2 page Case Study - Posted 2/26/2008
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Construction Products Firm Enhances Security and Simplifies IT Environment
Pacific Coast Building Products, a major manufacturer and distributor of construction products, wanted a better way to guard its network perimeter and protect sensitive information while reducing the complexity of its IT infrastructure. The company employed Windows Server® 2008 Standard with Active Directory® Rights Management Services and Terminal Services to enhance the security of its network, increase productivity, and build a more efficient IT environment.
Business Needs
Pacific Coast Building Products was founded as Anderson Lumber in 1953 with a single lumber yard. Today the company has expanded into nine subsidiaries and 16 divisions, with 75 business locations, 3,200 employees, and annual sales of U.S.$760 million. Headquartered in Rancho Cordova, California, Pacific Coast manufactures wallboard, roofing, premanufactured trusses and walls, and other construction products. Its transportation division distributes products to industrial contractors and to the company’s own lumber yards and its other retail and wholesale facilities.
The company’s IT department provides services to approximately 1,500 users in Rancho Cordova and all the branch locations. Pacific Coast manages a fully integrated Wide Area Network in a virtualized server environment, using an SAP application for its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and running file servers, print servers, messaging servers, and domain controllers on the Windows Server® 2003 operating system.
The company uses the SAP application to store and help protect confidential information, but payroll and other lists were frequently transmitted or referenced outside SAP’s security protections. Pacific Coast needed a way to help protect sensitive information while keeping it available for authorized users. In addition, network security was a concern in the company’s manufacturing facilities, where the company needed to reduce the potential for unauthorized access into the network in order to protect system operations. The company wanted to strengthen its network perimeter and automate the enforcement of network health policies.
At the same time, the IT department is continually working to consolidate and reduce complexity in its environment. IT staff recognized the need for a single solution that included additional features and also offered reliability, increased efficiency across Pacific Coast’s many business groups, and enhanced information and network security.
Solution
To implement the broad security and remote access solution it wanted, Pacific Coast worked with Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Convergent Computing to deploy Windows Server 2008 Standard with Active Directory Rights Management Services (RMS) and Terminal Services. The company set up a pilot program to run Windows Server 2008 on two virtual servers in its production network. In 2008, Pacific Coast plans to deploy the new operating system across its entire server environment, which is based on IBM X series 366 servers with 3.169 Intel Xeon processors.
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“We’re using RMS to manage how people can access and use documents, and we use permissions to protect the document libraries. It’s a perfect fit to bring information to users securely and easily.” |
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Matt Okuma
Enterprise Architect, Pacific Coast Building Products |
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Pacific Coast is integrating RMS with Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007 to provide users with access to documents while helping to protect confidential information like Social Security numbers and other personal and business data. The company stores sensitive documents in SharePoint document libraries where they are protected by permissions based on user account settings, and it uses RMS to safeguard the documents themselves with features that prevent them from being inadvertently printed or forwarded.
To supplement information security with network security, Pacific Coast is currently testing the Network Access Protection (NAP) feature in Windows Server 2008. It expects to deploy NAP to shield its network perimeter from unauthorized or noncompliant connections. “With NAP, when someone plugs in, they’re given an opportunity to comply with our policies,” says Matt Okuma, Enterprise Architect at Pacific Coast Building Products. “If they don’t, they’re denied access to the network, and we get an alert.”
While enhancing security, Pacific Coast also wanted to add productivity-improving tools to its network. The company is using the Terminal Services RemoteAppTM feature in Windows Server 2008 to run a quality control application in its manufacturing facilities. Operators log on to the terminal server from the desktop of their workstation to access the application interface where they can enter quality-related data and adjust their processes.
Benefits
Pacific Coast Building Products is using Windows Server 2008 to enhance the security of its network, increase productivity, reduce costs, and build a more streamlined and efficient IT environment. “From an enterprise architecture standpoint, Windows Server 2008 fits into where we’re going, reducing complexity, doing more with less,” says Okuma.
Increased Productivity
By using Terminal Services to provide connections directly from workstations in the manufacturing facilities to quality control and other production applications, Pacific Coast is providing its employees with the tools they need to be more productive. With quick, easy, and reliable access, employees can focus on using the programs to fine-tune their manufacturing processes and reduce waste.
Less Complex Environment
Pacific Coast used many features in Windows Server 2008 to reduce the complexity in its environment. By using fewer third-party applications, the company reduces costs, and the IT department has less to manage. “Why use a third-party application when Windows Server 2008 includes it as a feature?” says Okuma. “We’re saving a lot on licensing costs.”
By giving administrators and users a standard interface across many functions, the company is increasing operational efficiency. “The consistent look and feel of the new interface makes it easier to manage the servers,” says Okuma. “A problem that took an hour or two before might take a half hour now.”
Enhanced Security
By integrating RMS with Windows Server 2008 and Office SharePoint Server 2007, Pacific Coast developed multiple levels of protection for sensitive documents and information. “We’re using RMS to manage how people can access and use documents, and we use permissions to protect the document libraries,” says Okuma. “It‘s a perfect fit to bring information to users securely and easily.”
Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2008, with built-in web and virtualization technologies, enables you to increase the reliability and flexibility of your server infrastructure. New virtualization tools, web resources, and security enhancements help you save time, reduce costs, and provide a platform for a dynamic and optimized datacenter. Powerful new tools like IIS 7.0, Server Manager, and Windows PowerShell, allow you to have more control over your servers and streamline web, configuration, and management tasks. Advanced security and reliability enhancements like Network Access Protection and the Read-Only Domain Controller option for Active Directory Domain Services harden the operating system and protect your server environment to ensure you have a solid foundation on which to build your business.
For more information, go to:
www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008
