OREANDA-NEWS. Eight services categories, and Deutsche Telekom lands in the leader quadrant eight times: In its Security Vendor Benchmark 2016, Experton Group has ranked Deutsche Telekom as a leading provider of security solutions. In all categories, Deutsche Telekom, a "strategic pace-setter and opinion leader, ranks among the providers with a highly attractive range of services and a strong market and competitive position," so the analysts. The areas evaluated for the ranking include the categories database security, cloud and data-center security, backup / data-recovery services, identity & access management, mobile security services, managed security services, security consulting and disaster recovery services.

Setting standards in managed security services
The security-services market is among the areas in which the role of outsourcing has been increasing continually. According to the benchmark results, in the market for managed security services "Deutsche Telekom is leading the way in terms of the attractiveness of its portfolio and of its competitive strength." What is more, so the findings, Deutsche Telekom's services cover the entire customer spectrum from SMEs to international corporations. The reasons for the growing attractiveness of security-services outsourcing include the lower investment costs involved (by comparison to in-house solutions) and service providers' unparalleled ability to stay on top of the ever-changing cyber threats. In addition to offering such advantages, Deutsche Telekom's portfolio covers the entire range of security services, meaning that the company can offer end-to-end responsibility for security requirements. What is more, as Experton's analysts note, "The fact that Deutsche Telekom's services originate in Germany, and thus meet Germany's strict data privacy requirements, is an increasingly strong argument in Deutsche Telekom's favor."

Secure cloud data centers
The growing importance of cloud computing has made data-center security a key issue. According to Experton, only seven providers offer the complete range of services that cloud and data-center security really call for. In their benchmark findings, the analysts make special note of the fact that Deutsche Telekom uses tools of its own for all security-related projects – including both internal and customer projects. Examples of such tools include Privacy and Security Assessment (PSA) and Enterprise Security Architecture for Reliable Services (ESARIS). Such tools make it possible to identify security vulnerabilities and develop a catalog of suitable measures to address them. Yet another plus is that in its customer projects the company selects security products in cooperation with the customer, on a manufacturer-independent basis.

Leading role for mobile security services
In 2015, Deutsche Telekom again expanded its mobile security services portfolio. Along with solutions for mobile device management (MDM), Deutsche Telekom now offers anti-virus suites from Symantec and Norton and a containerized solution of its own, the "Safe Mobile Business App." In addition, it offers a Mobile Encryption App that can encrypt mobile calls and mobile telephone conferences with up to three participants. Other functionalities of the highly secure Mobile Encryption App include encryption of text messages (SMS).

Deutsche Telekom's qualifications as a services provider for the area of identity & access management especially include its "Authentication" and "Identity as a Service" services. The company's offerings in this area include two-factor authentication for user authorization via smartphone, text message (SMS) or hardware token, and a validation service for authentication procedures, including smart-card and biometric procedures. Deutsche Telekom also offers "Single Sign-on as a Service" for access to SaaS services, cloud-based web services and local applications.

Deutsche Telekom is also among the leading international players in the area of security consulting. Significantly, the three top players in this area (including Deutsche Telekom) range somewhat ahead of the other providers who made it into the leader quadrant, on the strength of their results in the evaluation areas local market position, strength in sales and marketing, awareness and customer satisfaction.

For the study, Experton reviewed the product and services portfolios of a total of 138 providers in Germany with regard to key security areas. In the process, Deutsche Telekom was evaluated in a total of eight of 14 categories. Via its evaluation, the Experton Group concluded that Deutsche Telekom has a broad IT-security portfolio. This is not surprising, given that some 1,450 employees at Deutsche Telekom work solely on IT and network security.

About Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom is one of the world's leading integrated telecommunications companies with 151 million mobile customers, 30 million fixed-network lines and more than 17 million broadband lines (as of December 31, 2014). The Group provides fixed-network, mobile communications, Internet and IPTV products and services for consumers, and ICT solutions for business customers and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in more than 50 countries and has approximately 228,000 employees worldwide. The Group generated revenues of 62.7 billion euros in the 2014 financial year – more than 60 percent of it outside Germany.

About T-Systems
Deutsche Telekom considers the European business customer segment a strategic growth area. It offers small, medium-sized and multinational companies ICT solutions for an increasingly complex digital world. In addition to services from the cloud, its range of services centers around M2M, security solutions, complementary mobile communications and fixed-network products, and solutions for virtual collaboration and IT platforms, all of which form the basis for our customers' digital business models. The Group's corporate customer arm (T-Systems), with its 47,800 employees worldwide, generated revenue of around 8.6 billion euros in the 2014 financial year.