Polycom and McAfee Alliance to Further Secure Unified Communications and Collaboration

Strategic Relationship Designed to Deliver Polycom Telepresence Solutions Armored with McAfee Protection from Future Security Threats
 
MARKHAM, ON – July 28, 2010 — Marking yet another category-defining innovation for telepresence, Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM) and McAfee, Inc. (NYSE: MFE) today announced a framework for a global strategic alliance to jointly develop and deliver Secure Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC). With security threats on the rise, Polycom and McAfee are taking a proactive approach to further enhance the security features of Polycom’s video, telepresence and infrastructure solutions.  Polycom plans to design solutions that feature McAfee threat protection, shielding Polycom telepresence users, from the desktop to the fully immersive suite, from potential and increasingly sophisticated security threats while making it easier to comply with privacy and confidentiality mandates.
The alliance will address a growing need for enhanced security as organizations of all sizes increasingly turn to video conferencing and telepresence to reduce costs, improve productivity, and maintain operations in the face of business disruptions. The enhanced protections can also help IT managers in regulated industries – from health care to financial services – lessen the burden of meeting compliance and reporting requirements.
“Faster networks and a growing desire among enterprises to transform their work environments via telepresence have placed video collaboration at a tipping point,” said Andrew Miller, Polycom president and CEO. “This makes the need to provide Secure Unified Communications and Collaboration solutions an urgent one, and that’s why we’re partnering with McAfee.”
Miller added, “We’re pleased to incorporate acclaimed McAfee threat protection solutions into the Polycom product line. We want to provide a secure, end-to-end environment that protects telepresence and video collaboration for our customers, which is an increasingly important component of unified communications.”
“Working with Polycom to deliver on the vision of a Secure Unified Communications and Collaboration environment fits perfectly with our mission to help users safely communicate and collaborate wherever they may be,” said David DeWalt, president and CEO of McAfee. “With its dedication to open standards and flexible, easy-to-use solutions, Polycom continues to demonstrate that it puts customers first by offering protection of custom-integrated McAfee-based security solutions.”
The alliance has three main areas of collaboration: joint research and development, sales and market alignment, and participation in activities promoting innovation and standardization of UC security solutions.
The two companies will join R&D forces to:

  • Incorporate McAfee’s advanced threat protection solutions, including the McAfee® ePolicy Orchestrator console, into Polycom UC endpoints and Intelligent Core, offering increased management and protection.
  • Align monitoring and provisioning tools to deliver powerful, secure device configuration and compliance capabilities.
  • Extend the reach of McAfee security leadership to ensure the veracity and security of the myriad applications that differentiate new Polycom business media phones and platforms.

McAfee and Polycom will support joint go-to-market activities including:

  • A co-selling arrangement that includes sales and technical training as well as post-sales support and service offerings.
  • Joint channel alignment and enablement.
  • Joint marketing efforts including collateral, participation in promotional events, webinars and user conferences.

The joint effort introduces McAfee into the ecosystem of technology leaders participating in the Polycom Open Collaboration Network – an alliance of industry innovators whose best-of-breed solutions enable anytime, any device collaboration across a range of enterprise platforms.

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