NEW DELHI: The global market for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) will reach $82 billion this year and $196.5 billion by 2007. Much of this growth is driven by the enterprise, with the IT sector the most enthusiastic adopter, according to according to secure application access specialists, PortWise.

However, many businesses are failing to realise how technology will revolutionise security in the data centre, PortWise said. The key problem is that convergence represents a step change in the number of points in the network for unauthorised access and denial of service.

To tackle this, companies should ensure a comprehensive security policy that addresses securing physical connection, audit trails and policy based access decisions, PortWise said in a press statement.

“The key security issue with introducing VoIP services onto a corporate enterprise is that it introduces the need for Internet security into the heart of the data centre, and there simply is not enough expertise in most data centres to cope with it,” said Jonathan Martin, CMO, PortWise. “There is a huge potential for convergence to make the unified network more vulnerable to internal and external attack, and the issue goes far beyond picking up the phone and finding no dial tone.”

Earlier this year, an industry body, the Voice over IP Security Alliance, was formed to address this issue. Although it is yet to define the threats to IP telephony, it acknowledges that hackers are already developing methods to take advantage of this burgeoning communication system.