Alcatel-Lucent touts A/NZ security business

Last year French firm Alcatel merged with US giant Alcatel to form one
of the world's largest telecommunication outfits.

Speaking to CRN about the merger's benefits and its increased focus on
security, Mark Buckley, general manager of the Enterprise Business Group
at Alcatel-Lucent said: "Before the merger we already had a strong
partner program in A/NZ, but we gained new products and partners from
merging with Lucent. In particular it expanded our higher-end portfolio.

"We have been doing a lot of research looking at geographical and
demographical trends to find the key areas to invest in, and one such
area was security."

Buckley said the vendor has already held a security workshop for its
partners to discuss Alcatel-Lucent's security offering.

"Throughout our partner training and certification, security has become
part of the portfolio. We also have a professional services organisation
which assists our partners."

Dr Keith B. White, security director at Alcatel-Lucent, said: "Before
the merger our security business was focused on our core customers such
as the carriers. Now we want to introduce this into the enterprise
environment.

"As we move into next generation networks there is a heightened
requirement to provide security. A lot of our partners may not have
experience in the security space, but we are working with them to assist
with this."

White added that being able to provide security acts as a differentiator
for partners' service offering.