Tech Watch: Israeli software to help protect vital US sites

Local software companies allowing the country to play an ever-increasing role in some of the most important projects here and worldwide.

By MATTHEW KRIEGER
Tech Watch 88 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Tech Watch 88
(photo credit: Courtesy)
LOCAL SOFTWARE companies continue to provide innovative solutions for varied applications, allowing the country to play an ever-increasing role in some of the most important projects here and worldwide. Agent Vi is an enterprise video analytics software company that delivers solutions for improved security, business intelligence and operations, with R&D facilities near Tel Aviv. It announced earlier this month that it has partnered with national systems engineering firm Abeo Technical Solutions LLC (AbeoTS) to provide video analytics software for the Potomac Basin Security System (PBSS) project. The area, which includes Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Bolling Air Force Base and the Washington Navy Yard, is of strategic importance. Funded by the Naval Air Systems Command, the PBSS project combines biometrically enabled access control, geospatial technology, radar surveillance, video analytics and other sensor technologies to protect transportation facilities, secure areas and critical infrastructure. Using IP-based networks, the Agent Vi software can update all cameras on a network from one computer with a single flash of the agents running within the cameras. Competitive solutions require an average of 32 servers to support 150 cameras, while Agent Vi's software allows organizations to utilize a single, existing server to deploy the same number of cameras. Agent Vi's technology is currently deployed in more than 25 countries and in thousands of cameras and edge devices, seamlessly integrating with existing video equipment and IT infrastructure, making video analytics feasible, affordable and scalable. BLUE REEF and Netanya-based Commtouch announced this month that Blue Reef has licensed Commtouch's Anti-Spam and Zero-Hour Virus Outbreak Protection services for integration into its Sonar Total Control Gateway Appliance. This has great relevance for the world's most important communications tool, e-mail. Blue Reef's Sonar Total Control Gateway is an access-control and network enforcement appliance that is sold to small- and medium-sized businesses and educational establishments. Blue Reef's Sonar Total Control Gateway incorporates several other anti-spam filtering engines, including Challenge Response/recipient verification and Bayesian Analysis. Commtouch has more than 17 years of experience developing messaging software; it is a global developer and provider of proprietary anti-spam, Zero-Hour virus protection and GlobalView Reputation Service solutions. Using core technologies, including RPD (Recurrent Pattern Detection), the Commtouch Detection Center analyzes billions of e-mail messages per week to identify new spam and malware outbreaks within minutes of their introduction into the Internet. HOD HASHARON-based Red Bend Software, another software company focused on communizcation, is the market leader in Mobile Software Management. It announced earlier this month that Sierra Wireless has licensed Red Bend's device management solution, vDirect Mobile, for Sierra Wireless's USB modems, PC cards, embedded modules and machine-to-machine (M2M) products. Sierra Wireless is the maker of the popular AirCard modems that connect consumers to mobile broadband networks in the US, Europe and Asia. The company is also a leader in fixed and mobile wireless data solutions for industrial, commercial, public safety and M2M applications. RECOGNIZING THE accomplishments of one of the country's up-and-coming software companies, Ramat Gan-based OpTier, the leader in Business Transaction Management (BTM) for the enterprise, announced last week that Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), a leading IT management research and consulting firm, had named OpTier "A Rising Star to Watch" in its January research report titled "The EMA All-Stars in Enterprise Systems Management for 2008." ON THE fashion front, Petah Tikva-based OptiTex, the premiere design software for textile industries, is proof that "green" business practices and corporate fiscal responsibility can go hand in hand. OptiTex's CAD/CAM software leverages 2D and 3D models that can be adjusted to reflect any body type, while offering practically every available fabric type in a fully-customizable virtual environment. This allows designers to create, correct and adjust compelling designs before the first piece of fabric is cut, dramatically reducing wasted fabric, machine/kilowatt use and manpower hours. This increases speed to market, providing rapid ROI via the green advantage. ZEND TECHNOLOGIES, Inc., headquartered in Ramat Gan, announced earlier this month the availability of version 1.5 of Zend Framework, the popular open source PHP framework. Zend Framework is an open source project best known for its support for fast, efficient creation of PHP applications. It has developed a strong community and has attracted contributions from more than 400 individual and corporate-sponsored developers, including Microsoft, Fox Interactive Media, IBM and Google. Since its debut, Zend Framework has been downloaded more than 4 million times.