3Com Korea aims for the top as Korea's No. 1 'Secure Converged Network' Solutions Provider 3Com Korea plans to solidify its 'secure converged network' strategy in the first quarter of this year, while, at the same time, launching its voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) solutions. The secure converged network has strengthened security functions in data and voice network equipment. It means a network that can ultimately materialize all data- including voices, data, images, etc.- in one network without any data outflows. 3Com Korea has been vowing to make new advances into the market by providing the IP telephony system planned to be launched anew as an end-to-end total solution together with enterprise network products, comprised of switches, routers, wireless local area network (LAN) solutions, and security solutions. For this, 3Com has been carefully studying the Korean IP telephony market to date so that it can introduce an optimal IP telephony solution at around the middle of January and, at the same time, engage in omnidirectional sales. In the regions in which the IP telephony market is mature, including Europe and others of the like, 3Com's IP telephony solutions have already entered the markets and have been achieving good results. 3Com has started its sales activities in earnest, including the carrying out of pilot projects based on such successful cases of establishment overseas. It expects that it will see substantial results from the beginning of this year. In the network field, the company plans to not only strengthen its capture of the enterprise market centered on 'Switch 7700' and 'Switch 8800', which are existing super-large tera-class switches, but also achieve noteworthy results centered on smalland medium-sized corporations, branch offices of large corporations, public institutions, the college market, etc., through 'Switch 5500' and 'Switch 4500', which are gigabit-class switches launched last year. Especially, in the security field, in order to effectively respond to security problems, including worms, malicious codes, etc.- which have been gradually getting more and more intelligent currently- through the TippingPoint intrusion prevention system (IPS), 3Com has been carrying out emergency response and customer services through the 'digital vaccine service', the 'ZDI program', etc. In November last year, the company launched 'TippingPoint X505', a new-concept integrated security platform which can significantly reduce the difficulty of network security management on the part of branch offices of large corporations and small- and medium-sized corporations. This year, the company plans to unfold even more aggressive sales with not only the enterprise market but also the server message block (SMB) market as the targets. Also, the company plans to launch a security product in the embedded form provided by being loaded on hardware in the first half of next year. It is expected that this will play a big role in accelerating the capture of the VoIP market by solving the problem of security, which is the biggest stumbling block in the introduction of a VoIP system, through strengthened security functions for VoIP. In terms of sales, the company has been paying special attention to channel policies and operation under the basic plan to capture diverse markets through partnerships with collaborating companies. For this, 3Com Korea plans to unfold a more specialized channel strategy by reinforcing the specialized channels by market, including VoIP other than the existing distributors. President Lee Soo-hyun of 3Com Korea said, "Last year, we had concentrated on laying the foundation for expanding the field and entering into new areas, including the acquisition of TippingPoint, a security equipment company, and others of the like. This year, we will become firmly established as the top 'secure converged network' solution provider in the industry, which has combined voices, images, data, and security, by adding VoIP solutions to the foundation." And President Lee stated the ambition that this year will be "a year in which new advances will be made based on the results of the previous year."