4-page Case Study - Posted 7/31/2008

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York Regional Police

York Regional Police simplifies security with Microsoft Forefront Client Security

Canada’s sixth-largest municipality and home to 1 million residents, Southern Ontario’s York Region relies on its law enforcement agency, York Regional Police, to keep the community safe. As a public agency that deals with emergencies and urgent distress calls, network security is a top priority. York Regional Police (YRP) needed a centralized IT solution that would automatically push the latest applications and security updates to workstations, police cruisers and the region’s 911 emergency call center, ensure uptime, and help IT staff maximize its resources. In 2008 YRP deployed Microsoft® Forefront™ Client Security, which helps protect IT systems against security threats. The agency now has better system security, simplified administration, and improved visibility into its environment. The solution's automated features have also helped YRP make better use of its 35-person IT department.

Situation

York Region, part of the Greater Toronto Area, is Canada’s sixth-largest municipality. It consists of nine joined municipalities and is home to nearly 1 million residents. The rapidly growing community relies on its police force - York Regional Police (YRP) – to keep it safe. Each day the region’s 1,365 officers work selflessly to assist people in crisis situations.

We continue to be impressed by the simplicity and manageability of Forefront Client Security. It’s easy and straightforward for us to do, giving us back valuable time to pursue other projects.  Nick Mohamed Assistant Manager, IT York Regional Police

“Our network interfaces with a variety of other agencies, but it also has a public face. Securing all that in a way that’s proactive and comprehensive isn’t easy, but it’s one of our most critical tasks,” says Nick Mohamed, assistant manager, IT, York Regional Police.

Recently, in light of soaring population growth, YRP made moves to modernize its IT system, including its aging security infrastructure. The existing environment consisted of disconnected solutions anchored by antivirus software from a leading third party security software provider, and was increasingly unable to meet the needs of the growing police force. Although YRP was taking advantage of Microsoft® Windows Server® Update Services (WSUS) in conjunction with Active Directory® to help IT managers deploy updates, the third party software contributed to the systems remaining disconnected at the backend. The IT department spent large amounts of time coordinating security updates, often requiring the time and attention of three full-time staff members simply to roll out updates to cruisers – which had to be taken off the road in the process – and the organization’s 800 desktops.

YRP sought a more integrated approach —one that would allow YRP to centralize its infrastructure and provide IT staff with greater visibility into network activity.

“We needed an antivirus and patch management system that was integrated with the desktop to allow for better compatibility with our existing applications and system management tools,” said Mohammed.  “We also wanted to leverage the existing knowledge of the IT department to reduce the overall cost of training staff with new tools and certification paths.”

Like many public sector organizations, law enforcement agencies are budget and resource conscious. YRP wanted to ensure that any new solution enabled it to manage security in the most effective and cost-efficient manner.

Solution

The YRP IT team conducted research to find a comprehensive security solution that would help reduce its workload to meet the needs of a growing organization.

“The priority was compatibility. Security and in particular antivirus is a very intrusive type of software, so we had to make sure it worked with all our existing applications,” adds Mohamed.

In December 2007 YRP decided to test Microsoft Forefront™ Client Security and Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007. The agency turned to Microsoft Gold Certified partner LegendCorp to set up the pilot project internally. Based on the test’s successful outcome the IT department determined that Forefront Client Security would help address its needs. In early 2008, working with LegendCorp, YRP installed Forefront Client Security on 800 client devices in a 24-hour period. The software encountered no conflicts or performance issues with any of the existing applications.

We continue to be impressed by the simplicity and manageability of Forefront Client Security…This entire process was easy and straightforward, which has given us more time to pursue other projects.  Nick Mohamed Assistant Manager, IT York Regional Police

“By implementing Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, York Regional Police’s IT department can focus on application enhancements rather than manually pushing out updates and they no longer see a sharp spike in support calls after rolling out an application.  This has allowed them to regain about 15 percent of their IT Help Desk’s time, created a closer working relationship between the tier one and tier three support teams and improved the skillset of the IT Help Desk staff,” says Andy Papadopoulos, president, LegendCorp.  “The familiar Microsoft interface and simple-to-use commands meant minimal training and support for the IT team.”

