August 16, 2004 - By Marguerite Reardon
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Alcatel is focusing on security in an effort to gain a foothold in corporate switching, a market long dominated by Cisco Systems.

On Monday the 16th, the European telecommunications equipment maker announced the Automated Quarantine Engine, a new software product that applies a security policy to its enterprise switches, called OmniSwitches. The company also announced new relationships with endpoint security firm Sygate and Fortinet, a maker of Internet Protocol virtual private networks and firewalls.

Through these partnerships, Alcatel said it will be able to prevent and contain attacks on the network.

CNet