Enterasys Enables Machines and Devices to Join the Social Network

ANDOVER, Mass., June 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Enterasys Networks, a Siemens Enterprise Communications company, today announced project "isaac," a revolutionary approach to controlling anything connected to today's IP network. Building on the company's record of innovation in social media integration, now IT machines will be able to join today's social networks, with the ability to communicate out their status and receive commands back from an IT administrator. This breakthrough technology will enable IT organizations to stay ahead of any potential networking issues and raise the bar on delivering high quality service level agreements. isaac's unique innovation reduces the time to diagnose and resolve network issues from hours to seconds. Updates can be made using any mobile device and via familiar social media interfaces including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Chatter.

"Enterasys has been a long-time customer and was one of the very first to use our private, secure corporate social network, Chatter," said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com. "Integrating with Enterasys' isaac will help us further differentiate Chatter in the market as an essential tool to run a global business. We think this will be a game changer for the traditional network management model we see today."

"Fortune 500 companies are leveraging cloud computing as a way to improve processes and drive efficiency across their organization," said Trent Waterhouse, vice president of marketing, GE Energy. "With innovative social networking technology like isaac from Enterasys – language, geography, and application access challenges are simplified so the next generation of IT operations personnel can securely interact with the IT infrastructure via intuitive mobile Internet applications. With 90,000 employees in more than 140 countries, GE Energy must ensure our applications and information are always available anytime, anywhere. Leveraging social media interfaces holds the promise of better serving our customers."

The Convergence of Cloud Computing, Social Media and Mobility

At the convergence of cloud computing, social networking and mobility, isaac opens up new ways for enterprises to architect their IT organization, automating change processes that were traditionally done by someone sitting in a network operations center (NOC). Human and machine bi-directional communication is enabled and the messages are presented in natural language, as opposed to complex CLI scripts and syslogs. And this is done by using a social media interface that is increasingly becoming the new norm in communicating across today's enterprise. This innovation builds on the Siemens Enterprise Communications strategy of leveraging social media to drive real business value. OpenScape Fusion, introduced in July 2010, delivers pre-built social media integration applications for unified communication and contact centers, making it easier and faster for customers, developers and partners to deliver integrated solutions.

"With one sixth of humanity using either Facebook or Twitter, it's only natural that new use cases would be developed for social networking platforms. By allowing network devices such as routers, switches and applications to securely join the social network, IT can use these familiar and accessible interfaces for more efficient, real-time interaction and communication, providing automated and predictive responses to network issues," said Chris Crowell, president and CEO of Enterasys Networks. "isaac leverages patent-pending technology which provides a breakthrough real-time bi-directional translator that enables an administrator to communicate with the network in their native tongue. For the first time machines are capable of speaking the language of humans; instead of humans needing to adapt to the language of machines."

Enterasys' first of its kind technology is a proactive solution for managing infrastructure and application services with an easy-to-use user interface – social media. isaac leverages both the popularity and familiarity of today's social media channels, cloud computing models and anywhere access via mobile devices to manage complex IT environments without any specialized skill or training, providing the following customer benefits:

• Provides IT with the ability to communicate with networked machines via natural language and in their native tongue
• Enables a social media savvy IT workforce to use the medium they're most comfortable with in tackling network issues
• Gives network devices and assets the ability to initiate bi-directional communication with IT for faster, predictive problem resolution, resulting in higher quality of service
• Includes strong security controls for end-to end-communication
• Ensures fast, easy deployment into any existing infrastructure

"Social networking is going to be integral to all enterprise communications; Enterasys' initiative of integrating network management with social media via a cloud model is indeed innovative", said Rohit Mehra, director, Enterprise Communications Infrastructure, IDC. "Traditional network management has been locked inside the network operations center, yet needs 24/7 monitoring and support. This novel approach by Enterasys brings network management, and the network, closer to IT, giving them the means to address problems in real time via their smart mobile device through a familiar social network interface."

Multi-layered Security

isaac includes multiple layers of security to ensure the integrity of an enterprise's IT infrastructure. The solution will leverage the improved security capabilities of social network providers, such as Facebook's recent introduction of two-factor authentication. The isaac solution is enabled with two-factor authentication, which uses randomly generated one-time passwords delivered externally to the social media cloud through SMS or email. Isaac also layers on audit capabilities, authorization, and command level access control which monitor social media for anomalous behavior. isaac supports three consumption models for customers, providing various levels of secure access:

• Public SM (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) read-only access
• Public Social Media read-write access with two factor authentication
• Enterprise social media (Salesforce.com Chatter)

Additional Supporting Quotes

"Seton Hill University has prided itself on being on the cutting edge of technology, looking for ways to leverage new technologies for the betterment of our faculty and students. We were one of the first colleges to institute a program whereby we gave away iPads to incoming freshman, providing us a first-mover advantage in the higher education market. We see the introduction of issac from Enterasys as a tremendous innovation that will make us even more nimble. We will now have the ability to respond in real-time to any problem with the network and can do so in an extremely customizable, secure and easy manner via social media."

- Phil Komarny, CIO of Seton Hill University

"In a hospital setting, the slightest delay in network connectivity is simply not acceptable. We already experienced the reliability and ease of use inherent with Enterasys wired and wireless products. With isaac, we can build upon that experience with a solution that is extremely easy to use and that integrates seamlessly into our existing infrastructure. This also ensures the ultimate in uptime for critical healthcare applications on our network."

- Kasey Arnott, Director of IT, East Liverpool (OH) City Hospital

"As the world's largest real auction marketplace, our reputation depends on the reliability of our network and the need for it to always be available. Any downtime can result in lost revenue and loss of customer confidence. I can see isaac being a very valuable solution that anyone on my IT staff can use to head off network issues before they become real problems."

- Chance Irvine, Director of IT Operations and Infrastructure, Proxibid

"Enterasys is once again demonstrating its ability to innovate by integrating social media interactions with its already industry-leading secure network infrastructure. With isaac, Enterasys introduces familiar social media interactions to the previously NOC-centric tasks of network management. By leveraging the availability and capabilities of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Chatter, isaac provides real-time alerts, issue resolution, and network management communication within a context clearly understood by network engineers. This is an important advancement that should be on every CIO's and network manager's radar."

- Stephen Hultquist, Principal, Infinite Summit

Pricing and Availability

isaac will available for all Enterasys NMS customers in July 2011. As a promotion, isaac is complimentary to early adopters until Q4 2011. Pricing for isaac will start at $9,995 beginning in 2012.

Resources:

• Enterasys Network Management Suite
• Enterasys Blog Post: Humanizing the Enterprise
• Enterasys isaac video
• Enterasys isaac datasheet

About Enterasys Networks and Siemens Enterprise Communications

Siemens Enterprise Communications is a premier provider of end-to-end enterprise communications, including voice, network infrastructure and security solutions that use open, standards-based unified communications and business applications for a seamless collaboration experience. This award-winning "Open Communications" approach enables organizations to improve productivity and reduce costs through easy-to-deploy solutions that work within existing IT environments, delivering operational efficiencies. It is the foundation for the company's OpenPath® commitment that enables customers to mitigate risk and cost-effectively adopt unified communications. Jointly owned by The Gores Group and Siemens AG, Siemens Enterprise Communications includes Cycos and Enterasys Networks. For more information about Siemens Enterprise Communications or Enterasys please visit www.siemens-enterprise.com or www.enterasys.com.

SOURCE Enterasys Networks