Cable&Wireless

Comprehensive Security Solution Provides Telecommunications Firm Stronger Protection

Cable&Wireless, a global provider of telecommunications and IT services, wanted to enhance the security of its IT infrastructure and managed hosting services. Because the company delivers solutions over its networks and servers, its choice of security products affects customer service. Cable&Wireless implemented Microsoft® Forefront™ Security for SharePoint® to help protect its Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 collaboration environment and its hosted services. Through its multiple antivirus scanning engines, it delivers comprehensive protection, and its centralized management tools simplify administration. In addition, the upcoming deployment of Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2006 will provide more secure remote access to its networks. By deploying Forefront products, Cable&Wireless can improve operational performance.

Situation

By using the Forefront product line, we are improving security for customer-facing services across a variety of Microsoft solutions—it has become an underpinning part of our product offerings.  Tim Appleyard Product Manager Cable&Wireless

Based in London, England, Cable&Wireless delivers telecommunications services and IT solutions to customers in more than 150 countries. The company operates two separate business divisions. The International business unit provides mobile, broadband, domestic, and international fixed-line services to residential and business customers. The company’s Europe, Asia & US business unit delivers IT solutions that include IP and data services, voice-mail and e-mail systems, managed hosting services, and unified communications solutions. Cable&Wireless has more than 5,343 employees worldwide.

Cable&Wireless, a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner, hosts and manages services such as IP networks and messaging systems; it also implements managed security solutions. Cable&Wireless and its customers want to improve their IT and communications infrastructures, but they both also want to know that critical applications and data—such as their messaging systems, intranet sites, and collaboration tools—have comprehensive protection. Security is particularly important to customers in fields such as law enforcement and financial services.

Because Cable&Wireless delivers solutions over its own servers and communications networks, its choice of security products affects the quality of its customer service. So while the company tests the features of new business software such as Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007, it also determines the best strategies for protecting the application and the data with which it comes in contact, including confidential documents, files, and collaboration tools. After Cable&Wireless implements such security solutions throughout its own IT infrastructure, “We test the technical merits of a customer-facing service, as well as our ability to integrate it with our hosting environments,” says Tim Appleyard, Product Manager at Cable&Wireless. “Security in this context is paramount, and for our customers, it’s an expectation. Strong security is part of the way we seek to differentiate our products and services.”

For enhanced customer service and to protect its own IT environment, Cable&Wireless looks for security products that tightly integrate with its communications and collaboration solutions. It also seeks products with tools that automate tasks and make service delivery easier.

Solution

In late 2006, Cable&Wireless migrated from Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 to Exchange Server 2007. The company also implemented Microsoft Forefront™ Security for Exchange Server to increase protection against viruses, spam, and other threats. Forefront Security for Exchange Server counters threats with multiple scan engines that help stop attacks before they affect the Exchange Server infrastructure and user mailboxes. The software is centrally managed and integrates with the existing Cable&Wireless Active Directory® service and Group Policy.

Cable&Wireless was satisfied with the Forefront solution’s level of protection and integration with Exchange Server and its other Microsoft products such as the Windows Server® 2003 Enterprise Edition operating system. The company thus decided to become an early adopter of Forefront Security for SharePoint in early 2007. “We have no reason to use anything else,” says Justin Barker, Messaging Specialist, Cable&Wireless. “We’re fully capable with Forefront Security for Exchange Server and its predecessors. When Forefront Security for SharePoint was announced, it was the natural choice for the first thing to test.”

It is reassuring because .... [w]ith multiple antivirus engines you can be pretty confident that at least one of them will have the latest virus definition.  Justin Barker Messaging Specialist Cable&Wireless

The company was testing Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 as a collaboration solution for its customers and wanted to offer advanced protection for that product as well. Forefront Security for SharePoint protects Microsoft Office SharePoint 2007 and Windows® SharePoint Services 3.0 by scanning documents for malicious threats, such as harmful code and inappropriate content, before they are saved to or retrieved from document libraries. Forefront Security for SharePoint includes and manages multiple antivirus scanning engines that can be easily monitored through reporting, notifications, and alerts.

Forefront Security for SharePoint has integrated smoothly with the Cable&Wireless technology environment. In April 2007, the security solution was installed with Office SharePoint Server 2007 on a server computer running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, and deployment took less than a day to complete. “It was really easy to deploy, and we haven’t had a single issue since,” says Barker.

According to Cable&Wireless, Forefront Security for SharePoint is also easy to administer and manage. Virus signatures update automatically and Cable&Wireless has set them to download hourly on a rolling basis. Cable&Wireless manages configuration changes by using the built-in management console, which administrators can use either locally or remotely. The security solution also integrates easily with Office SharePoint Server 2007.

As Cable&Wireless continues to implement new communications and collaboration solutions for its own IT infrastructure and for its customers’ infrastructure, it also continues to look for ways to strengthen security. To increase protection for mobile users in its Exchange Server 2007 environment, the company will implement Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2006. ISA Server 2006, also part of the Forefront line of business security products, is an integrated network edge security and access gateway that Cable&Wireless will use to help prevent Web-based attacks on its messaging systems.

