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NewHeights Software and Covergence have teamed up to offers a secure, soft-client communications experience for enterprise users. The NewHeights enterprise soft-client communications management interface will use the Covergence Eclipse to extend Transport Layer Security and Secure Real-Time Protocol standards into the soft-client offering.

The partnership offers service providers a powerful solution to extend security associated with the PSTN to the SIP-enabled enterprise desktop. The Covergence Eclipse solution will be integrated with the NewHeights Desktop Assistant 90 to offer a number of security and management benefits. These include standards-based crytopgraphic authentication and signaling and media encryption, and stateful and stateless signaling and media validation. Additional features include multi-layer intrusion and attack preventions, application-specific virus scanning and content filtering and policy-based monitoring.

The soft-client technology gives businesses the opportunity to combine a SIP hard phone with a PC-based multimedia soft-client to enable grip-and-talk telephony in addition to advanced, PC-based telephony applications at a comparable cost to current VoIP offerings. Businesses using Centrex services may keep their traditional phones while also using the soft-client technology to enable a host of advanced VoIP, IMS and unified communication services at the desktop.

“While a variety of soft-clients are deployed in the enterprise through unauthorized end-user installations that bypass corporate security policies, NewHeights is committed to seamless integration with carrier-class security standards,” said Owen Matthews, CEO of NewHeights, in a statement. “NewHeights’ strategic focus has been to integrate with the leading telephony and enterprise applications in the market. Integrating Covergence’s SIP security solutions with our soft-client technology supports this strategy and further establishes NewHeights as the soft-client vendor of choice for today's Service Provider and enterprise customer.”

“Covergence is committed to helping enterprises and service providers securely and reliably connect users to real-time services. By extending our advanced SIP security and management solutions to soft-client vendors such as NewHeights, we are giving providers the ability to create a bullet-proof enterprise communications environment,” said Bob O'Neil, president and CEO, Covergence. "As the enterprise network and associated endpoints transition to SIP, the ability to authenticate communications based on physical location is no longer applicable. SIP security must encrypt and authenticate any-to-any traffic, including phone calls, instant messages, and video conferences. NewHeights soft-clients rest at the center of these communication processes, and together with Covergence, provide the highest level of reliability and security in the industry today.”

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Laura Stotler writes about IP Communications and related topics for TMCnet. She has covered VoIP and related technologies for seven years, contributing to Internet Telephony magazine and TMCnet, and as a freelance writer. To see more articles, please visit: Laura Stotler’s columnist page.