AT&T to extend managed network offerings

Rethink IT, Jan, 2005

AT&T is preparing managed network security offerings that it claims will change the way enterprises think about and purchase security products and services.

The centerpiece of the strategy is Project Gemini, an initiative through which the company intends to augment, or entirely replace, customers' edge defenses with security services delivered over the wire.

Some 30 customers are testing Project Gemini's network-based IDS (intrusion detection system) and firewall services, and AT&T plans to add other options, including anti-spam services, in the near future. Also coming soon is an advanced security management console, dubbed Aurora, and a major professional services initiative, which will initially focus on security consulting.

Project Gemini, for which development began nearly a year ago, sprang from AT&T's belief that it could better manage customers' security by having the defenses on the company's IP backbone network rather than simply administering security devices on the customers' premises. As a result, customers would have the choice of adding these security services to the bandwidth they purchase from AT&T.