4-page Case Study - Posted 4/26/2007

Views: 766

Rate This Evidence:

PhillipCapital

Easy-to-Manage Security Helps Financial Firm Streamline IT, Save Time and Labor

PhillipCapital provides comprehensive financial services to individuals, and corporate and institutional investors. In 2006, PhillipCapital was protecting its IT systems with security products from multiple vendors. Managing these products became difficult because they did not integrate easily with one another or with the company’s Windows®-based environment. To address this issue, PhillipCapital worked with Microsoft® Services to implement a new solution including Microsoft Forefront™ Client Security. After a successful pilot, the company deployed the solution more widely and will soon roll it out to its headquarters. The solution integrates easily into the IT environment, simplifying IT administration and saving time. The rich reporting it offers also provides high visibility into the IT systems, helping IT managers to identify and resolve security issues faster.

Situation

My advice to any company seeking a new security solution is to try out Forefront Client Security. The benefits of integration and rich reporting alone make it an ideal choice.  Thomas Thiew IT Manager PhillipCapital

Specific services include fund management, unit trusts, hedge funds, insurance planning, mortgage loans, and investment research, as well as brokering in bonds, futures, foreign exchanges, precious metals, and commodities. Institutions also benefit from the company’s corporate finance and advisory services and its information technology solutions.

As a financial services company, PhillipCapital believes it must maintain especially tight IT security. “Security is a high priority. It’s critical that we protect employees from viruses and other security threats,” explains Thomas Thiew IT Manager at PhillipCapital. “In high-stakes finance, we have to keep employees’ computers up and running. Any downtime can be costly.”

In 2006, PhillipCapital was using security products from multiple vendors. Although the firm’s systems were well-protected, managing the security products became difficult because they did not integrate easily with one another or with the overall IT environment, which is standardized on the Windows Server® 2003 Enterprise Edition and Windows® XP operating systems. For this reason, PhillipCapital was seeking a solution that would reduce the time and effort required for IT administration while still meeting the company’s high security standards.

Solution

In December 2006, PhillipCapital began researching Microsoft Forefront™—a family of software that helps protect and control the security of an organization’s entire network infrastructure. The company was particularly interested in Microsoft Forefront Client Security, which guards individual computers and server operating systems against a variety of threats, such as spyware, viruses, worms, and Trojan horses.

In February 2007, PhillipCapital worked with Microsoft Services—the consulting, technical support, and customer service arm of Microsoft Corporation—to begin a pilot deployment of a beta version of Forefront Client Security. The pilot included about 20 users in the company’s Singapore office.

Specifically, the companies designed a solution in which Forefront Client Security would work with Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 to provide strong client-security protection and efficient IT management. ISA Server 2004 is a stateful packet and application-layer firewall and Web cache solution that helps improve network security and performance. 

During the pilot project, PhillipCapital was impressed by the software’s centralized management and extensive reporting functionality. The IT department also appreciated the easy integration of Forefront with the Active Directory® service and Group Policy and with other Microsoft infrastructure software. “Microsoft Services helped us develop installation scripts that automated both uninstalling our previous solution and installing Forefront Client Security,” says Thiew.

As a result of the pilot project’s success, in March the company deployed Forefront Client Security more widely—to a total of 150 users—with no interruption of critical business operations. “The transition to Forefront Client Security has been completely transparent to our users,” adds Thiew. Soon PhillipCapital will deploy the solution to an additional 150 users, bringing the total to 300. Later this year, the company plans to roll out Forefront Client Security enterprisewide.

Benefits

Although deployment is still underway, PhillipCapital has already realized benefits from its new security solution. Forefront Client Security integrates seamlessly with the company’s IT infrastructure, which simplifies IT management by supporting easier deployments and updates, and providing relevant security reports. As a result, the company saves both time and money and is well prepared to add security enhancements in the future.

Forefront Client Security works seamlessly with our core infrastructure components. As a result, we have reduced the cost of administering our security infrastructure by 60 percent.  Thomas Thiew IT Manager PhillipCapital

Easy Integration, Simplified IT Management

“Our IT environment is based primarily on Microsoft software, and Forefront Client Security works seamlessly with our core infrastructure components,” says Thiew. “As a result, we have reduced the cost of administering our security infrastructure by 60 percent.”

For example, Forefront Client Security is optimized to work with Active Directory Group Policy for configuring security agents and to work with Windows Server Update Services for distributing malware signatures. “Managing Forefront Client Security through group policies is a simple and effective process,” adds Ken Ong, Systems Engineer at PhillipCapital. “We can also roll out security updates through Windows Server Update Services, which means we’re using one tool instead of several to update our operating system and other core Microsoft software and to handle patch management.

“Plus, if we ever need support, Microsoft works with us to resolve issues quickly. We get far better support now than we did with our previous vendors.”

Rich Reporting, High Visibility into IT Systems

With Forefront Client Security reports, PhillipCapital can gather security and status information about its IT environment in real time. Ongoing scans help determine which managed computers need security updates or are not configured in accordance with IT policies. And security alerts notify IT administrators when threats appear in the environment. “We’re very pleased with the rich reporting features that Forefront Client Security offers, especially for deployments and updates,” says Thiew. “The greater visibility that we now have into our systems means we can identify security problems faster, and prevent many problems entirely.

“My advice to any company seeking a new security solution is to try out Forefront Client Security,” adds Thiew. “The benefits of integration and rich reporting alone make it an ideal choice.”

Efficient Use of Time and Labor, Expected Lower Costs

The combination of easy integration, rich reporting, and simplified IT management makes it possible for IT staff to spend less time on routine security tasks and more time working on higher-priority projects. “We believe that over time, the more efficient use of IT resources that Forefront Client Security provides will translate into a lower total cost of ownership,” says Thiew.

Solid Foundation for Future Enhancements

When Forefront Client Security is fully deployed, PhillipCapital will have a solid security foundation on which to add other Forefront components that will help further protect and more easily manage critical IT systems. PhillipCapital currently uses the 9.0 versions of Microsoft Antigen for Exchange, Antigen for SMTP Gateways, and Antigen Spam Manager, which are part of the Forefront family of security products. They help protect the company’s e-mail infrastructure, which is based on Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. In the near future, PhillipCapital plans to evaluate Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server. It is the latest version of these Antigen products and provides antivirus and antispam protection for Exchange Server 2007 environments. Forefront Security for Exchange Server will help guard the company’s e-mail infrastructure against infection and downtime through an approach that emphasizes layered defenses.

“The most important thing to us is that our security solution demonstrates superior performance. And Forefront Client Security does that,” concludes Thiew. “At first, I was skeptical, but after trying it, I think Forefront Client Security is the best solution on the market for our needs.”

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com

For more information about PhillipCapital products and services, call (65) 6533 6001 (Singapore) or visit the Web site at:
www.phillip.com.sg

Microsoft Forefront Product Portfolio

The Microsoft® Forefront™ comprehensive line of business security products provides greater protection and control through integration with your existing IT infrastructure and through simplified deployment, management, and analysis. Forefront is a comprehensive solution that helps provide protection for the client operating system, application servers, and the network edge.

For more information about the Forefront product portfolio, go to:
www.microsoft.com/forefront

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published April 2007