Global Dispatches: Asia-Pacific region warms up to ITsecurity outsourcing

Computerworld -

Asia-Pacific Warms to IT Security Outsourcing

SINGAPORE -- Corporations across the Asia-Pacific region are becoming more open to outsourcing the management of their IT security systems to third parties, according to speakers at the MediaConnect Asia Security Forum here last week.

During the conference, attendees said that the process of outsourcing IT security has started in mature markets such as Australia, Japan and Taiwan. As a whole, the region is catching up with other parts of the world on security outsourcing, said Ed Elliff, who manages VeriSign Inc.'s enterprise sales and marketing activities in Australia.

Security demands generated by online applications such as e-commerce systems and Web services are prompting corporate users to hand off intrusion detection, firewall management and other security functions to third-party vendors, the speakers said.

But Andy Lee, head of the Asia-Pacific security practice at Amsterdam-based network operator ENV International NV, a unit of France Telecom SA that does business as Equant, said cost benefits are the No. 1 factor that will drive companies to outsource IT security tasks.

• Melissa P. Vergara, Computerworld Philippines

BenQ Mobile Looks to Boost Siemens Phones

MUNICH -- Munich-based BenQ Mobile GmbH officially began operations last week. The company was formed through the takeover of Siemens AG's mobile devices division by Taiwan-based electronics maker BenQ Corp. in June.

The company, which also includes BenQ's mobile phone unit, hopes to reverse an ongoing decline in the market share of Siemens-branded phones. BenQ Mobile is headed by CEO Clemens Joos, who previously was president of the mobile phone division at Siemens, and Chairman Jerry Wang, an executive vice president at BenQ.

Siemens paid BenQ 250 million euros ($301 million) to assume ownership of its phone operations and agreed to invest another 50 million euros ($60 million) in the company. Executives last week said BenQ Mobile has more than 7,000 workers and had annual revenue of 5.6 billion euros ($6.7 billion) last year. Citing figures from Gartner Inc., BenQ Mobile said it had an estimated 5.2% share of the worldwide mobile phone market in the first half of this year -- making it the sixth-largest vendor.

• Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service

Showa Denko Plans Facility for Tiny Disks

TOKYO -- Showa Denko KK, a manufacturer of storage disks for hard drives, said it plans to spend 3 billion yen ($26.5 million U.S.) to build a new research and development center that will focus on creating a coin-size device that can hold 40GB of data.

Tokyo-based Showa Denko, which produces disks for drive makers like Toshiba Corp., said the center will be built in Ichikawa City in the prefecture of Chiba, east of Tokyo. Work on the facility is due to be completed in April.