VoIP and Unified Communications in an "Open" Campus

The Unified Communications (UC) revolution is sweeping the education world. With Voice over IP (VoIP), IP video and collaboration applications, educational institutions are sparking powerful new learning experiences for students and vastly improving communication among the student body, faculty, administrators, parents and others.

These technologies reduce the impact of geographical spread in the traditional campus setting, but also more effectively reaches and engages distance learning students.

Challenges - "Perfect Storm"

However, bringing UC to a campus environment brings a "perfect storm" of security challenges.

• Open Networks: Arguably, Universities started the Internet and in lot of ways networks still embody the core philosophies of openness and access for all. Unlike most large enterprise networks which are segregated and controlled, there is no clear demarcation servers and services are accessible from campus labs, dorms, and anywhere over the internet and there is typically no rigid "corporate IT policy" to restrict which devices and which applications are approved.
• Peer-to-peer UC: Unlike client server data applications, UC applications and services are by nature real-time and peer-to-peer. Controlling and defining artificial network boundaries is non-conducive to real-time UC and fails to provide control over the real application.
• Hacker Greenhouse: While all enterprises face security challenges, the primary concern typically is over protecting resources from external parties. In contrast, educational entities face internal threats that arise from their student base, who are the new generation of hackers.
• Privacy and Compliance Mandates: In spite of all this lack of control and unique challenges, IT administrators still have privacy and compliance mandates for protecting student records, financial data, personnel data or risk facing strong legal and financial consequences (e.g. FERPA, GLBA, HIPAA, PCI-DSS apply in the US).

Solution - Islands of Security

Sipera's Secure Borderless UC™ solution offers a unique application layer security approach by enabling "Islands of Security" architecture. This security posture targets the unique security needs and compliance mandates particular to education institutions. It ensures privacy of communicated information, controls access to and maintains integrity of UC application services, and protects UC servers and infrastructure from attacks over any network to any device in any location.

With Sipera's targeted security solution, administrators secure specific applications, and don't have to enforce artificial network borders and restrict the "open" access network and application environment. The control over security policies and profiles is not just based on networks but specific systems, users, devices and applications.