NAT) issues for enterprises and service providers. The Polycom Voice Video Interface Unit (V2IU(TM)) solutions are comprehensive appliances that provide customers with a scalable way to support communications between organizations and across the public internet effectively and efficiently without sacrificing network security.
V2IU is unique in providing optimized bandwidth utilization with prioritized delivery of voice and video as well as shortest path routing of media directly between two endpoints, rather than a centralized server. Unlike tunneling techniques that hide traffic from network perimeter security solutions, V2IU is a voice and video aware firewall and NAT that enhances the security perimeter. The only H.323 standards-based solution, V2IU works alone or with existing firewall/NAT traversal solutions increasing their performance for rich media applications within a secure network.
"Enabling simple and secure communication between organizations and dispersed work groups outside of the corporate firewall will open the door for global voice and video collaboration," said Ed Ellett, senior vice president and general manager of video communications at Polycom, Inc. "Polycom's V2IU solutions work in conjunction with existing network security solutions and are fully compatible with Quality of Service (QoS) and other network policies. It resolves many of the complexities of an organization's communications while increasing efficiencies in bandwidth, which results in better performance, less latency and more scalable deployments."
The Polycom V2IU Product Family
The V2IU appliances are based on proven, telco-accepted technology and are designed to address the NAT/firewall traversal needs of complex, heterogeneous communications networks, while leveraging existing network security solutions. Based on Application Aware Networking(TM) technology, V2IU performs voice and video NAT at the public/private IP address boundary, eliminating the security risks of traversal methods that tunnel or "hide" video and voice traffic from existing perimeter security. A stateful packet inspection firewall is used in combination with an application layer gateway to provide comprehensive application-aware security. This approach enables the V2IU to dynamically provision and close TCP and UDP ports as needed by the video and voice endpoints without violating the integrity of the firewall security policy. The Polycom V2IU solutions are designed specifically to optimize the quality of IP voice and video traffic and enhance bandwidth efficiency. The appliance forwards voice and video traffic along the shortest possible path to minimize jitter, latency and packet loss. It also provides traffic management to ensure that high-priority, real-time voice and video traffic is processed prior to lower priority data traffic.
The solutions are fully compatible with leading H.323 aware firewalls and session border controllers commonly used by customers, including those from Cisco Systems and Edgewater Networks, among others. The scalable solutions support both voice and video, and offer redundancy with no single point of failure from small enterprise to carrier-grade installations.
"Unlike alternative solutions, the Polycom V2IU systems protect the investments of customers through backward compatibility with existing and new H.323 voice and video endpoints," said Ellett. "Customers can continue using their existing voice and video communications solutions while safely expanding their reach beyond the corporate firewall in a way that is also simple for users."
Availability:
Polycom V2IU solutions are designed for virtually any environment from SOHO and small- and medium-sized enterprises, up to global enterprises and large service providers. The V2IU solutions are available for order today.
About Polycom
Polycom, Inc. is the world's technology leader of high-quality, easy-to-use video, voice, data and web conferencing and collaboration solutions. The Polycom Office(TM) is our continued commitment to make distance communications as natural and interactive as being there by providing best-in-class conferencing solutions that are interoperable, integrated and intuitive to the user. The Polycom Office is based on industry standards and supported by an open architecture that promotes interoperability in multi-vendor environments and complements leading network infrastructure platforms. For additional information call 1-800-POLYCOM (765-9266) or +1-408-526-9000, or visit the Polycom website at
www.polycom.com.
Polycom and the Polycom logo are registered trademarks and Polycom V2IU and Polycom Office is a trademark of Polycom in the U.S. and various countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. (C)2005, Polycom, Inc. All rights reserved.
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CONTACT: Polycom, Inc. Kevin Young, 925-924-5706 kyoung@polycom.com
KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HARDWARE TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORKING INTERNET E-COMMERCE PRODUCT SOURCE: Polycom, Inc.
Copyright Business Wire 2005
