EMC, Cisco and Microsoft Partner

July 16, 2007: EMC, Cisco and Microsoft have announced that they are forming a new alliance to offer a comprehensive and secure end-to-end information sharing architecture for government agencies.

Called the Secure Information Sharing Architecture (SISA), the three are combining their application, information infrastructure and networking technologies to offer what they claim is a secure, consistent approach to IT infrastructure that enables “sensitive human resources, financial and other information that is critical to mission accomplishment can have increased protection and be shared among authorised communities.”

The big three will be providing SISA’s core technology, with Cisco providing network protection, security-enhanced virtualised network links, and data protection features, and Microsoft providing identity management, client and network operating systems, plus a collaboration framework to keep content in the hands of authorised users.

EMC brings its networked storage systems, information management and security software to the table, claiming it will provide a flexible information infrastructure for storing, managing and helping protect critical and sensitive data.

“While government is attempting to break down the barriers between organisations to enable information sharing, it is also struggling with numerous high-profile data loss incidents,” said Steve Cooper, former chief information officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “Breaking down barriers between government and partner organisations will require better confidence in the ability to keep information in the hands of only the appropriate users.”

EMC claims that SISA enables government agencies to easily set up security-enhanced, virtual networks for different authorised users and communities to access sensitive files stored in different information protection systems.

Next to this, the company also claims SISA will also enable new scenarios for cross-government information sharing, for example, in the future SISA could be deployed to allow public health officials to monitor confidential data on pandemics found in different government agencies and private sector databases, and coordinate necessary response efforts with both government agencies and private sector operators.

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