Today Forefront Client Security sits on a server running the Windows Server operating system, and has been pushed to all 800 PCs, based on the Windows operating system, providing antivirus protection to all Windows-based services, including File and Print Servers, Exchange Servers, SharePoint® Portal Servers and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.

The anti-virus and anti-malware protection that Forefront Client Security provides will help enhance security at the desktop level when YRP migrates to the Windows Vista® operating system in the months ahead.

Benefits

YRP has been impressed with the performance of Forefront Client Security and the organization has avoided any form of virus infection since deployment. In fact, upon installation, Forefront Client Security immediately spotted malware that the previous system had failed to detect.

“Because we’re charged with public safety, we take security very seriously at York Regional Police. It’s foremost in our planning whenever we consider changes to our infrastructure. Forefront Client Security is helping us deliver on this commitment by simplifying and streamlining our security management practices,” says Mohamed.

Improved security visibility

YRP lacked adequate visibility into its network, something it needed in order to continue offering true end-to-end protection. Using Forefront Client Security, IT staff is able to instantly assess the security status of each workstation and take appropriate measures. And because the team is already familiar with Microsoft software it’s easy for anyone – not just one or two trained specialists - to administer the required updates.

“Managing resources has become much easier since we moved to Forefront Client Security. Now, if someone is going on vacation or travels for business, we don’t have to scramble to find adequate security support – Forefront provides a familiar interface that allows non-security team members to play a role in securing our computing environment,” says Mohamed. 

Forefront Client Security helps our team be more responsive and provide even higher service levels to YRP, which helps show the value that IT brings to our organization.  Nick Mohamed Assistant Manager, IT York Regional Police

Smoother patch management

Forefront Client Security has also made it easier for IT staff to automate the patch management process. Now desktop and anti-virus patch management can be done in one window in a matter of minutes.

As well, by implementing the Software Distribution feature within Configuration Manager, York Regional Police has simplified the complex task of distributing applications, signature deployments and updates. The reduction of manual touch points from as many as five down to as little as two also means patches, updates and new applications are delivered to desktops faster.

“We continue to be impressed by the simplicity and manageability of Forefront Client Security.  Previously we had to remove police cars from the road to manually apply anti-virus signature updates.  The tight integration allows us to deploy Forefront Client Security signatures through Configuration Manager at Wi-Fi hotspots in the region.  This entire process was easy and straightforward, which has given us more time to pursue other projects,” says Mohamed.

Integrated platform

Integrating Forefront Client Security into the existing Microsoft-based environment helped create a more secure desktop environment. YRP no longer has to invest the resources to manage a heterogeneous security system – instead, it can take advantage of a predictable and easy-to-use environment that provides security on the network, on the server, and on PCs and wireless devices.

One-stop management

Forefront Client Security provides YRP with a centralized management tool.  This helps the IT team to instantly detect a breach anywhere on the network and enables them to shut down that station and cut it off at the source. 

“Forefront Client Security helps our team be more responsive and provide even higher service levels to YRP, which helps show the value that IT brings to our organization,” adds Mohamed.

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 LegendCorp products and services, call (416) 465-4540 or visit the Web site at:
www.legendcorp.com

For more information about York Regional Police products and services, call 1-866-876-5423 or visit the Web site at:
www.police.york.on.ca/regionmap1.htm

Partner Involvement

As a Microsoft Gold Partner certified in nine competencies, LegendCorp has earned a reputation for excellence by believing that the more it understands a client’s business, the better it can provide a total technology solution. Since 1989 LegendCorp has provided predictable, best practices-based, process-driven solutions to its clients. Their four Microsoft Global Awards in the last 3 years continue to validate their approach.
LegendCorp understands that its clients are not in the IT business, and that what they are looking for is a trusted technology advisor with deep experience across the Microsoft stack.

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 July 2008