Case Study: Securing clouds makes sense for Fremantle

Email is critical

Glenn McTee, L7's managing director, says the deal was quickly closed and the deployment completed by Nirmal Alvares, the reseller's senior systems architect.

"Although we didn't drive the initial contact with City of Fremantle, we've worked the council before, but we've only done small pieces of work," says McTee.

He says email is listed as number two on its list of critical applications, as it comprises the majority of the council's communications.

"Having email not work properly would have a big impact for the council," says McTee. Email isn't just essential to the council's business - other clients rate it as a top-three critical application, he adds.

A security cloud solution offers small to midsize organisations an alternative to products which require internal infrastructure and manpower.

"The council's previous product needed constant human intervention for the management of spam," says McTee. "This creates high overheads as staff need to be trained on how to create duplicate emails and then have it backed up."

What makes cloud security solutions attractive is there's no need for upfront capital outlay. Products such as the MessageLabs' email security is priced on a per month, per user basis.

L7 "worked out the council's previous solution would cost around $80,000-$100,000 - or more - to get it to work on the same level as a cloud-based email solution", he says. "That kind of expenditure makes cloud security compelling."

Pavy says his team has "more than enough" to do in meeting organisational needs and it can't afford specialised training to detect and combat Internet-level threats.

"Even if we had the time, I have to assume that whatever I imagine a Trojan, virus or bot can do, someone out there can make it happen," he says. "A hosted service significantly reduces the risk of malware arriving at our network unrecognised or sitting silent, waiting for a trigger."

That was quick

McTee says MessageLabs' product deploys quickly and has little impact on an organisation's day-to-day business, which is important for a council.

Apart from setting the controls for what type of email is allowed through, L7 tailored one or two aspects of the MessageLab's solution to suit the Council's needs.

"The solution was up and running and filtering messages within eight hours," he says. "The project took 24 hours from the time of acceptance to sign-off.

As part of its ongoing services, the integrator goes to a portal to access the council's monthly email security and filtering report. Otherwise it has very little involvement in its email filtering, McTee claims.

Key components of the MessageLabs product include multi-layered security featuring its proprietary Skeptic engine, which captures known and unknown viruses and protects against Trojans, phishing and spyware.

The product incorporates image composition analysis which helps to identify, control and block inappropriate images contained in all email and email attachments and also features a configurable filter which allows administrators to create and enforce policies and rules controlling employee web use.

Pavy says the council receives only genuine emails, with all spam and malware infected emails blocked at the internet level and access to unsafe and non-work related websites prevented.

The IT department in local government "is a leader in collaboration with the business and the broader community, but we do so in a very dangerous environment", says Pavy.

The council's network is now protected from downtime, ensuring that its corporate websites are up and running to optimise productivity across the entire organisation, he says.

"Implementing MessageLabs' service has dramatically reduced the time and costs of managing messaging security and fixing the problems caused by spam and malware infections," says Pavy.
Not only does the malware detection capabilities minimise downtime, but its URL Filtering and Image control and content control enforces the council's acceptable use policies, says Pavy.