Background

Instant messaging has become a necessary tool not just on consumer and daily user level, but also widely adopted on enterprise aspect for its spontaneous and intuitive interface. This can be observed obviously since the desktop PC era. Especially in today’s globalized business environment, instant messaging is gaining higher momentum on enterprise adoptions and on both desktop and mobile communication devices. The nature of mobile instant messaging allows individuals to communicate simultaneously with one or more others and in today’s corporate settings, there is almost zero tolerance for communication failure. This has become a major challenge for corporate IT management as there may be more unplanned downtimes and unexpected cyber attacks to happen due to heavy traffic and reliance on mobile instant messaging. Therefore, it is a major challenge for IT management staff to ensure secured and steady network infrastructures.

Although there are plenty of instant messaging programs available in the market with the same service at free of charge, these applications cannot fulfill today’s corporate needs. There is no protection measure for transferred data and messages from these instant messaging services. This indicates that all sensitive data is extremely vulnerable and IT management staff has no control over the reliability and serviceability of the platform.

Requirements

A client in Asia Pacific with expertise in enterprise messaging software came to Lanner for hardware backend platform to reinforce an efficient mobile enterprise messaging environment. The main objective from the client is to build up a secured enterprise messaging platform different from other commercial or consumer level counterparts. There are specific criteria to protect users’ critical or sensitive information.

  • All transferred data must be encrypted, for instance, all messages are encrypted by AES.
  • A virtualized private server is needed so that the client can handle its own message delivery without the involvement or leveraging of a third party server.
  • All transferred data are stored and archived in its private server for analysis or reference in the future.
  • Status tracking (for instance, time stamping for read and sent messages) and user authentication are necessary to protect the privacy of listed individuals on the contact list.
Requirements Client’s Messaging System Other Commercial or Consumer Messaging
Message status with time-stamped for read, sent and acknowledged messages Yes Varies depending on the system in use
Secured delivery without using 3rd party servers Yes No
Local message archive Yes No
Closed group contacts (unless user authentication provided) Yes No

All of the above criteria require a purpose-built hardware solution with the following technological qualities.

Processor Capability

Since enterprise communications often involves the uses of instant messaging, corporate emails and emails-to-SMS messages, the central processor must fulfill these tasks compatibly. In addition, cost-effectiveness must be achieved. For optimal security, the processor shall be packed with security features.

Uninterrupted Network Connectivity

In today’s enterprise messaging environment, corporate IT managements require zero tolerance. Therefore, to prevent network downtimes from happening, alternatives must be prepared such as LAN Bypass to ensure constant and consistent network connections.

Support for Mainstream Operating Systems

The hardware platform must be able to support mainstream operating systems since enterprise messaging and communication programs are all run on compatible operating systems.

Customization and Time-To-Market

Today, company IT staff is encountered with greater amount of work loads than their traditional counterpart due to cloud computing and Internet of Things. For information system hardware, they demand customizable and cost-effective time-to-market platforms that can be implemented immediately to their operating environments.

Lanner’s Solution

Lanner’s FW-7582 is the ideal hardware backend for this case. This model offers several processor options based on Intel® Sandy Bridge, ranging from the entry-level Celeron® series, to the intermediate Pentium® line, and even the high-end Core™-i series. All supported CPU options are compatible with mainstream operating systems. This will ensure seamless integration between the hardware and the software.

Customization wise, the Intel x86 architecture of FW-7582 offers the scalability and high-availability for further customizations in I/O designs. With its Sandy Bridge nature, FW-7582offers virtualization power (for selected CPUs) for VPN and other virtual machine networking purposes, enabling FW-7582 to accommodate unlimited number of firewall, IPS, anti-virus, UPS and other monitoring mechanisms. For higher levels of security, the Intel Core™-i series supports further upgraded AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) for more up-to-date cryptographic operations. This will ensure message filtering to run more efficiently.

Since enterprise messaging is designed to run 24/7, FW-7582 is programmed with advanced LAN Bypass. Unpredicted downtimes may occur to network connection when a platform is operating on a 24/7 basis. To prevent the catastrophic conditions, FW-7582 comes with LAN Bypass to provide alternative network paths for uninterrupted communications. In fact, FW-7852 is programmed with Lanner’s currently most advanced Generation 3 Bypass for higher functionality.

With the advantages mentioned above, FW-7582 is surely the cost-effectiveness, time-to-market solution for enterprise communications. For entry-level products with similar design, Lanner’s FW-7568 is the alternative, except the adoption of CPU. While FW-7582 employs Sandy Bridge CPUs, FW-7568 utilizes the cost-efficient, low-power-consuming Atom™ series with slightly compromised performance.