4-page Case Study - Posted 11/5/2007

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Del Monte Foods

Food Company Improves IT Security System View and Management Using New Solution

Del Monte Foods, based in San Francisco, California, sells popular, premium-quality branded food and pet products throughout the United States. The organization’s employees rely heavily on Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007 for messaging and collaboration. To better protect these environments, Del Monte deployed Microsoft Forefront™ Security for Exchange Server and Forefront Security for SharePoint. However, the company’s small IT department needed a solution that would help it better manage those products. In June 2007, Del Monte implemented Microsoft Forefront Server Security Management Console. The company’s administrators now have a better view of security and can more effectively manage the infrastructure. The solution also integrates with existing Del Monte software products and will help the company save time and improve protection.

Situation

Using Forefront Server Security Management Console, I can easily deploy updates, report on security, and schedule tasks. Those things used to be challenging because we have such a small staff.  Jonathan Wynn Manager of Advanced Technology and Collaborative Services Del Monte Foods

Messaging and collaboration technology is a major part of the company’s Windows®-based IT infrastructure. For example, many of the organization’s salaried employees use its Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 messaging system to send and receive e-mail messages. They also use Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007 to share presentations internally and with business partners. “These are both very heavily used environments,” says Jonathan Wynn, Manager of Advanced Technology and Collaborative Services, Del Monte Foods. “Close to 50 gigabytes of data is sent through the computer running Office SharePoint Server 2007 every day.”

Because of the critical nature of these business applications, security is highly important for Del Monte IT administrators. “It’s our responsibility to ensure that we have adequate antivirus protection,” Wynn says. For that reason, Del Monte recently deployed Microsoft Forefront™ Security for Exchange Server and Forefront Security for SharePoint. Forefront Security for Exchange Server integrates multiple scan engines to help protect Exchange Server messaging environments from viruses, worms, spam, and other threats. Forefront Security for SharePoint similarly integrates antivirus scan engines to help ensure that documents are protected before they are saved to or downloaded from SharePoint document libraries. Additionally, Del Monte recently implemented Microsoft System Center products, including Microsoft Operations Manager 2005, to manage the overall IT infrastructure.

Managing the new Forefront infrastructure, however, had proven to be challenging for Wynn. “Being proactive about security means being able to effectively manage the Forefront environment,” he says. “But we had been managing the products individually, so every time I needed to update something, I had to go to that particular server computer to make the change. It was not efficient at all.”

The size of the Del Monte IT department presented an additional challenge. “We have thousands of employees in multiple locations, but we only have five people here to manage our IT infrastructure,” says Wynn. “That means we’re all incredibly busy managing different aspects of that environment. So the prospect of managing this new Forefront environment is equally daunting.”

With the hope of easing that task, Del Monte decided to search for a new security management solution.

Solution

The Forefront Server Security Management Console Autodiscovery feature gives me better system coverage, so I don’t need to worry about training someone in Ecuador to manage Forefront Security for Exchange Server.  Jonathan Wynn Manager of Advanced Technology and Collaborative Services Del Monte Foods

Forefront Server Security Management Console is a Web-based console that IT administrators use to centralize configuration and operation of Forefront Security for Exchange Server and Forefront Security for SharePoint. The solution gives users the ability to automate the download and distribution of signature and scan engine updates, and also generate comprehensive security reports. In addition, Forefront Server Security Management Console helps administrators respond quickly to virus outbreaks by providing the ability to update protection across enterprise deployments.

Forefront Server Security Management Console also fully integrates with the Windows Server® 2003 operating system and Microsoft SQL Server™ 2005 database software, both of which are used by Del Monte. This integration helps ensure the reliability and performance of the company’s messaging and collaboration security.

Other features of Forefront Server Security Management Console include:

• Autodiscovery. This feature helps administrators automatically discover server computers that are running Exchange Server and helps make sure those computers are properly configured.
• Exchange Server 2007 continuous cluster replication (CCR). The solution supports new Exchange Server 2007 CCR clusters, which provide high availability for Exchange Server 2007 mailbox server computers.
• Redundancy. The solution provides the ability to monitor system health and offload critical functions like signature updates and security setting propagation to a secondary server computer running Forefront Server Security Management Console.

Shortly after learning about Forefront Server Security Management Console, Del Monte decided to implement the solution to manage its Forefront Security for Exchange Server and Forefront Security for SharePoint products. “We never even considered any other product,” says Wynn. “We wanted to install it immediately.”

