Able has had a very busy year!

Some of this years highlights include:

• Hiring dozens of new employees
• Significantly expanding our truck fleet
• Expanding our Chandler office
• Celebrating our 15th anniversary with an informative seminar and fun social event
• Stay tuned to this space for news on future territory expansions and some exciting information about our new Chandler office

Mass Notification Systems

Able was asked by one of Arizona’s County Superior Courts to design and install a Mass Notification System.

The security detail of that particular court wanted an efficient way to quickly respond to emergencies, and to communicate the appropriate response to the officers securing the building, the court and the hundreds of administrative staff in the building.

Able’s engineers designed a system that, with a quick push of a button,
activates the system. These buttons were positioned in a few strategic locations around the building. The activation buttons are intended to be pushed only by members of the security detail and select court
employees. Most button locations are capable of activating one of two conditions: either a call to evacuate the building, or a call to lock the room and stay in place until further notice. Only one, highly secured,
location in the building can activate a third option that gives the “all clear” signal.

Another important element of this system is the multiple types of signals given. When the system is
activated, both audible and visual signals are given out. The audible signal alternates between a high pitch whistle and a pre-recorded message with instructions. When activated, the system also displays color-coded strobe lights.

Due to the confidential nature of this security enhancement, we cannot disclose the identity and location of the facility. However, it is important to note that the system has been in place for several months and it has been used in real emergencies. At least twice since the system was installed, it was successfully activated and subsequently deactivated when the threats were cleared to the full satisfaction of Able’s customer.

If you would like to learn more about Mass Notification Systems and how one can be customized to fit your needs, please contact David Whitt at 480-477-0145 or DWhitt@ableinc.com.

• HP Procurve completes its acquisition of Colubris networks.
  HP plans to integrate Colubris’ extensive product line into its ProCurve
  Networking product portfolio
• Sun Microsystems joins the extended VMware family
  Sun will begin to deliver VMware server and storage virtualization products immediately
• Cisco Completes Acquisition of PostPath
  PostPath will work with Cisco to enhance the existing email and calendaring capabilities of Cisco’s WebEx(R) Connect collaboration platform

Over the coming months Able will be conducting a series of Lunch and Learn events around the states of Arizona and New Mexico.

The purpose of these events is to bring the expertise of Able and our partners to clients in remote locations and to present to them in an intimate setting. Attendance is capped at 20 people, lunch is provided and each of our presenters covers a different area of IT security and the E-Rate process so that attendees leave able to make informed decisions about their security needs.

IT In Schools Achievement Awards
Able and a number of its key partners across the IT world have created a new annual awards program designed to celebrate IT in schools across the state of Arizona. we are offering prizes valued at over $100,000 to benefit winning schools and to celebrate their IT achievements.

The competition begins in September with the entry cutoff set for the end of March and the results announced shortly after.
To participate or to learn more visit www.awards4IT.com

Enterasys Secure Networks™ for VoIP
Deploy, Optimize and Secure Voice over IP in Any Network

Deploying VoIP is among the top concerns of IT organizations today. But operating networks to support voice can be a daunting task. Network administrators must optimize and secure voice in the converged network in order to ensure service quality and reliability. Rather than approaching VoIP deployments in a haphazard fashion, Enterasys recommends a simple, yet highly effective integrated approach to enable, optimize and secure wired and wireless voice communications.

Enterasys enables and secures IP Telephony solutions from 3Com, Alcatel, Aastra, Avaya, Cisco, Mitel, NEC (Sphere), Nortel, Panasonic, Polycom, ShoreTel, Siemens and others. Enterprises worldwide want to ensure the same reliability, quality, manageability, mobility and security of the traditional PBX with new Voice-over-IP (VoIP) and unified communications solutions. The Enterasys solution for VoIP delivers an easy and effective way to optimize voice communications through automatic VoIP traffic prioritization. In addition, the Enterasys solution will sense and automatically respond to security threats against the IP telephony system; enforce network access control policies; and comply with regulations for monitoring and safety. You can learn more about the open-architecture, standards-based approach to supporting any convergence application from any vendor by reading the Enterasys whitepaper.

