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Safelayer, Forum Brings Enhanced Opportunity For SOAs To Europe

Forum Systems Inc, a provider of trust management and threat protection Web services security solutions, announced it has signed a preferred distribution agreement with Safelayer, a leading provider of Public Key Infrastructure and identity management solutions in Spain, to resell its entire Forum suite of Web services security products including Forum Sentry, Forum XWall and Forum Presido, to the continental European security market. Building upon Forum System's European presence, Safelayer will bring its experience in the implementation of vertical solutions for the financial services and e-government sectors looking to leverage the benefits of PKI for Service Oriented Architectures. Safelayer is also the only Spanish company with PKI solutions that are certified by the Spanish Defense Ministry.

"The PKI technology expertise that Safelayer brings to the table combined with Forum Systems' specialized Web services security products will address a large opportunity in the European market for robust and stronger security within the government, defense and financial services sectors," said Wes Swenson, CEO and president of Forum Systems. "Web services are happening now and customers are asking for this type of PKI-enablement of Web services."

According to a 2004 report titled Worldwide Web Services Software Forecast, 2004-2008: Cautious Adoption Continues, from IDC (#31079) a leading provider of global IT research & advice, worldwide spending on software in support of Web services-based projects will reach $11 billion by 2008, compared to $1.1 billion achieved in 2003.

"The industry is entering a critical stage in the volume of acceptance and support for Web services standards and technologies, pushing the envelope for more robust security and management methodologies. The market-at-large is embracing the concept of services-oriented architecture (SOA) to such a degree that it will inevitably leave a mark on IT environments for many years to come," said Sandra Rogers, director for Web Services Software and Integration at IDC.

"We're seeing the European market moving towards the implementation of SOA with security as a key factor in the success of these deployments," said Francisco Jordan, CTO of Safelayer. "Forum Systems focus on trusted information sharing and secure transactions, using Web services will round out our product portfolio. In addition, the flexibility of our software and hardware solutions, provide our clients with all the product options they need, to solve the security issues they face today and will tomorrow."

Safelayer is joining the Forum Foundation Reseller Program that offers qualified partners the opportunity to sell and implement Forum's award-winning suite of XML and Web services security products. Forum's security solutions enable government agencies and commercial enterprises to accelerate the business value of Service Oriented Architectures using XML and Web Services technologies. Forum's products and technologies ensure trusted electronic relationships, authenticated and authorized transactions as well as compliance with regulatory requirements such as information privacy.

Trustworthy, ubiquitous and robust service-oriented architectures can be only achieved through security controls that are proactive, persistent and systematic throughout the life cycle of XML data and Web services. Forum Seamless Security Solutions Architecture (Forum S3A) for Web services brings together innovative products and technologies that extend and enhance enterprise infrastructures with flexible data-level security and networking capabilities.