4-page Case Study - Posted 4/30/2007

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Analog Devices

Analog Devices Benefits from Integrated PC Security and Management Solution

Integrated circuit manufacturer Analog Devices was using a well-known PC antivirus product that had a number of problems: limited malware detection, unreliable virus engine updates, inadequate reporting capabilities, and proprietary management tools. To address those issues, the company has deployed an integrated desktop security solution based on Microsoft® software, including the Microsoft Forefront™ line of business security products and the Microsoft System Center family of IT management solutions. The resulting improved security is helping increase productivity for  users, while new reporting capabilities and a simpler, more integrated infrastructure are providing similar benefits for the company’s IT staff.

Situation

We’re using Forefront and System Center together because of the way they integrate with each other and with the rest of our IT infrastructure.  Kevin Hayden Manager of Desktop Engineering Analog Devices

Analog Devices employs approximately 9,000 people, 6,000 of whom use PCs that run the Windows® XP Professional operating system. More than half of those PCs are laptops that are often used outside the company’s corporate network, where they are exposed directly to Internet-based threats. Moreover, Analog Devices does not lock down user PCs, instead leaving employees free to install any software needed to do their jobs.

In the past, the company faced several challenges related to the security of those PCs, which used a well-known PC antivirus product. Specific issues related to the functionality and management of that product included:

• Limited malware detection. Although the product scanned for viruses, it did not detect many other types of malware, such as spyware or adware. Instead, each PC technician had his or her own favorite personal software utilities for such tasks—usually carried around on a CD and used only when a PC exhibited symptoms of infection.
• Complicated virus engine updates. The antivirus agent (scan engine) updates were sometimes incompatible with other standard software. As a result, the company had to treat them like it would treat an upgrade to any other desktop program, testing them for two to four weeks before a staggered deployment over another two to four weeks.
• Additional infrastructure and management tools. The deployment of new virus signatures required Analog Devices to set up and maintain 12 separate distribution sites. New signatures had to be replicated to each location and, because the sites would sometimes fail, they all had to be regularly monitored. Furthermore, virus signatures and configuration options were managed using a proprietary, stand-alone tool.
• Inadequate reporting. The reports provided by the proprietary tool were of limited use, with administrators having to run and examine several different reports each day to get a complete picture of the overall health of the company’s PC antivirus environment.

In addition to maintaining strong desktop security without excessive IT effort, Analog Devices requires a similar level of efficiency for the overall management and support of its PCs. The company maintains a lean IT staff, with a centralized, three-person desktop engineering group handling security and systems management for some 6,000 PCs in 70 locations worldwide.

“With several thousand PCs across the globe, it’s very hard to manage and support those systems without some type of centralized management solution,” says Kevin Hayden, Manager of Desktop Engineering at Analog Devices. “We need a highly integrated desktop management environment with very few moving parts in order to provide the levels of service and security that employees require.”

Solution

To meet these challenges, Analog Devices migrated to an integrated desktop security solution based on the Microsoft® Forefront™ line of business security products, which the company deployed using capabilities provided by the Microsoft System Center family of IT management solutions. The solution includes the following components:

• Microsoft Forefront Client Security. This is the product that Analog Devices chose to replace its previous antivirus solution. It helps protect PCs from viruses as well as worms, spyware, and other types of malware. Forefront Client Security also performs a security state assessment that detects and reports on deviations from security-related best practices, such as PCs that have too many local administrator accounts or passwords that are not set to expire.
• Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003. A System Center product that the company was already using to deploy 120–130 other desktop applications, it is now used to deploy Forefront Client Security as well. The company is also using Systems Management Server 2003 for remote help-desk support, PC health monitoring, and software inventory management.

In addition to using Systems Management Server for the deployment of Forefront Client Security, Analog Devices is taking advantage of other Microsoft technologies within its IT infrastructure to simplify security management. The company is using the Active Directory® service and Group Policy in the Windows Server® 2003 operating system to configure Forefront Client Security, and is using Windows Server Update Services to deploy new virus signature files. Scan engine updates are handled by Windows Server Update Services in the same manner as virus signature updates, eliminating the need to manage those engine updates separately.

“We’re using Forefront and System Center  together because of the way they integrate with each other and with the rest of our IT infrastructure,” says Hayden. “When used together on top of the core IT infrastructure we already have in place, Forefront Client Security and Systems Management Server give us an IT environment that is not only more secure, but also far less complex and more highly integrated—and thus much easier to manage.”

As of mid-April 2007, Analog Devices had deployed Forefront Client Security to about 3,000 PCs, with plans to migrate the other 3,000 PCs along with 500 servers by the end of June 2007. The company is using Systems Management Server to automate the deployment process, typically adding one or two new sites at a time, and to designate the target PCs.

“The deployment process has been extremely smooth, and it has been transparent to  users,” says Susan Blandy, Manager of Desktop Computing Services at Analog Devices. “They’re totally unaware that we’ve pulled out one antivirus program and installed another one.”

Benefits

By using Forefront and System Center products together, Analog Devices is benefiting from a more secure, reliable, and easily managed desktop security infrastructure. Thanks to this integrated solution, Analog Devices is not only improving user productivity by better protecting its thousands of PCs, but also increasing IT productivity by simplifying its IT infrastructure and desktop security management processes.

Forefront Client Security gives us comprehensive, integrated security. In one product, we get antivirus, antispyware, and a vulnerability assessment, and it’s very easy to look in one report and see the status across all of those areas.  Susan Blandy Manager of Desktop Computing Services Analog Devices

Improved Security

With Forefront Client Security, Analog Devices is helping protect user PCs against all forms of Internet-based threats—not just viruses. In addition, the security state assessment feature of Forefront Client Security gives Hayden and his team valuable information about potential vulnerabilities that may otherwise have gone undetected. These include passwords not set to expire, PCs missing software updates, unnecessary Windows services running, incorrect auto-update settings, and PCs with too many local administrators.

