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The conclusion was drawn that the existing security appliance was outdated and a new system was required to address the demands of the expanding business.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.

After evaluating a number of competing solutions, Proofpoint’s messaging security solution featuring Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateway was selected. Purchased through its business partner, IBM, Olsen claimed the appliance was easy to install with the system up and running in a matter of minutes.

Utilising Proofpoint MLX machine learning technology, the solution delivers high-level spam protection, including defense against image-based spam. Spam and virus filters are updated automatically, and users are also protected against zero-hour virus threats. The security appliance also provides anti-phishing features to prevent identify theft as well as an integrated email firewall.

Initially installed in audit mode to evaluate the existing system, the Proofpoint application revealed that 71 percent of the emails received by Servcorp were in fact spam. However, only 10 percent of the total email volume was being identified as such. Consequently, 86 percent of spam was bypassing the security filter.

Olsen explained that since deploying the Proofpoint solution, email volumes have reduced dramatically, and false positives – when business-related emails are blocked – are no longer a problem.

“We have found Proofpoint to be a very intelligent system,” he said. “It keeps itself up to date, so there is no day to day administration. Our maintenance effort has gone from around four hours a week down to a couple of minutes. It is a true ‘set and forget’ solution. This makes it much easier for IT. We can move on and do other things.”

Ease of maintenance is also important as Servcorp endeavours to build on its email infrastructure around the world, related Olsen.

“When we have four or five continents running the system, the ease of maintenance will really come into play. If you multiplied the existing maintenance overhead by four, you would be losing half a week’s work,” he stated. “With Proofpoint, the maintenance won’t increase as the solution expands out. That is a big time saving.”

Looking ahead, Olsen views Proofpoint’s compliance and data loss prevention capabilities as beneficial as the company develops, even though the features are not immediately required.

Gerry Tucker, regional head for Proofpoint in APAC highlighted the importance of considering future requirements.

“It’s very important when looking at any technology solution to not just look at what you need today, but also what is going to allow you to grow and meet future requirements,” he said. “You can’t see everything in the future, but those things where there’s a reasonable possibility that the business may need them should be incorporated into any review.”

In addition to inbound messaging security, Tucker claimed that the Proofpoint product offers comprehensive compliance features for inbound and outbound messaging. It supports regulatory compliance and conforms to common standards for protecting sensitive information. The prevention of confidential information leaving the network is a priority for Servcorp, therefore making the feature of particular interest.

“We are a public company, so there are trade secrets and market sensitive information you can’t have leaving the organisation,” said Olsen. “As we go through organic growth we are going to have to look at compliance solutions. Proofpoint is not just a spam solution, it will help us implement that as we grow.”

Unlike the other solutions evaluated, Proofpoint licenses its solutions on a per-user basis, not on the number of appliances deployed. Servcorp’s 650-user Proofpoint license will be far more cost-effective than competing solutions when it moves to a multi-site deployment, commented Olsen. Also supporting Servcorp’s international expansion is Proofpoint’s ability to be centrally managed from a single location.

“Most email comes back here at the moment, but we are looking to create separate regions for Asia, Europe and Japan,” stated Olsen. “With Proofpoint we can distribute the physical devices but still manage it all from our Sydney data centre, which is great.”

The flexibility of the Proofpoint solution in terms of deployment options was also a selling point. In addition to the Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateway appliance which Servcorp installed in head office, the product is also available as a virtual appliance, software, or as a hosted, on-demand service.

“We are in the process of consolidating our servers,” explained Olsen. “With Proofpoint, we can combine virtual and hardware appliances in a single architecture, giving us greater flexibility and disaster recovery capabilities across the globe.”

Gerry Tucker commented that many organisations are not running on appliances that are optimal for their specific business needs.

“What they were finding was that the solution wasn’t delivering what they needed and we’re noticing that this is becoming increasingly common because of the continued growth of spam,” he said.

Tucker noted that the overall volume of spam is growing exponentially – last year it was estimated to have risen by over 400 percent. Contributing to this growth is the ongoing use and evolution of botnets, the increasing complexity of spam, as well as the use of social engineering techniques, he argued. Consequently, organisations should be vigilant in reviewing their security infrastructure.

“In this particular instance, we recommend a review on a quarterly or six-monthly basis to ensure they’re getting what they need out of the solution,” he stated.

The perception that it is acceptable to spend over five hours per week administering a security system is preventing IT personnel from requesting an upgrade, said Tucker. However, he added that businesses are becoming aware of the benefits of updating earlier.

“There’s a growing realisation that there are better solutions out there in the marketplace that can drive a better cost of ownership and better return on investment for business,” he explained.

In cases like the Servcorp project, Tucker claimed resellers can offer additional services. Initially implemented as a hardware appliance based solution, Servcorp is now moving to a combined virtual and hardware appliance and also looking into data loss prevention as well.

“The partner in this instance has the ability to go back and sell additional modules to that customer and gain revenue and wrap services around that product,” he explained.

“The job is made easier by nature of the fact they can get reports they can use, as part of a consultant review with the organisation, in terms of helping them move forward.”