[London, ENGLAND] Global telecoms group Cable & Wireless and
security software specialist Baltimore Technologies announced Monday
a worldwide agreement to develop and sell secure e-business solutions.
Initially, the two companies will introduce a secure Virtual Private
Network (sVPN) solution based on Baltimore’s Public Key Infrastructure
(PKI) technology, rolling it out to large corporations in the U.K.,
Europe and the United States in the first half of 2001.
Later, Cable & Wireless and Baltimore will launch an integrated
suite of e-security solutions for Application Service Providers (ASPs),
offering services such as secure Web access, comprehensive e-mail content
security and secure hosting.
Rick Hudson, vice president of global business development at Cable &
Wireless said it was an excellent opportunity for Cable & Wireless to
make security an integral part of its products rather than just offering
it as a bolt-on option.
“It will be a genuine differentiating factor and will put us ahead of
our competitors in being able to offer seamless, fully integrated secure
products and solutions,” said Hudson.
Analyst group IDC recently reported that security infrastructure systems
software has become one of the most urgent requirements for ASPs.
“Prospective customers must be convinced that their corporate applications,
data, and transactions will be secure for them to even consider engaging
an ASP solution,” said Chris Christiansen, program director for IDC’s
Internet Infrastructure Systems Software program.
Another research group, Gartner, has estimated that the worldwide ASP
demand will reach more than US $25.3 billion by 2004.
The deal with Cable & Wireless will be seen as something of a coup
for Baltimore (currently ranked no. 121 by market capitalization in the
LSE’s Top 200). The extensive reach of the telco’s marketing should add
substantially to Baltimore’s revenues when the secure ASP infrastructure
becomes a reality.
Headquartered in Ireland, Baltimore Technologies now employs over 800 people
worldwide and operates from 30 cities.