Citycom is a 100% subsidiary of Holding Graz and, as a fully-fledged ICT provider with its network technology focus, concentrates on the GRAZ economic area and Styrian industry. In addition, conurbations and industrial centres such as the Kapfenberg, Leoben, Wundschuh and Grambach areas are served. Citycom thus supports its customers regionally, throughout Styria and worldwide with high-quality networking solutions. It offers networking solutions based on Carrier Ethernet or MPLS and manages its fibre optic cable network with a length of approx. 50,000 km – in terms of dimension, this is more than the circumference of the earth! Since the very beginning – the first customers were providers, banks, hospitals and subsequently SMEs – the quality policy has always been a top priority, certifications according to ISO 9001 and ANSI-TIA-942 or DIN EN50600 help to secure the standards, ISO 27001 is currently being implemented.

On the road to success with the pillars Data Center, Internet, Network, Voice and sophisticated IT security solutions

Successful companies attach great importance to smooth networking and communication. Data must be available whenever it is needed, wherever it is required. Very fast or superfast Internet with the highest possible performance using the optimum technology in each case is a prerequisite nowadays. What counts here is guaranteed bandwidth and high availability. Connections to the Internet are based mainly on symmetrical bandwidths. True high-speed Internet with symmetrical bandwidth is only possible with optical fibres because there is no quality loss even over long distances.

“We hardly offer standard solutions to our customers, but rather individual, tailor-made overall solutions” explains Günter Großschädl, Head of IT Operations. In Graz 2 data centres are operated with a distance of 7 km, the RZ Nord is already certified as “trusted datacenter”. Many customers choose a hosting solution, so they do not have to invest in their servers, emergency power supply or backup systems and rely on the fact that there is always a data centre work. High reliability and redundancy guaranteed!

Even if old SDH systems are still in use for interconnecting telephony voice channels, the trend is moving in SIP direction. Hosted or dedicated telephony solutions based on Voice-over-IP are available. Citycom primarily delivers “accessibility” – the customer has the choice of a stand-alone system directly at the company site or service from the data centre, directly via a data line.

IT Security

Nowadays, data security and data protection are indispensable for companies and organisations of all sizes due to the rapidly increasing digitisation of almost all economic processes. Conventional antivirus software and firewalls are no longer sufficient to keep valuable company data secure and accessible.

“Our customers benefit in the area of the Internet, because we as Citycom additionally protect ourselves against DDOS attacks and thus also everyone behind Citycom – namely our customers” reports Günter Großschädl. Properly implemented and certified data security means a competitive advantage for companies.

Long-term cooperation with IKARUS in the field of mail security

In the search for a partner in the area of mail.security, great value was placed on regionality. After comparing competitors, we came across IKARUS, a manufacturer with more than 30 years of experience in combating viruses and malware – and with Austrian roots! What was important to us at Citycom was “in addition to the high quality, the simple handling, the uncomplicated integration into our products and the short distances to support and development”, Günter Großschädl summarises the reasons for the decision at the time. Large partners in the IT security sector often have different, complicated approaches and processes. “With IKARUS I know that they tick in the same way, speak the same language and think as we do”, Günter Großschädl appreciates the cooperation and “if I need something, I can easily get through to the respective expert without having to be connected x times”.

The future belongs to software

The trend to realise everything in SW is still unbroken. We are talking about SW-based solutions in telephony as well as in the network area, which is developing strongly in the direction of SW due to SDN and NFV. But this is precisely where the danger lies – (almost) every SW contains errors and “unfortunately, the playground for attackers is getting bigger and bigger, the sooner security succeeds in protecting everything by default, the better“, Günter Großschädl wishes for future solutions. The question of a firewall for protection “at the front door” should no longer arise; the attacker should ideally be detected as close as possible to the source.