The Hindu Business Line : VeriSign partners Airtel

New Delhi, June 2 Internet access is all set to get quicker and more resilient with Bharti Airtel striking an alliance with VeriSign to set up Regional Internet Resolution Site (RIRS) in the country, which will enable users to access .com and .net Websites without having to wait for a response from servers located in other countries such as China or the US.

This is the first such centre in India that will help keep the Internet traffic within the country thus enabling faster response time. It will also help make the country’s Internet infrastructure more resilient against security threats and disruptions due to under sea cable cuts. This is part of VeriSign’s strategy to expand its Internet infrastructure across 100 locations globally.

”The Regional Internet Resolution Site will help support the millions of daily .com and .net queries from Internet users in the region, help provide faster responses to Internet address queries, and will assist VeriSign in identifying and isolating potential attacks on infrastructure in their early stages,” said Mr Ken Silva, Senior Vice-President, Chief Technology Officer, VeriSign.

The centre, which has begun operations, receives approximately 130 million queries per day or 1,500 queries per second. At current growth rates, it is estimated that the number of queries to the RIRS in India will increase to over 450 million per day by 2012, making it one of the largest in the world.

By locating a resolution site closer to Indian users, it enables faster, more efficient Internet experience for local businesses or individual users.

Another advantage of the RIRS is that it mitigates the impact of attacks on the Internet. The local presence of Regional Internet Resolution Sites like the one in India can not only help identify an attack in its early stages, but also isolate the event near its origin. VeriSign can now work with local Indian providers to help isolate an attack within a network, preventing it from impacting other parts of the Internet.

Marketing pact

Bharti Airtel has entered into a strategic alliance with VeriSign for jointly marketing Internet security solutions to large enterprise and small and medium business units in the country. The partnership is estimated to generate revenues of around $100 million for Bharti Airtel over a 3 year period. As part of the deal, VeriSign and Bharti will develop and customise security solutions primarily targeted at the banking and financial sector.

Speaking to Business Line, Dr Jai Menon, Director, Customer Service and Information Technology, Bharti Airtel said,

“As our networks head towards being IP-based, we are very quickly transitioning to becoming a telecom company where both voice and data will move in packets. In this highly digitised and ‘packetised’ world, it is imperative that Airtel’s name and its networks be synonymous with safe and secure network.”

While Airtel will deploy VeriSign’s solutions for its own internal network, the security systems will also be offered to rival telecom player’s enterprise customers. Airtel will also be made a Registrar for .com and .net sites in India. As part of an exclusive deal, the two companies will offer a bouquet of products including the VeriSign Identity Protection (VIP), iDefence and Managed Security Services.

“For digital India to be successful, one has to have end-to-end security and scalable Internet foundation,” said Mr Willaim A Roper Jr. President and CEO, VeriSign.