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Press Release

Water Safety Company Uses FaceTime as Single Point of Control for the New Internet

Internet security solution prevents malware, secures all IM use and manages Web browsing

FOSTER CITY, CALIF. - May 10, 2007 - FaceTime Communications, the leading provider of solutions for securing and managing IM, P2P and Web-based greynets in the enterprise, today announced that Watts Regulator Company, North Andover, Mass., has adopted FaceTime's Internet security suite to prevent malware, control enterprise instant messaging and unauthorized public IM use, and manage Web browsing. The corporate wide implementation protects U.S.-based employees at more than 30 facilities around the country.

Employees at Watts' 30 U.S. locations depend on the Internet for real-time communications and collaboration, using new networked applications that make up an increasing portion of all Internet traffic. With employees expanding their Internet use beyond e-mail and Web surfing, to include IM, Web conferencing and other real-time applications, companies can face new challenges. Greynets, or real-time, network-enabled applications, can expose a company to outbound information leakage, inbound malware threats and new compliance concerns.

The helpdesk at Watts Regulator Company was struggling to keep up with the number of PCs and laptops being sent in for rebuilding because of spyware and malware infections. On average, they were re-imaging up to 10 PCs every week, and the same situation was impacting the company's distributed facilities.

"At one to two hours to re-image each PC, we were losing more than one man-day every week at every facility," recalls senior desktop and LAN specialist Frank Lanteri. "We were getting so far behind on our regular company projects that it was clear something had to be done."

At the same time, the technical staff at Watts had become aware of a significant increase in the unsanctioned use of various public instant messaging applications that users had installed on the corporate network.

Knowing how unsafe such communications channels could be, the company planned a move to an enterprise-grade instant messaging platform with the goal of creating a more secure and collaborative environment for real-time communications. It added an enterprise IM system to its existing e-mail installation to provide the benefits of real-time communications in a streamlined and manageable way.

"Unfortunately, our users continued to download public IM clients," says Lanteri. "And because these kinds of applications are so evasive, it was impossible for us to track down who was doing what with IM, which we were convinced was compounding the spyware problem."

"The scenario that Watts Regulator Company experienced is all too common," said Frank Cabri, vice president of marketing for FaceTime Communications. "The majority of Internet traffic today is generated by greynet applications which by their nature are highly evasive on the network. Companies like Watts are looking for a single point of control for managing employee access to these applications while meeting network performance and compliance requirements.."

The FaceTime Solution

Watts installed FaceTime's RTGuardian and Greynet Enterprise Manager and began to see results immediately, with far fewer calls coming in to the helpdesk about spyware issues. Lanteri subsequently added RTGuardian's Web filtering module to establish a single point of policy enforcement for all Web and real-time communication channels, and FaceTime's Greynet Enterprise Manager (GEM) to provide additional controls, including targeted malware remediation for infected PC endpoints and centralized management for the multiple RTG units.

"The functionality and ease of use of Real-Time Guardian looked to be tailor-made for what we needed," said Lanteri. "And with the addition of GEM, the spyware problem has to all intents and purposes gone away," says Lanteri. "We haven't had to rebuild a machine in months."

The automatic updates and clear reporting have also proved a boon to Lanteri's team, and the visibility of instant messaging application usage means individual users can be targeted for risk education and their real-time communications redirected back through IT authorized channels.

"Now that we know exactly what's going on with instant messaging and other real-time communications tools on the network, we're in a much better position to manage because we're doing so from a position of strength," says Lanteri. "Quite simply, this is a beautiful product for us."

About Watts Regulator Company
Founded in 1874, Watts Regulator Company leads the market in backflow prevention, protecting potable water supplies from contamination. Part of the Watts Water Technologies family of companies, with operations in North America, Europe, and Asia, Watts Regulator designs, manufactures, and sells a wide range of flow control products for the water quality, residential plumbing, commercial, and OEM markets. The company employs 7,500 people located in the US and facilities around the world.

About FaceTime Communications
FaceTime enables the safe and productive use of greynets like instant messaging, Skype, web conferencing and P2P file sharing. Ranked number one in market share among instant messaging management vendors for the third consecutive year, FaceTime's award-winning solutions are used by more than 800 customers including nine of the ten largest U.S. banks. FaceTime Security Labs delivers the industry's first IMPact Index, which assesses "point-in-time" risks posed by viruses, worms and other malware propagating through greynet applications. FaceTime supports or has strategic partnerships with all leading public and private IM network providers, including AOL, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Skype, IBM and Jabber.

FaceTime is headquartered in Foster City, California. For more information visit http://www.facetime.com or call 888-349-FACE.

PR Contact:

Joshua Barnes
A&R Edelman
650-762-2865
joshua.barnes@ar-edelman.com

 
 
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