By connecting the German embassies in Hanoi, Libreville, Nairobi, Taipei and Tirana, Secunet has successfully completed a global Gigabit Ethernet network of the German Federal Foreign Office.

Secunet is already a big name in Germany: the company provides secure networks for two thirds of the top 30 companies quoted in the German Stock Index (DAX), as well as international blue-chip customers like Credit Suisse, ING, Master Card and Novartis. It focuses on public-key infrastructures (PKI), virtual private networks (VPN) and security management. It has also developed networks for the German Information Security Agency (BSI) and almost all of its technology is approved for the classification ‘NATO Secret’.

The embassies project, including planning, conceptual design, implementation and roll-out, was realised in less than two years. All servers of the 217 foreign representations were modernised and migrated to Linux. The use of the network allows for cost advantages by using Voice over IP rather than expensive dedicated lines.

Building the network (without the hardware) cost around €5m. Communication costs are estimated at €8m. With the old X 25 network the embassies burned up €35m annually. ®