If a virus does strike, Forefront Client Security helps Hayden and his team respond more quickly, thereby minimizing the potential damage. The improved reporting provided by the product reduces the time it takes to detect a problem and understand what is happening. And if new virus signatures need to be deployed, the team can complete that task more quickly thanks to the integration of Forefront Client Security with Windows Server Update Services.

“Forefront Client Security gives us comprehensive, integrated security,” says Blandy. “In one product, we get antivirus, antispyware, and a vulnerability assessment, and it’s very easy to look in one report and see the status across all of those areas. I’m confident that Forefront is protecting us against a wide range of malware and vulnerabilities.”

Simplified Security Management

The strong integration between the new solution and the rest of the company’s IT infrastructure is helping Analog Devices to simplify both its security-related IT infrastructure and the associated management processes. Some ways in which the solution is doing this include the following:

• The distribution of new virus signatures using Windows Server Update Services will make it possible for Analog Devices to eliminate the 12 distribution points required for its old product and rely instead on the two existing Update Services servers on its corporate network. It will also simplify the process of distributing such updates from three steps to two and eliminate the need to monitor the existing signature distribution points for failures.
• The integration of Forefront Client Security and Systems Management Server with Active Directory will eliminate the need for the dedicated, proprietary tool that is used to manage the company’s desktop antivirus solution. Instead, Analog Devices can use Active Directory organizational units and Group Policy for managing Forefront Client Security from its initial deployment to its day-to-day administration. This will give the company a single point of administration for PC management.
• With Forefront Client Security, only one report is needed to monitor the status of desktop security on a daily basis. Furthermore, that report is interactive, helping system administrators to quickly ascertain the status across all PCs and just as easily drill down into the details on one PC.

“Forefront Client Security reporting is very easy to use, and we’re getting great data out of the system,” says Blandy. “I get a daily e-mail message that provides a concise, one-page report on our client security situation. If I want to, I can drill down to get more details on the malware threat or the specific PC that’s been infected or is vulnerable. Forefront Client Security reports give me very concise visibility into the state of the security of our desktop systems.”

Comprehensive Desktop Management and Support

The company’s use of Systems Management Server is simplifying IT management in several ways besides the initial distribution of Forefront Client Security. One way it simplifies management is by providing a similar level of control and automation for the distribution of more than 120 software programs to user desktops. With Systems Management Server, technicians no longer must visit a user’s desktop to install new software, nor do users need to install new applications from a file share or through other methods. Instead, a user simply requests the desired application, and Systems Management Server automatically installs the application on his or her PC.

“Systems Management Server is a core, integrated component of our IT infrastructure—Analog has long since realized the IT and employee benefits of centralized software distribution and of standard automated software installs,” says Hayden. “The ability to use Systems Management Server as a deployment mechanism for Forefront Client Security was huge, because that’s what we’re most comfortable with, as we’ve used the product for about eight years now. We understand it, we know exactly how to deploy software with it, and we’re very good at it. Systems Management Server makes the software deployment process more controllable in that we can easily use Active Directory groups to specify who gets new software and when, and it gives us custom reports on the status of those deployments. Systems Management Server has significantly reduced the IT effort required for software distribution.”

Analog Devices is also taking advantage of Systems Management Server to simplify help-desk operations, which it does through the integration of remote support capabilities into the company’s PC environment. With Systems Management Server, help-desk technicians can take over a user’s desktop and solve most problems remotely—in less time than talking the user through troubleshooting the problem over the phone.

Finally, the company is using Systems Management Server to capture and report on desktop software inventory. Systems Management Server captures information on the configuration of user PCs and writes that inventory data to a Microsoft SQL Server™ database, from which IT users can access a variety of predefined reports using a Web-based interface.

Increased End-User and IT Productivity

The company’s move to an integrated desktop security solution from Microsoft has resulted in increased productivity, both for  users as well as the company’s IT staff.  Users are more productive because now they are protected from viruses as well as other forms of malware, reducing the chance of such problems cutting into their productivity. “With Forefront Client Security, we’ve found several types of malware that may have otherwise gone undetected, and our ability to proactively detect such threats has increased,” says Hayden. “By identifying and eliminating all types of malware, Forefront Client Security helps us protect users’ productivity as well as their data.”

IT administrators will become more productive when Forefront Client Security is fully deployed. Then they can take advantage of its new capabilities and eliminate the added complexity associated with the previous desktop antivirus solution. For example, now that the administrators need to run and review only one report to check on the daily status, the time spent on that task has been reduced from an hour per day to just 10 minutes.

“We needed a desktop security solution with fewer moving parts—one that was less complex and easier to manage—and Forefront and System Center gave us just that,” says Hayden. “The new solution will increase IT productivity in many ways, including a reduction in the number of malware incidents and the time it takes to respond to those issues. We’ll also decrease the time spent on proactive tasks, such as reporting and distributing new signature files. Forefront and System Center have reduced our workload, leaving more time to focus on other tasks.”

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:
http://www.microsoft.com/

For more information about Analog Devices call, visit the Web site at:
http://www.analogdevices.com/ 

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

Microsoft System Center

Microsoft® System Center is a family of leading IT management solutions that helps you proactively plan, deploy, manage and optimize your IT environment. System Center solutions capture and aggregate knowledge about your infrastructure, policies, processes, and best practices so your IT staff can build manageable systems and automate operations in order to reduce costs, improve application availability and enhance service delivery.

For more information about the System Center family of solutions, go to:
www.microsoft.com/systemcenter

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

Document published May 2007