How Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFWs) are Used by Globe Telecom, Bausch Health, VR Group, Pague Menos, and ENT Credit Union: Case Studies - Datamation

The cyber menace strategy has evolved rapidly, particularly implicit the past fewer years, and it has go captious for businesses to employment next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) arsenic the archetypal enactment of defense.

See beneath for 5 lawsuit studies connected however companies crossed industries are employing NGFW solutions to lick their web information challenges.

1. VR Group

Finland-based VR Group is credited with sustainably managing and operating a high-speed bid web since 1862. The nationalist endeavor had a multitude of challenges to face: mediocre net velocity crossed trains, 5G integration, little bandwidths than its European counterparts, and a deficiency of an off-site web absorption system.

“Our enactment of enactment creates unsocial challenges to maintaining Wi-Fi for customers and VPN for staff. Due to a mates of antithetic aspects, we were seeing net driblet for customers and operators,” said Pasi Louko, elder web designer astatine VR Group.

VR Group worked with Forcepoint to instal a next-generation firewall and make high-speed web architecture, enabling zero-touch deployment and distant entree to the IT unit for each train. With the NGFW, VR could link with each 3 mobile operators simultaneously, frankincense ensuring precocious bandwidth and reduced web drops.

“Our costs — some for the task and attraction — are going down due to the fact that we don’t request resources locally, we person centralized everything,” said Louko. “If we privation a caller work connected a train, we specify the argumentation and past springiness the hardware to the operator, who installs it. It’s that simple.

“We had the firewall successful a bid that was offline for 2 weeks sitting successful −15 degrees Celsius temperature, and the NGFW started close up on with the train.”

Industry: Railways

Next-generation firewall provider: Forcepoint

Outcomes:

• Secured web connectivity of high-speed trains and managing 200 megabytes per 2nd (MBps) of information transfer
• Led to little overhead and VPN costs
• Reduced downtimes and secured connections crossed 100+ router cabins
• Enhanced capableness reaching 22.8 gigabytes per 2nd (GBps), up from 3GBps
• Provided company-wide encryption for interior operations

2. Pague Menos

Brazil-based Pague Menos is the country’s second-largest pharmacy retail concatenation with 1,600 stores and 25,000+ employees. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Pague decided to spell integer portion opting for a hybrid strategy to fetch much customers and clasp existing ones.

“Back successful 2016, we had much than 900 stores. It was getting hard to beryllium connected 2 net work providers [ISPs], and if they did not person an cognition successful a circumstantial city, we could not person it either,” said Afro Vasconcelos of Pague Menos.

These erratic work incidences coupled with multiprotocol statement switching (MPLS) links, constricted bandwidth, and predominant web drops led to Pague installing an NGFW for increasing needs. Without a firewall, the Pague idiosyncratic services were constricted to mostly recognition paper payments and an net velocity of 64K bits per second.

“As aboriginal arsenic 2016, we envisioned a store with much applications, the quality to way income with a dashboard, and online income successful the future. That web would not enactment this demand,” said Vasconcelos.

Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN task and FortiGate Next-Generation Firewalls fortified Pague’s information astatine each carnal locations. Its integration with Fortinet FortiAP ensured Wi-Fi entree for each customers and Pague employees. Moreover, the FortiManager integration ensured unified and centralized medication of Pague’s full network.

“Now, customers person entree to the astir 1,000 pharmaceutical offices, Clinic Farma for healthcare support, laboratory tests, vaccinations, oregon to articulation plans and benefits disposable done Agreements & Partnerships,” said Vasconcelos. “With an omnichannel structure, customers tin bargain the mode they privation and person their products wherever they prefer. Buyers person facilities specified arsenic ‘Click & Collect,’ wherever consumers bargain online and opt to prime up the items successful a store; ‘Infinity Shelf,’ which delivers to customers’ homes, escaped of charge, immoderate merchandise they cannot find successful the store; lockers; telesales.

“Our carnal concern has go progressively digital. Our services beryllium connected the due show of the network. Laboratory tests, for example, are each real-time. Our NGFW made this each possible.”

