Solution Boosts Web Portal Security, Helps Customer Save More Than $600,000 Annually

Many organizations face the challenge of providing secure user access to Web portals. Data#3, an IT solution provider, uses the Microsoft® Core Infrastructure Optimization Model and Microsoft server products to help its customers deliver more secure and reliable remote access to extranets. With the solution, one Data#3 customer is improving training, publishing more applications to the Web, and saving at least AUD$750,000 (U.S.$611,000) a year. Download full case study from here.

Business Needs

Data#3 is an IT solution provider that offers a wide range of services such as designing and deploying enterprise network and desktop systems, licensing and managing software for organizations, and providing strategic direction for long-term IT acquisitions. The company, a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner, has its head office in Brisbane and seven regional offices. It works with businesses across many industries, including finance, mining, tourism, government, and healthcare.

One of the pressing issues faced by Data#3 customers is difficulties in securely providing Web-based applications to dispersed external users. For example, the Department of Community Safety (DCS) in Queensland—one of the largest state governments in Australia—needed a way to increase the security of its training content and community forums. These resources are delivered to about 85,000 volunteers representing multiple organizations that provide assistance in disasters.

“The DCS and other large organizations need to give geographically dispersed users a way to log on to access training and other important content that cannot be left open to the public,” says Scott Gosling, National Practice Manager for Microsoft Services at Data#3. “However, most of the technology solutions on the market lack the flexibility and security required to deliver customized applications that can be safely and easily published on the Web, while still providing tight control over who can access those applications.”

Solution

Data#3 solved this problem for the DCS by using the Microsoft Core Infrastructure Optimization Model—which helps companies implement a more secure, highly manageable IT infrastructure—and several Microsoft products.

Data#3 used Identity and Access Management, one of the Core Infrastructure Optimization capabilities. It provides best practices and guidelines that define how to manage people and assets, protect identity data, and manage access to resources for remote users, such as the large base of disaster volunteers.

Data#3 also implemented the Microsoft Business Ready Security strategy, an initiative designed to protect organizations across the breadth of a company’s systems and data while allowing access for employees, based on their identity, regardless of where they are located. To implement the solution, Data#3 used Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007 for the DCS extranet. It also used Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2006, an integrated network edge security gateway that helps protect the DCS extranet from Internet-based threats. Additionally, Data#3 deployed Microsoft Intelligent Application Gateway 2007, which provides DCS volunteers with a security-enhanced, remote-access entry to the extranet that can be used from a variety of devices, including PCs, portable computers, and smartphones.

As part of the solution, Data#3 developed self-service functions for the volunteers, including the ability to register their accounts and reset their passwords.

“The Microsoft products and core optimization methodologies allowed us to meet the requirements of the Department of Community Safety in implementing a more robust and more secure extranet for a very large, distributed base of users,” says Gosling, adding that the solution resulted in Data#3 winning the Security Solutions—Infrastructure Security Partner of the Year award at the 2009 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference.

Benefits

Creating a Core Infrastructure Optimization solution with the Microsoft products helped Data#3 address an important customer need by providing increased manageability and security for Web portals that are accessed by large numbers of users. This resulted in a number of benefits for the Queensland DCS, including:

• Annual savings of at least AUD$750,000 (U.S.$611,000). The Core Infrastructure Optimization solution is helping the Queensland DCS cut expenses. The agency estimates that the self-help functionality of the Data#3 solution will eliminate about 2,500 help-desk calls every quarter, which will save the agency about AUD$500,000 annually. The DCS also anticipates an additional AUD$250,000 (U.S.$200,000) in annual savings by eliminating the need to physically package and support client applications that can now be easily distributed over the Internet.
• Improved training for volunteers. The Microsoft optimization model and server products make it possible for the DCS to improve training outcomes for its emergency services volunteers and staff. “It has become much easier to provide training in a 24x7 manner, regardless of the volunteers’ location or what device they are using to access the training,” Gosling says. “This  allows the volunteers to access training material at any time.   The  solution is particularly valuable because it ensures that the volunteers are trained for emergency situations.”
• More applications published to the Web. Due to the highly distributed nature of the DCS work force in Queensland, the ability to deliver remote resources using highly secure, distributed remote application access is critical. “The Microsoft solution gave the Department of Community Safety the ability to publish at least 20 more business applications because of the greater confidence the agency now has in the solution’s remote application access functionality,” Gosling says.