Footy team scales-up security

Tom Galeski, Wests Tigers account manager for Partner IT said: “We are finding more and more that most businesses don’t plan for the worst case scenario. While things are working no one asks questions but once you get a virus outbreak or Trojan attack, it’s too late.”

The main concerns of Wests Tigers were to protect confidential data from theft or modification, keep its office computers and networks threat-free and available, as well as prevent inappropriate content from distracting employees and affecting productivity. Partner IT evaluated the situation and took a ‘maintenance-made-easy’ approach to prevent the likelihood of any disasters at the hands of Wests Tigers employees, many of whom are not particularly tech savvy. The reseller recognised that although the club’s IT infrastructure and systems are comparatively small in scale; the brand is well-known, therefore protection from a potential IT disaster is integral to maintaining the team and club’s reputation.

“Trend Micro’s solution was an easy choice as it offers high level protection through a simple, single user interface,” said Galeski. “The demand for a simple to install, simple to manage, easy to report antivirus/spyware solution is growing at a fast rate, and Trend Micro allows our skills as a premium managed service provider to offer scheduled reporting and centralised management quickly and easily.”

According to Galeski, the Trend Micro solution automatically protects data and resources against increasingly sophisticated Internet threats.

“The benefits we’ve gained from using the single interface, centralised network monitoring and simple reporting have been great. We’ve demonstrated immediate ROI, with less time spent administering anti-virus definitions and patch management reporting,” he said.

Trend Micro CSM for SMB also supports scheduled automated reporting, eliminating the need to manually generate network reports. Galeski claimed that once reports are emailed they can be reviewed and action can be taken immediately if required. He also commented that the inclusion of patch management in the Trend Micro solution is a significant advantage.

“As with most small to medium businesses, Wests Tigers doesn’t have the time or budget to implement additional applications to monitor Windows patch updates but CSM for SMB lets us easily see what patches are required on which machines and when,” he said.

Trend Micro stated that the application saves SMBs time and effort. The single-install application quickly protects PCs and servers through integrated deployment and management, which eliminates the cost and effort of purchasing and managing threat-specific products. Galeski added that a unique outbreak defence protects against rapidly-spreading threats earlier – before virus signatures are available – without intervention. Accordingly, the real-time spyware protection stops ‘drive-by downloads’ automatically installing from the Web and threatening Wests Tigers’ data security.

CSM for SMB also allows Partner IT to check Wests Tigers’ PCs and server health using at-a-glance status via the Web-based security dashboard from any connected computer with an Internet connection. From this centrally managed console, Partner IT receives proactive alerts and can view automatically generated reports.

Galeski claimed the application allows for better insight into the health and threat-readiness of a network.

“Trend Micro’s solution was an easy choice as it offers high level protection through a simple, single user interface,” said Galeski.

He added that the reseller offers several additional services to clients through its partner program. These include IT strategic planning, server and network support, business systems, IT procurement, Internet and telephony services, and website and database development. According to Galeski, managed IT services is a key focus for the reseller.

“Great momentum recently has been seen in our consulting arm in the focus of aligning IT delivery to the strategic business requirements before IT investments are made. Partner IT provides our customers a “one stop shop” for IT services,” he explained.