In order to enable the mobile device users, SNCF had to ensure that the devices and the sensitive data they contained were protected. Device loss or theft could result in commercially sensitive data being released to the public. It was therefore necessary for the IT department of the Technicentre to find a solution that could protect their mobile devices and the data they contain whilst being able to withstand hard drive reformatting and operating system reinstallations.

With a corporate history that has seen the firm build market share through the acquisition of other accounting offices, Grant Thornton’s IT team was challenged to design and continually refine a single, standardized IT model that sought efficiency in a high degree of standardization. To add to the challenge, the mobile nature of Grant Thornton’s employees and preference for leasing its devices meant that the IT team needed to track and provide data security for more than 8,000 devices regardless of their physical location – whether in the office or with a travelling employee.

Given the high stakes, losing a laptop was not really an option. “In this case, we knew that regardless of how prevalent laptop theft might be, we also knew we couldn’t afford to lose any machines,” Bauer reflected. Bauer understands how technology can be used to solve larger business challenges. By stepping back and looking at the whole picture, Bauer recognized that there had to be a way to draw together the seemingly disparate elements of how an organization functions and how technology can be used to solve the specific problems of loss prevention, data protection and regulatory compliance: “If you implement solutions that address the root of a problem, then quite often subtle technological modifications can invoke sweeping organizational change.”

BCPSS understood the value of introducing technology in the classroom – it plays an important role in meeting the needs of the broad range of abilities, disabilities, cultural backgrounds, and ethnic populations. However, with especially high crime rates in the city of Baltimore, the IT team was set the difficult challenge of ensuring that all school devices were secured and accounted for. How would IT support 200 schools, 8,000 teachers and 85,000 students? With so many laptops distributed, the risk of theft was inevitable. How could BCPSS prevent theft and protect their teachers and students as they carried their devices through a city that struggled with crime? It was clear that the department would need a solid security strategy to reduce the risk of theft and protect their school environment.

While aware that physical deterrents such as cable locks aren’t sufficient to stop the most determined criminal, the school needed another security measure in case one of its 200 laptops went missing. “The school’s laptop computers are a vital piece of teaching and learning equipment for both our students and staff,” said Kjetil Simeon Olsen, IT advisor at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science. “If any of them go missing, it can be hugely disruptive for both students and teaching staff. We want to ensure that in the event one of the mobile devices goes missing, we would be able to get it back.”

Faced with 650 laptops in circulation in 2014 among pre-teens, and another 650 planned for high school students in 2015, the IT department at SKUSD needed a way to prevent the theft of laptops. Not only did a stolen laptop represent a lost investment, it also meant a student’s progress would be hampered.

Several staff laptops had been stolen in the past, so Cornwall College’s IT team knew they needed tighter security measures. Previously, etching techniques were used to write contact details on laptops, which would show up in UV lights if missing laptops were recovered by the police. However, this process was time consuming and ineffective. Crucially, it also failed to proactively search for missing hardware.

Don Williams, AW’s Technology Coordinator, describes laptop theft as costly and inconvenient; it overstretches available resources and interrupts the workflow of both staff and students. As school boards often face a rigid budget, maximizing IT investments is essential. Each time a lost or stolen asset has to be replaced, the budget is challenged. Williams explains that current economic conditions have intensified the need to get the most out of IT assets, requiring AW to be particularly “proactive and reactive” in minimizing loss and maximizing the lifespan of their computer population.

CHU de Clermont-Ferrand was losing an average of two devices each month to theft. Sensitive patient data was secured as it was hosted in the hospital’s data centre but device theft created a considerable disruption to the end user’s work, not to mention the extra IT resources required to replace and configure a new device each time. Hervé Grandjean, Head of Administrative Information and Services for CHU de Clermont-Ferrand, needed to find a practical and cost-effective to secure his endpoints.

The mix of laptops to desktops at CareSource was 30:70, with approximately 300 laptops in a growing inventory. The CareSource IT team knew they needed to track all their machines — especially the more portable laptops — because they contained protected health information (PHI). The CareSource IT team also wanted to work toward best practices in protecting PHI and compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Sacred Heart Hospital has dramatically increased the number of laptops they provide to nurses, physicians, and other staff to enable more effective patient care. However, with the move towards portable devices, Sacred Heart needed to effectively monitor the devices and have a solution in place where the hardware, as well as the sensitive data stored on these devices, were protected regardless of the device location or the user.

AEF consultants predominately work from remote locations, resorting only to the office for meetings. As such, their laptops – and the highly sensitive and valuable information they contain – are often beyond IT’s view and vulnerable to falling into the wrong hands. On average, one laptop goes missing per year. AEF previously used an asset tracking system that required significant resources when managing a mobile fleet. AEF knew that a more efficient solution that introduced security capabilities was needed.

