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The Vatican

Today the heirs of Saint Peter, traditionally known as the "fishers of men," are using the World Wide Web to cast a net that reaches around the world. The mission of the Internet Office of the Holy See is to provide global Internet information and services to the Church, the diverse offices and institutes of the Holy See, and the sovereign state of the Vatican. With a global audience of over 1 billion Catholics alone, not to mention the multitude of other interested browsers, the Vatican Web site receives over 18 million hits a month and is expected to increase as the new millennium approaches.

High traffic and sensitive information make security the utmost concern of the Internet Office of the Holy See. The security architecture provided by Compaq entails the high-powered, hacker-proof configurations of Compaq Tru64 UNIX servers, running Alta Vista High Availability Firewall software, that provide the superior security, availability, performance, and scalability required to serve huge volumes of users and to support ever-larger repositories of data. "Security was our first criterion in choosing our partner," says Stephano Pasquini, Information Technology Planner of the Internet Office of the Holy See. "Alta Vista Firewall and Alta Vista Tunnel guarantee the ultra- high levels of confidentiality, data integrity, and privacy that are required in our environments."

Besides security, availability is another important concern of the Internet Office of the Holy See. Using Alta Vista Search technology from Compaq, visitors can search a vast and growing repository of documents in six languages as well as view Real Video or Real Audio clips of the Holy Father's travels and speeches. "Our second critical factor was availability," continues Pasquini. "We can count on continuity of service through the use of TruCluster systems. By combining 64-bit Alpha RISC technology, Compaq Tru64 UNIX and the Alta Vista Search engine, our configuration can handle millions of hits and real-time searches."

In collaboration with the staff of the Internet Office, Compaq Services consultants designed the robust and secure Vatican Internet and networking architecture, including the intranet, extranet, and Web site servers. The Compaq Services solution includes a comprehensive plan for consulting, development, support, and maintenance services to meet the needs of the Internet Office through 2000, as the Vatican prepares for its Jubilee celebration of the millennium.

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