Case Studies - Large Enterprise
Profile
A large financial investment firm with headquarters and five satellite offices throughout Canada, plus 50 investment consultants with home offices in various locations, wants to add a new branch office to their existing network.
Challenge
Acquisition integration—delivering applications to new sites in a cost effective and rapid manner without disrupting current services to existing customers.
The Citrix® platform has been the traditional method for serving up centrally managed business applications to remote offices, which is very costly—both in terms of direct capital and the time required to install and configure the equipment:
- The direct outlay for the equipment, licenses, and VPN connectivity approaches up to $600 per user in direct costs.
- There is estimated to be another $300 – 400 per year in support costs associated with maintenance and helpdesk calls.
- Amortized over three years this comes to $19/user month over a three-year-period, and the hardware may possibly be obsolete in a couple of years.
In addition to the direct costs associated with the hardware, there are opportunity costs that arise out of the time it takes to fully integrate a new branch office or recently acquired company into the corporate IT structure. Ordering, configuring, and installing hardware can take several weeks to coordinate.
WorldExtend Solution
Installing the WorldExtend IronDoor™ agent in the company’s data center allows the company to serve applications to multiple sites within minutes of establishing a user profile and notifying WorldExtend. As the company incorporates a new branch office, all applications and data can be immediately accessed by the new office the moment the user profile is added to their LDAP database.
There is no need to install additional client software or waste precious time and money with extensive setup. The IronDoor agent offers new options for application deployment and more efficient access to data over low bandwidth. Centralized application management/access, virus protection, upgrades, Internet filtering, new software deployment, automatic backups, and secure communication are all accomplished at one place/one time.
Result
Integrating the new branch into the IT infrastructure of the company is a significantly faster, more steamlined process— translating into lower costs, more productivity, and higher profits. The new branch can be up and running almost instantly, without the hassle, cost, or additional complexity of adding new hardware to the network.
New users have instant access to necessary applications, essential customer/industry data, and get access only to the applications and information they require—thus providing further security in an industry that handles extremely confidential material.
Profitability is enhanced by getting the new branch and users up and running with little or no disruption to staff, financial, or IT resources at other company locations.
Migration—IPsec to SSL
Profile
A large multinational insurance company with headquarters on the west coast of North America and offices in Europe with over 12,000 remote users utilizing an IPsec VPN.
Challenge
The company dramatically underestimated the ongoing costs of the help-desk support and the effectiveness of IPsec system management. As a result, the organization is evaluating new methods for driving down system maintenance and support costs, while ensuring that employees and departments continue to benefit from remote access to the company’s network resources.
An SSL VPN supported appliance was an alternative to explore. This solution minimized the need for client-based software and is less expensive than an IPsec solution. However, this solution still involves adding complexity into the network in the form of additional hardware and costs associated with installing, maintaining, and managing the hardware.
WorldExtend™ Solution
With WorldExtend IronDoor™ the company was able to allow secured connections to network resources encrypted with 128 or 256 bit AES encryption.
IronDoor provided the ability to establish a secure channel between the data center and any remote user throughout the globe. Through a fully encrypted connection, it authenticates the remote user and allows access to their permitted network resources. Thus, the sensitive information associated with insurance communications is handled with the highest level of security and is exchanged in the most expedient method available.
Result
The IronDoor VPN solution is rapidly deployable and works well alongside the existing VPN solution. This allows the company to upgrade without disruption to current services, thus ensuring a smooth transition and a clear path to decreasing support costs associated with a VPN.
User access to applications and secure data is easily controlled as a result of the tight integration with Microsoft® Active Directory®. Users are added and deleted by simply modifying profiles within Active Directory®.
Overall, productivity is improved through quicker and more efficient methods of handling information; costs are decreased through centralized low maintenance management of the system; and security is maintained and improved through reliable authentication processes and application level access.