Before 2005, DEK struggled with keeping email, one of its most important communication channels, flowing due to increasing amounts of unsolicited email hitting employees’ inboxes. The legacy email filtering system DEK relied on was not stopping the spam from bombarding the company’s 800+ globally based email users who were located both in the field and 18 satellite offices. According to Chris Bill, IT security analyst at DEK, an estimated 20% of spam was getting through to its email users. Originally DEK’s MIS department began filtering email to ensure compliance, however, spam had become a primary issue. Previously, the MIS department would check its email filter periodically. However, this became nearly a full-time task, which included the risk that a genuine email, possibly an order from a long-standing customer, could be inadvertently deleted. Bill says, “I cannot begin to think how much time was wasted by employees.” Plagued by complaints from frustrated users who had to wade through massive amounts of spam, as well as those who had lost important emails, Bill was tasked with finding a more capable email security solution that could also provide protection against ever-present threats. Compliance was also paramount to DEK. The MIS department and DEK management were keen to stop inappropriate content from entering the company and they also needed to ensure that employees did not send email that might include inappropriate language or content to customers.

Healey Brothers faced significant challenges with their existing backup solutions. The tape device they were using was time-consuming and unreliable, leading to frequent issues with data backups. Additionally, the software they were using was cumbersome, making it difficult for the IT team to manage backups efficiently. Network Administrator Bryan Bernstein, responsible for the day-to-day IT operations, needed a more reliable and efficient backup solution to protect the company's email, database, and file servers. The existing Symantec tape backups were not only time-consuming but also failed to provide the reliability needed for the company's operations. Bernstein required a solution that would simplify the backup process, reduce the time spent on managing backups, and ensure data integrity.

John Andrews, the Chief Information Officer of Dysart Unified School District, faced severe software issues with Symantec’s web filter, including random service interruptions, complex user interfaces, and slow report generation. The district, with 26,000 students and 3,000 staff, required a reliable content control solution to ensure network safety and security. Additionally, the support from Symantec was inadequate, leading to delays in resolving critical issues. The district needed a dependable solution to protect students from unsafe internet sites, prevent virus and malware infiltration, and manage bandwidth effectively.

With a sizeable hacking community and still evolving cyber security law, web attacks in Brazil are commonplace. The popularity of the broadcast and media networks makes Cásper Líbero’s web assets obvious targets for professional and amateur attackers. Web application compromises are unacceptable and can undermine years of hard work invested to bring Cásper Líbero to its market-leading positions today.

The Universiti Malaysia Perlis faced significant challenges in protecting its network and data from sophisticated attacks. The university needed to ensure uninterrupted online access, support a multi-application environment, and prevent the loss of personal and sensitive data. Additionally, the solution had to be scalable, easy to install, and manage. The university was subject to SQL injection attacks five to ten times per hour, making it imperative to find a robust security solution. The primary challenges included blocking constant attacks, ensuring the security of inbound, outbound, and peer-to-peer communications, preventing data loss, and scaling to meet the needs of a growing university.

The expansion of Supreme Services resulted in more emails overflowing the staff’s inboxes. Emails came in so rapidly that employees were unable to recognize the difference between a customer or spam message. This resulted in employees avoiding checking their email altogether because a majority of their time was wasted sorting through spam. Guidry suggested an email security gateway be put in place and recommended Barracuda Networks since he had used it at his previous company, where upper-level management held Barracuda Networks in high regard. Now in a management role at Supreme Services, Guidry knew Barracuda Networks would be a reliable and cost-effective choice, as well as simple to implement within his network.

Taylor Shellfish Farms faced a significant risk due to the lack of a proper data backup solution. The company had been operating without a data backup system for over 100 years, relying on external hard drives for data storage. This method left their records vulnerable to loss, theft, or damage. The IT team, led by Jorge Cortés-Monroy, recognized the need for a more secure and reliable backup system. They sought a solution that would eliminate the risks associated with removable media and provide an affordable, resourceful appliance. The challenge was to find a company that could meet their specific data protection needs while offering simplicity in deployment and long-term implementation.

Ontario, Canada-based energy services provider St. Thomas Energy Services Inc. has an IT staff of only three people yet they are responsible for managing massive amounts of data and networking needs for the company. St. Thomas Energy Services Inc. was using an LTO2 tape library, autoloaders and Symantec Backup Exec for its data backup solution which – if backed up successfully – could hold up to two weeks’ worth of data. Any data beyond that timeframe was stored on tapes. IT Supervisor Shawn Southern recalls needing to restore a drawing for project engineers, a process which ended up taking two full days to complete because it involved finding a tape that had actually completed a successful backup. Instances like this ultimately made it necessary for St. Thomas Energy Services Inc. to look for a more reliable and cost-effective solution.

Mechanicsburg Area School District was using Symantec Backup Exec, a tape backup solution, and had become frustrated with its unreliability and the length of time to restore files. Often retrieving the tape library and waiting for the machine to acquire the right tape was excruciatingly slow. Additionally, the District was supporting 30 Windows servers, six Linux servers, one Mac server, a Microsoft Exchange agent, and multiple Microsoft SQL databases, which required an extensive amount of time to adequately backup to tape, and required the District to purchase additional, costly agents for the solution. Fed up with tape solutions and their high maintenance costs, Todd Ritter, IT systems administrator, evaluated solutions meeting certain criteria: hardware backup with a subscription-based model. Ritter found that a subscription-based solution worked better with the budget planning that the District implements each year.