Industry: Retail

Next-generation firewall provider: Fortinet LAN Edge, Secure SD-WAN, FortiADC, and FortiManager

Outcomes:

• Digitization of Pague’s retail services to customer’s doorstep — 60 caller services added
• Unrestricted net entree crossed Pague’s carnal stores
• Secured VoLTE telephone assistance nether Special Medication Service [AME]
• Real-time laboratory tests and information analysis
• Centralized threat-reporting and incidental log management
• Hassle-free summation of different 400 stores crossed Brazil

3. Bausch Health

Bausch Health has a estimation of catering to 15,000 employees, 150 sites, and 100+ clientele. Bausch had an aging firewall infrastructure, starring to debased bandwidth and visibility crossed the 150 distributed enactment sites.

With Cisco’s NGFW, Bausch created a argumentation hierarchy crossed locations to weed retired IPS, malware issues, and URL filtering. The process worked 3 ways: guarantee information compliance crossed geographies, observe threats earlier they deed the Bausch systems, and remediate breaches that already happened. The NGFW came with accrued visibility to not conscionable malware oregon web applications but besides covered dependable implicit Internet Protocol (VoIP) phones, routers, operating systems (OSs), lawsuit devices, and web servers.

The Firepower absorption halfway automated interaction appraisal for Bausch portion scaling multi-tenancy and creating a role-based, from access- and attribute-based management.

Industry: Medicos

Next-generation firewall provider: Tesrex, Cisco Firepower, and Cisco Next-Generation Firewalls

Outcomes:

• Enhanced throughput capableness up to 80Gbps
• Centralized instrumentality absorption done the Cisco Firepower absorption console
• Better menace visibility and automated log checking aft menace detection
• Real-time information analytics for amended anomaly detection and decision-making

4. ENT Credit Union 

Colorado-based ENT is already applauded by Forbes for its recognition efforts. With $5.7+ cardinal worthy of assets, 30+ work centers, and much than 355,000 members, ENT is known for its customer-centric ENT Extras currency rewards mechanics and community-driven recognition union.

ENT’s issues weren’t purely fiscal oregon compliance-based but lied successful ensuring distant privateness to its clientele information and assets. While the national already had Check Point Firewalls for slope web security, interior postulation absorption was inactive a symptom constituent for IT officials.

“We needed to regenerate an east-west monitoring solution that wasn’t giving america capable visibility. Without the quality to spot into east-west traffic, we can’t place anomalies that would awesome a imaginable attacker. We needed a amended solution,” said Scott Perry, IT information designer astatine ENT Credit Union.

The Check Point NGFW ensured maximum uptime for ENT, with precocious menace detection bundle for zero-day attacks. Check Point besides upgraded ENT’s hardware by optimizing them arsenic per the data-center requirements. On apical of that, the Check Point information halfway integration offered capable powerfulness for ENT to incorporate ample postulation volumes and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption.

“The Check Point firewalls are acting arsenic IDS sensors for our interior traffic. We don’t privation to halt east-west traffic, but we privation to ticker everything and beryllium alerted erstwhile thing suspicious occurs,” said Perry. “The quality to show interior postulation is captious for america to support our members’ information. If a malicious histrion comprises a azygous workstation and tries to determination wealth oregon information, we’ll cognize it.”

Industry: Finance

Next-generation firewall provider: Check Point Quantum NGFW and Check Point R80

Outcomes:

• Greater visibility into web traffic
• Accelerated menace detection and remediation
• Increased operational ratio based connected higher visibility into postulation and a firewall with a unified console

5. Globe Telecom

Globe Telecom is The Philippines’ largest mobile operator; and owing to its presumption successful the home telco market, Globe needs to perpetually upgrade its information infrastructure. Previously, Globe had a bequest firewall architecture with Layer 4 protection. Moreover, siloed information and mismanagement of vendors for its tech needs hampered Globe’s efficiency. The institution was looking for a solution with a specialization successful lawsuit information and recovered Palo Alto.

Globe deployed the NGFW arsenic a perimeter information bundle with peculiar attraction to unreality information — microsegmentation, Cloud Workload Protection, and Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM). Palo Alto helped Globe to region some operations and infrastructural complexities, on with offering Layer 7 firewalls and filtering. The virtual firewalls were beauteous overmuch automatable, frankincense helping Globe to escaped its IT unit from manual enactment logs.

The NGFW besides ensured accelerated integration with third-party vendors, endpoint security, and concern agility done champion manufacture practices.

Industry: Telecommunication

Next-generation firewall provider: Palo Alto Networks

Outcomes:

• Enhanced unreality security
• Hassle-free 5G rollout and enlargement crossed The Philippines
• Successful absorption of fintech transactions of up to 1 trillion pesos and 1,000+ unreality accounts