Securing Servcorp

ASX-listed service provider Servcorp was in the market for a security solution to address the company’s growing spam problem. Specialising in serviced and virtual offices, the reseller was also seeking to improve staff productivity and support its plans for international expansion.

Servcorp has grown considerably since it opened its first serviced offices in Sydney in 1978. Today, the company’s global network boasts services facilities in Australia, Asia, Japan and Europe.

A recent audit conducted by Servcorp found that email traffic entering the head office data centre in Sydney equated to around 60 gigabytes per month.

The conclusion was drawn that the existing security appliance was outdated and a new system was required to address the demands of the expanding business. The Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateway application appeared to fit the bill.

The previous solution was first deployed by Servcorp in 2004 when email volumes were one tenth the current level. Vulnerabilities began to surface recently as the application struggled to meet increasing demands and consequently large volumes of spam penetrated the system, while many business-related emails were being blocked.

Servcorp management concluded that the system had become ineffective, unreliable and difficult to maintain, and the decision was made to upgrade. Of particular concern was the impact of unwanted emails on staff productivity. IT personnel experienced the inconsistencies of the appliance first hand and spent hours each week on administrative tasks.

A common request made by employees to IT administrators was to search for and retrieve missing business-related emails. Brett Olsen, senior manager Engineering & IT Services for Servcorp commented that the inconsistencies were preventing staff from focusing on other projects.

“We can’t be chasing up missing emails all the time,” said Olsen. “We need more time to work on things like infrastructure growth and internal IT projects. We don’t want to be managing email all the time.”

According to Olsen, Servcorp made the decision to purchase a more reliable, scalable and efficient messaging security solution to not only address the shortcomings of the previous system but also grow with the company regardless of its eventual size or geographies covered. Olsen added that the reseller sought an appliance-based offering requiring minimal maintenance.