South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) needed an email archiving solution to streamline legal discovery and enforce email retention policies. The IT team, led by David Pfaehler, faced challenges in minimizing manual labor costs and ensuring compliance with legal guidelines. They evaluated several options but found them either too complex, lacking in functionality, or over budget. Open-source solutions were inadequate, and commercial products were not user-friendly.

Fife Commercial Bank was using Seccas, a hosted archiving solution, and had become irritated with the solution’s complicated, time-consuming interface. Time wasted searching through the email server or waiting for the program to respond outweighed the amount of time Fife Commercial Bank employees could be using reaching out to potential clients or maintaining their existing customer database. For compliance reasons, the bank needed discovery capabilities dating back to when they first opened their doors in 1998. IT Manager, Chad Prawitz began by looking for a product that not only met regulatory requirements, but also was manageable for a one-person IT Administrative staff. Prawitz investigated a few different providers prior to displacing Seccas, and found the Barracuda Message Archiver to be the most apt solution. The Barracuda Message Archiver fit all the key criteria that the bank’s management was looking for, allowing the bank to internally manage all the IT Systems in a more time efficient and cost effective way.

As a government institution, the City of Lebanon is required by law to preserve all emails for legal and regulatory compliance reasons. Mike Collingsworth, MIS Director, handles all computers, data infrastructures, and telephones in the city. Finding the time to maintain the exchange server and create new policies pertaining to each user is a tedious task for Collingsworth. Still, expecting users to allocate a certain amount of time to create archive folders is also an unreliable and inefficient way of maintaining their mail server. Collingsworth spent years looking for the right email archiving solution. When he discovered the Barracuda Message Archiver, he realized it was possible to have all the city’s email content fully indexed, backed up, and readily available allowing quick retrieval of any email stored in the institutions archive. With loss of bandwidth from the constant influx of email caused a strain of bandwidth, and the city needed to quickly implement a solution that organized and stored those emails.

Fenwal Blood Technologies faced the challenge of scaling their Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, and Office Communication Server (OCS) infrastructure to support over 6,000 global users. They needed to ensure around-the-clock uptime and improve data center manageability. The key challenge was selecting the right mix of technology platforms that maximized performance while minimizing costs. Additionally, they aimed to build a new data center from the ground up to keep pace with their continued market success and growth.

Since its inception, Bookt needed a dependable load balancing appliance to effectively distribute Web traffic across multiple servers. As an online business, it is essential that Bookt’s services are available to customers and partners when they need it. The challenge was to ensure zero downtime and high availability of critical infrastructure, which is crucial for maintaining customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. Additionally, Bookt faced the challenge of handling the expected increase in Web traffic due to the growing number of customers, new client solutions, and associated inventory, which was growing 10 to 15 percent each month.

Columbia University’s Advanced Computing Research Support (ARCS) faced significant challenges with increasing amounts of spam negatively impacting productivity and the speed of their Microsoft Exchange server. The Exchange Server was directly on the Internet with no anti-spam solution in place, leading to a mounting problem of spam emails. This situation necessitated a robust solution to manage and mitigate the spam issue, ensuring efficient email delivery and maintaining the performance of the Exchange server.

Fed up with per user and annual license fees and complicated configurations with their previous remote access solution, Michael Kimmel, Director of Information Technology, took matters into his own hands and began reviewing new options. Cleveland Institute of Art had been using a VPN solution bundled with their spam firewall product. The institute’s admissions are frequently on the road interviewing new candidates and adding new information to the student enrollment database making remote access a requirement in their network. With the previous solution, each license holder had to have a software client installed and configured on his or her computer in order to access a VPN connection and log on to the company system.

As a safe haven for abused women, the Women’s Center and Shelter for Greater Pittsburgh has extremely sensitive data in its system that is vital to the safety of its clients. Without a secure network, the shelter would lose its clients’ trust– and potentially endanger their lives. Such a loss of trust would make the shelter incapable of fulfilling its mission, “to end intimate partner violence in the lives of women and their children.” After a hacker broke into the shelter’s network, IT Manager Mark Ritter was familiar with the consequences of such an intrusion and began looking for a better security solution. Luckily, sensitive information had not been leaked, but if that were to happen in the future it could threaten the credibility of the shelter. As a nonprofit with a limited budget and staff, finding a cost-effective and easy-to-manage solution was the most important part of Ritter’s search. Ritter had been previously setting up a Cisco solution; however, the configuration and maintenance had become too tedious a process for a single IT manager.

Todd County School District was experiencing significant web access issues due to bandwidth limitations on its single 10 Mbps T1 connection. The district relies heavily on web-based applications for managing student information, administrative and testing services, and delivering curriculum. The bandwidth limitations were causing slowdowns and timeouts, particularly affecting high bandwidth applications like streaming media and video conferencing. The district needed a solution to improve web access and ensure reliable connectivity for its critical online services.