FaceTime, Blue Coat Lock Down Web Apps
And the companies are not only enforcing Web 2.0 security policy in appliance form, but also in the cloud via Blue Coat's WebPulse SaaS offering. Essentially, the channel will be able to offer enterprises the ability to set flexible policies around Web applications either on premise or in the cloud.
FaceTime Director of Product Management Nishant Jadhav said companies are struggling with whether to allow or block Web applications like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. And while they want users to be able to take advantage of the collaboration and communication potential these Web tools offer, they also want to ensure that security, compliance and data leakage policies are adhered to.
The FaceTime and Blue Coat partnership uses Blue Coat's secure Web gateway offerings to offer control over Web applications and policy enforcement. The partnership also ensures that companies are protected from the potential malware threat posed by social networks.
FaceTime's Unified Security Gateway 3.0 provides control over the Web applications, unlocking the ability to monitor, secure and record content to reduce outbound data leaks and enable compliance, legal discovery requirements and other policies and standards. It also logs social media conversations for record-keeping and data auditing. Meanwhile, Blue Coat's ProxySG appliances, along with its cloud-based Blue Coat WebPulse service, can analyze and categorize the dynamic links that are hosted on social media sites then apply policies to users accessing that content.
WebPulse, the cloud offering, unites more than 62 million users in a collaborative defense where the discovery of a threat by a single user is shared in the cloud to provide all users with continued protection against emerging threats. Along with WebPulse, the Blue Coat ProxyAV appliance delivers inline scanning of all downloaded files.
Together, Blue Coat and FaceTime manage and apply corporate IT policies to Web apps like Webmail, wikis, blog posts and social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Sarah Carter, FaceTime's channel marketing director, said partners will be able to engage customers using either FaceTime or Blue Coat products and upgrade them to this new functionality.
Carder said FaceTime and Blue Coat have already identified partners to bring the joint functionality to market. The companies are also planning to launch a set of partner incentives and promotions in coming weeks around the joint FaceTime and Blue Coat solutions.