In particular, the solution will enhance protection for Microsoft Office Outlook® Web Access and Office Mobile users. The tight integration of ISA Server 2006 with Exchange Server and Active Directory will help Cable&Wireless provide its employees fast, simple, and more secure remote access to its network. When fully deployed, ISA Server 2006 single sign-on capability will deliver more secure remote access to more than 4,000 employees, suppliers, and vendors.

Benefits

By using Forefront Security for SharePoint, Cable&Wireless lowers the risk of exposure to emerging threats through Office SharePoint Server 2007. Certification by a third-party organization provides more confidence by validating that Forefront Security for SharePoint meets industry-required standards of protection. In addition to deploying Forefront Security for Exchange Server and Forefront Security for SharePoint, Cable&Wireless plans to deploy ISA Server 2006 by the end of 2007. By deploying multiple Forefront products, the company will simplify management, deliver comprehensive protection, and improve productivity. Since deploying the first Forefront product, Microsoft Forefront™ Security for Exchange Server, and now with Forefront Security for SharePoint, the company continues to benefit from reduced overhead and costs.

ICSA Enterprise Content Management certification demonstrates endorsement from an industry-standard point of view—it’s very similar to the way we ourselves select and evaluate products.  Tim Appleyard Product Manager Cable&Wireless

Comprehensive Protection, Enhanced Security

Cable&Wireless protects its Office SharePoint Server 2007 collaboration environment more securely with multiple scan engines and content controls that eliminate documents with undesirable elements such as malicious code, confidential information, or inappropriate content. In addition, Forefront Security for SharePoint automatically downloads and updates the latest virus signatures for each scan engine, which lowers the possibility for exposure to emerging threats.

The company takes advantage of this comprehensive protection by configuring Forefront Security for SharePoint to download signatures hourly on a rotating schedule. “There is only 15 minutes before one of the scan engines gets an update, so we have a permanent cycle of update protection,” Barker says.

He adds that when Cable&Wireless deploys Office SharePoint Server 2007 as a hosted service, Forefront Security for SharePoint will help build customer confidence in its collaboration solution. “It is reassuring because it’s more unlikely anything will get past. With multiple antivirus engines, you can be pretty confident that at least one of them will have the latest virus definition.”

In addition, with the planned deployment of ISA Server 2006, Cable&Wireless will be able to take advantage of features that support secure employee remote access to published Web applications, e-mail, and other resources. ISA Server 2006 not only provides smart card authentication at logon, it also automatically authenticates user access to SharePoint files and other resources. With ISA Server 2006, Cable&Wireless can more effectively provide simple, secure remote access while reducing overall IT management overhead associated with administering the remote access infrastructure.

Third-Party Validated Protection

Industry recognition of Forefront Security for SharePoint reflects well on the company’s ability to deliver highly secure solutions. Forefront Security for SharePoint is the first security product to receive the new Enterprise Content Management (ECM) certification from ICSA Labs. ICSA Labs, formerly known as the International Computer Security Association, certifies and sets standards for information security products worldwide. ECM certification requires the antivirus solution to detect viruses on demand and on access, report no false positives, perform administration functions, and log all the results of virus detections. The certification provides a benchmark for virus detection capability in products that are designed to protect portal, collaboration, and content management servers.

ECM certification indicates that Forefront Security for SharePoint can help protect the contents of Office SharePoint Server 2007 from exploitation by self-replicating infection. The certification will help Cable&Wireless promote Office SharePoint Server 2007 together with Forefront Security for SharePoint in its managed services product line to its managed security solution customers. Appleyard says, “ECM certification demonstrates validation from an industry-standard point of view—it’s very similar to the way we ourselves select and evaluate products.”

Easier, Simplified Administration

Administration of the security solution is simplified in part because many Forefront Server Security products have similar management features. In addition, Cable&Wireless has simplified management of its IT environment; IT administrators now can configure, update, and monitor security from one location.

Barker says that Forefront Security for SharePoint is very similar to the other Forefront products he works with. “Forefront Security for SharePoint is essentially the same Forefront solution; it’s just integrated with a different product. So we’re very familiar with it, which makes administration easier.”

Improved Operational Performance

Enhancing operational performance is important to Cable&Wireless because its IT environment is an integral part of the services it delivers to customers. Forefront Security for SharePoint integrates smoothly with Office SharePoint Server 2007, and it delivers comprehensive protection with minimal burden on systems resources. Appleyard points out that features such as simplified management and automated updates improve performance from a business manager’s point of view as well. “With Forefront Security for SharePoint, we can reduce some of the management and operational overhead from our support teams, which translate into cost benefits.”

Cable&Wireless also benefits from improved security in its customer-facing IT infrastructure by implementing Forefront Security for SharePoint and Forefront Security for Exchange Server. By the end of 2007, the company will further enhance its security and remote access infrastructure with ISA Server 2006. Appleyard says, “By using the Forefront product line, we are improving security for customer-facing services across a variety of Microsoft solutions—it has become an underpinning part of our product offerings.”

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 Cable&Wireless products and services, call (44) (0) 20 7315 4000 or visit the Web site at:
www.cw.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 November 2007