Benefits

With Forefront Server Security Management Console, Del Monte IT administrators now have a better view of the company’s IT security and can more effectively manage the security infrastructure. This new solution also integrates fully with the existing Del Monte infrastructure and will help IT administrators save time while improving protection overall.

Figure 1 – Screenshot of the Forefront Server Security Management Console

Better View of IT Environment

Forefront Server Security Management Console gives Del Monte IT managers a complete centralized overview of the Forefront Security for Exchange Server and Forefront Security for SharePoint environment. “With Forefront Server Security Management Console, I can see what’s happening in all environments from a security trend and general health perspective,” says Wynn. “We now have a much clearer picture of system security at Del Monte.”

Wynn says that Del Monte is taking advantage of the solution’s Autodiscovery feature. “I actually found out that I had a computer running Exchange Server in Ecuador that we weren’t managing,” he says. “The Forefront Server Security Management Console Autodiscovery feature gives me better system coverage, so I don’t need to worry about training someone in Ecuador to manage Forefront Security for Exchange Server.”

More Effective Information Management

Del Monte now has simplified information management capabilities with its new solution, such as automated downloading and distribution of signatures and reports. “This means that I don’t have to spend so much effort getting virus updates,” says Wynn. “I can do that automatically through the console. It’s a much easier process.”

With that capability, Wynn says, Del Monte can now manage security more effectively than it could before. “Using Forefront Server Security Management Console, I can easily deploy updates, report on security, and schedule tasks,” he says. “Those things used to be challenging because we have such a small staff and we have to manage a global IT security environment. It’s very simple now.”

Full Integration

The new security management solution also integrates fully with the existing Del Monte IT infrastructure. For instance, the console uses SQL Server 2005 for reporting data, which helps provide Del Monte with more reliable data management. “This solution really fits in well with everything else we’re already using, including System Center,” says Wynn. “That integration makes the solution easy to use for our IT managers, who are already very familiar with managing our environment.”

Because of this integration, Del Monte IT administrators have an even better picture of network security. “We now have combined analysis capabilities across the entire IT environment,” says Wynn. “I can see security trends and activities occurring in all of our solutions together.”

Fortunately, we have not had any virus outbreaks here. But if an outbreak did occur, I have a much better way to handle it because of Forefront Server Security Management Console.  Jonathan Wynn Manager of Advanced Technology and Collaborative Services Del Monte Foods

Timesavings

Because they have a better view of the company’s IT security environment and can manage it more effectively, Del Monte administrators can save time previously spent on security management. “An IT employee who’s managing Exchange Server 2003 doesn’t have to also worry about managing the Forefront Security for Exchange Server environment,” says Wynn. “I can manage that through Forefront Server Security Management Console, and that person can concentrate on other important tasks. This solution gives us a complete set of security technologies that definitely helps us save valuable IT management time.”

For example, Del Monte recently launched an electronic discovery initiative for compliance purposes, meaning that the company has to archive all of its e-mail messages. “That initiative requires a lot of time and energy because we have a new e-mail archiving solution to manage now,” says Wynn. “Now, our IT employees can spend more time working on that.”

Improved Protection

With Forefront Server Security Management Console, Del Monte has also improved overall protection because the solution gives administrators the ability to manage, monitor, and automatically update its systems. “Our Exchange Server and Office SharePoint Server 2007 environments are more reliable as a result,” says Wynn. “We rely heavily on these environments for business transactions and workflows, and we need the assurance of 100 percent uptime. We have that now.”

The solution also gives Del Monte outbreak response features that provide IT managers with warnings when server computers running Exchange Server and Office SharePoint Server 2007 are under attack. Using these features, administrators can respond quickly to new threats by creating and sending out file or content filters. “Fortunately, we have not had any virus outbreaks here,” says Wynn. “But if an outbreak did occur, I have a much better way to handle it because of Forefront Server Security Management Console.”

Wynn adds that because Del Monte purchased its Forefront Security products as part of the Microsoft Enterprise Client Access Licensing (ECAL) Suite, the company has a complete line of security products that can be managed using Forefront Server Security Management Console. “The ECAL was the right fit for our three-year security management roadmap,” says Wynn. “With ECAL, we were able to implement the right Microsoft technology, and then add the right security products to supplement that technology, without having to purchase another security product. The ECAL Suite gave us the value we were looking for in terms of our overall security plans.”

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 Del Monte Foods products and services, visit the Web site at:
www.DelMonte.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

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

Document published October 2007