Athena Security And Tata Consultancy Services Partner To Reduce Firewall Security Risk

Online, February 18, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Tata Consultancy Services, a leading global provider of consulting and outsourced IT Infrastructure services, with operations in more than 40 countries, has selected Athena Security, makers of the advanced security analytics solution, Athena FirePAC, to reduce firewall security risk for customers.

As part of the TCS Co-Innovation Network (COIN)TM, the two companies will collaborate on lowering the cost of compliance and improving process efficiency for firewall audits and change monitoring. The program breaks the mold of traditional partnering models by reaping the value of the innovation labs to pool expertise together with product companies, so that breakthrough advancements can be showcased to worldwide customers.

"We are honored to be part of this program and look forward to augmenting the TCS commitment to drive the adoption of innovative products," says Adarsh Arora, CEO Athena Security. "As one of the world's largest IT services companies, TCS is facilitating a truly prominent network of technology vendors, venture funds, global academic institutions, and service alliance partners. Customers not only gain from the perspective TCS has because of its broad and comprehensive market view, but also from the extensive due diligence invested by TCS innovation lab experts to select best-in class products."

The Athena FirePAC product lowers the cost of compliance by testing how traffic is controlled by the firewall without injecting any packets. Comprehensive audits isolate the risky rules for immediate and precise remediation. FirePAC's advanced change analytics enable users to monitor how the firewall is controlling traffic on an ongoing basis. For major project-based initiatives, including data center or platform migrations, FirePAC offers unique solutions to ensure polices are maintained without compromising the security of the network.

"We selected Athena FirePAC for our program because of the company's ability to lead the market with focused solutions that are applicable to every phase of firewall management," says Mr. K. Ananth Krishnan, VP and CTO, TCS. "From new customers to existing customers, we will be able to utilize FirePAC to inform our customers about the health of their firewalls and the steps that can be taken to harden them, without wasting any cycles on imprecise testing. Enterprise firewalls have grown extremely complex to manage and combined with our process, we see this as an exciting opportunity to offer the most advanced firewall management service available anywhere."

For more information on the COINTM initiative, see: http://www.tcs.com/about/tcs_difference/innovation/network/Pages/default.aspx

About TCS: Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, business solutions and outsourcing organization that delivers real results to global businesses, ensuring a level of certainty no other firm can match. TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT and IT-enabled services delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery ModelTM, recognized as the benchmark of excellence in software development.

A part of the Tata Group, India's largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has over 160,000 of the world's best trained IT consultants in 42 countries. The Company generated consolidated revenues of over US $6.3 billion for fiscal year ended 31 March 2010 and is listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in India. For more information, visit us at www.tcs.com