The importance of VPN’s for remote working
When working from home, most employees imagine they need a laptop and an internet connection. However, from a security perspective, there needs to be measures in place to safeguard critical systems, applications and data.
When securing an increased number of remote users, many businesses first look to scaling their VPN capacity. A VPN stands for virtual private network. This creates a protected tunnel that stops unwarranted access to browsing history, financial information or passwords. Using end-to-end encryption, a VPN enables home workers to securely connect to the corporate network. Even if a hacker can access your network traffic, the data would be worthless as it is fully encrypted. Without this technology, bad actors could intercept your sensitive corporate information.
Equilibrium help engineering firm secure remote users across 28 countries
As Cyber Security experts, we have helped many businesses implement remote working strategies in preparation for lockdown. We recently helped one of our long-standing customers secure their remote users on a global scale.
About our client
Our client is a global engineering brand with branches in 28 countries and over 1000 employees. We have provided numerous services for them over the years including a global firewall deployment (Cisco ASA 5508’s), a firewall managed service and Cyber Essentials Plus assessments.
We chose to work with Equilibrium as they were one of the only companies experienced with some of the latest technology we wanted to roll-out into our business. I’m happy to say that as we have used Equilibrium’s services, our relationship has flourished – they are now a trusted part of our IT support team. Being both flexible time-wise and skills-wise, they have gone above and beyond to support the dynamics of our business, something that can be very hard to find. Well done and a big thank you.Global Engineering Firm
Client requirements
Our client required an increase in VPN capacity to help secure their entire global workforce. Their existing firewalls (Cisco ASA 5508’s) only provide capacity for 50 VPN users for each hub site. While this would be sufficient to support their home workers prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, they now require a much larger scope for VPN availability.
Our solution
To prevent disruption, we were required to quickly and effectively implement a suitable VPN solution to meet their business demands.
- Cisco Firepower 1140 with AnyConnect VPN: We installed a Cisco Firepower 1140 with AnyConnect VPN at their UK data centre; this provides extra capacity for 400 VPN users across the globe.
- Extra VPN capacity: This firewall provided the additional capacity which was needed to extend the capability of the current VPN solution.
- Remote configuration: There was no need for our engineers to go to site, the firewall was fully configured and pre-staged at our Senior Network Engineer’s home address.
- Seamless cut-over: It was then shipped to the data centre where smart hands cabled in the device. The whole cut-over was completely seamless… and took under 10 minutes!
- Global VPN access in minutes: Minutes later the global workforce of 1000 users had access to an AnyConnect VPN.
- Custom dashboard: We then created a custom-made dashboard which provides insight into VPN connections across 28 countries. This ‘single pane of glass’ offers visibility into VPN usage and capacity across each hub site. This real time data shows how many users are connecting and at what times.
- Global visibility: This data can be used to identify low VPN connectivity at certain hubs (which may need investigating to improve security).
Equilibrium are committed to going the extra mile
We’re committed to going the extra mile for our customers. Our services are always tailored to the unique needs of your business. We not only take time to understand the complexities of your IT ecosystem, we also strive to provide a seamless service which adheres to business-driven timescales. This ensures our security deployments cause minimal disruption. Here at Equilibrium, we are here to support businesses throughout this challenging time. As Cyber Security experts, we can help you to protect remote users, identify advanced threats, implement a zero-trust security approach and keep your business up and running! Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you would like our support, call us on 0121 663 0055 to chat to us about your concerns.
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