FaceTime Communications, today announced a new partnership with Skype to deliver end-to-end security, management and control of Skype within a corporate network.

FaceTime’s managed Skype solution provides IT and network administrators with the ability to manage the use of Skype on their network with granular controls to choose which elements of Skype software its employees can use. For example, a company may allow voice services but not file sharing or supernode capabilities.

This follows on from the launch of Skype 3.0 for Windows – Business version, which we released in December 06. The business version of Skype comes with MSI installer making it easy to deploy in a corporate network. The Facetime solution now makes it easier to control the features of Skype which effect it’s behavior within your network.

Using the Skype IT Management Framework, FaceTime offers new IT-oriented controls to manage Skype in an enterprise environment, as part of FaceTime Internet Security Edition. Centralized policies can easily be set and controlled at the systems administration level and applied transparently to each employee’s desktop so that his or her Skype experience adheres to IT policy. For example, IT managers can choose to allow or disallow various Skype elements for the entire company, for groups or departments, or on an individual basis, including file transfer, voice calling, video calling, voicemail and voice recording.

In addition, proxy settings and listen port settings can be calibrated and turned on or off for users. Administrators can also prevent users from broadcasting their presence online. Web presence settings can also be enabled or disabled, to prevent users from exposing their availability to potentially malicious users. IT can set parameters to deny users from becoming supernodes or relay nodes, and a real-time bandwidth usage indicator provides a constant measure for IT to determine Skype’s impact on network traffic.

For more information on using Skype in a corporate network, see our Business Security Section and download the Network Administrators Guide