DTECH LABS and Network Equipment Technologies, Inc. (N.E.T.) announced that DTECH LABS has begun shipments of its WHISPER900 Mobile VoIP Gateway product to multiple customers in government and military organizations. The WHISPER900 is a very small and light yet feature-rich VoIP product that utilizes the N.E.T. SHOUT IP software architecture. Its deployment is a key indicator of the shift towards secure VoIP implementations -- especially for VIP and executive travel teams that are now beginning to rely upon IP technology for everyday and emergency communications.

To date, the WHISPER900 has been deployed in several operational scenarios, both domestic and international, for fixed locations as well as "mobile in-use" applications supporting both standard and emergency-on-demand communications scenarios.

Narus, Inc. announced a multi-million dollar agreement with Giza Systems of Egypt, licensing Narus' comprehensive portfolio of IP management and security products in the Middle East region. Giza Systems, a world-class systems provider of telecommunications solutions in the Middle East, delivers IP management and security solutions in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Palestine and Libya using the Narus system.

Narus and Giza Systems formalized this exclusive relationship after working together for more than two years providing Voice over IP (VoIP) detection, mediation and protection to the largest IP carriers in the Middle East. Telecom Egypt (TE) and Saudi Telecom (STC) are already benefiting from Narus' carrier-class applications for analysis, security, monitoring and mediation of IP traffic in combination with Giza Systems' technical and commercial capabilities.

Though Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) can add many desirable new features to business telecom systems, vendors and customers face difficult security challenges to realize these benefits, reports In-Stat. As a result, more than 75% of the companies that have implemented VoIP plan to replace their security appliances within the next year, the high-tech market research firm says. The security appliance market is poised for strong growth over the next few years, and will reach $7 billion by 2009, In-Stat forecasts.

SecureLogix Corporation, a leading enterprise telephony security and management company, announced the availability of version 5.0.1 of its award-winning ETM (Enterprise Telephony Management) System at VoiceCon Fall 2005 today. Version 5.0.1 of industry's leading voice firewall and management platform adds H.323 protocol support to complement its existing support for SIP, T1-CAS, ISDN-PRI, and Analog telephony traffic.

SecureLogix Corporation announced today that its Chief Technology Officer, Mark Collier, will lead a presentation entitled "Cutting-Edge Issues in VoIP Security" during the VoiceCon Fall 2005 conference and exhibition. The presentation is scheduled for Wednesday, August 31, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. The conference will run from August 29 to September 1 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, California.

Intel Corporation and Cisco Systems, Inc. today announced an expansion of their existing alliance to deliver new capabilities that enhance the reliabilty of wireless LANs and deliver higher-quality services, and allow enterprises to use computers and the network as a combined defense against security threats.

Creating Business Class Wireless LANs

Cisco and Intel have jointly produced a new set of features, called Business Class Wireless Suite, designed for companies using Cisco's Unified Wireless Architecture and Intel Centrino mobile technology. The Suite includes:

Tekelec, a leading developer of telecommunications products for next-generation fixed, mobile and packet networks, today announced a key milestone in the development of its Real Convergence strategy. Tekelec has purchased German and Czech-based iptelorg GmbH, developer of leading-edge Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) routing software, securing a critical IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) capability for Tekelec.

Juniper Networks announced its plans to buy Kagoor Networks in order to expand its list of services. Kagoor's session border controller product, VoiceFlow, will help to eliminate issues that VoIP traffic can experience over NAT networks or through firewalls.

Though the discussion of SPIT (SPam over Internet Telephony) was not a major topic during the VON Expo, it was brought up. Jeffrey Citron, chief executive of Vonage, answered a few questions in regards to security issues but he apparently wasn't ready to share their strategy.