The Enterasys Solution
The Enterasys Secure Networks™ architecture is a unique approach to networking and security that integrates intelligent switching, routing and wireless products; network configuration and management software applications; and intrusion prevention and Network Access Control. With these three fully integrated components, Enterasys Secure Networks™ delivers important capabilities required to deploy, optimize and secure a VoIP solution.

Choice
Enterasys maintains a 25-year commitment to standards-based technologies and open-architecture systems. Leveraging this commitment, Enterasys offers a solution that will support any VoIP application from any vendor. An Enterasys solution can identify and control any voice application running on the network and ensure it is secured and prioritized based on the business requirements.
The open architecture approach gives organizations the choice necessary to deploy the right business application at the right time, for the right reasons. There is no dependency in the network architecture restricting the converged applications that can be deployed.

Reliability
An Enterasys solution assures customers of the ability to meet capacity and Power over Ethernet (PoE) requirements to support IP phones connecting to the converged network. A single Matrix® N-Series switch can accommodate over 500 PoE ports with fault-tolerant power management to keep voice services working to every connected endpoint. Enterasys products support all of the standard technologies necessary to ensure full redundancy and communications resiliency (technologies such as 802.1w, 802.1s, 802.3ad, OSPF, VRRP). Beyond the standard technology features, Enterasys embeds innovative broadcast flooding protection and communication flow overrun protection in switches to ensure that dangerous network traffic patterns do not result in communication failures for critical voice services.

Quality
An Enterasys solution can discover and classify an IP phone the moment it connects to the network. Once the IP phone is detected, the Enterasys solution can enforce appropriate security and communication policies in the network to ensure the quality of the voice service. Convergence End Point (CEP) detection methods include LLDP-MED, destination IP address and Layer 4 Port, SIP, H.323, H.245, Cisco Discovery Protocol, and Siemens CoreNet. Enterasys switches also support multi-user, multi-method authentication to identify and classify more than one device on a single Ethernet connection. Once an IP phone is detected, Enterasys switches will automatically enforce VoIP communication policy rules for prioritization, rate shaping and security of voice traffic.

Manageability
An Enterasys solution provides centralized visibility and control of specific network features important to voice communications in a converged network environment. IP phones can be quickly and easily located, voice communication policy rules are centrally established and globally distributed, and responsive action to security threats is automated. Management software provides IT administrators with a single central location for establishing communication and security policy rules for voice services, and an easy distribution method for getting the policy rules out to the entire network infrastructure.

Mobility
An Enterasys solution can provide wireless communications with performance levels sufficient to accommodate the low-latency requirements of VoIP. Enterasys Wireless Controllers and Access Points support innovative Direct Path Forwarding which allows forwarding of traffic to occur at the AP and not through the controller. This is an important capability for VoIP because the WLAN controller can introduce latency into the communication path.

Security
An Enterasys solution includes the ability to centrally manage a set of communication policy rules which can restrict the type and amount of network traffic directed at specific voice related servers. Also, policy rules can be enforced to ensure that critical services are not “spoofed” causing disruption or theft of critical communications. In addition to proactive security of VoIP resources, events occurring on the network that can compromise the voice service can be detected, and ultimately mitigated in order to preserve the voice system continuity. Security appliances have the ability to detect specific threats against voice communications by using a strong set of VoIP attack signatures – including decoders for H.323, H.245, SIP and MGCP. Once threats against voice services are detected, automated services can be used to locate the exact source of the threat and take appropriate action eliminating the threat.

The Enterasys Secure Networks for VoIP solution was recently named a 2007 Product of the Year award winner by Communications Solutions magazine.

For more information, call Enterasys Networks toll free at 1-877-801-7082 or visit them on the Web at enterasys.com.

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