Shriram Group deploys FortiGate network security platform to secure data center

Indian asset financing company Shriram Group has deployed FortiGate network security platform to secure its data center.

The rapidly growing financing firm has also utilized Fortinet’s FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer centralized management and reporting appliances and FortiClient endpoint security client to help secure its data center and 400 branch offices across India.

Shriram Group chose Fortinet over several other next-generation firewall vendors for this project based on the company’s ability deliver high performance, low latency and easy-to-manage solutions, as well as its partner and support ecosystem.

Many of Shriram Group’s branches are in tier-III cities where Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)/ Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity is not feasible, making security and control over applications at those branches difficult. The huge data load passed onto the gateway firewall resulted in low throughputs from the data center.

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To improve network performance, Shriram Group worked with Fortinet to define common policies for users to access applications by enabling a range of security features including antivirus, antispam, Web filtering, VPN and application control.

The financial services provider also wanted to improve Internet access management at MPLS locations. Centralized management, low total cost of ownership (TCO) and hardware stability were other top criteria defined by Shriram Group as part of the vendor selection for the deployment of this new infrastructure.

Sendil Kumar, AVP – IT at Shriram Value Services, Shriram Group’s IT and ITES division, said: “The FortiGate appliances, which included high throughput at the data center and multi-functionality at the branch level, suited our needs perfectly.”

By providing separate firewalls for its Internet gateway and MPLS connection, which included deploying a FortiGate-3040B cluster at the data center, FortiGate-1000A, FortiGate-600C, FortiGate-310B and FortiGate-300C appliances at the corporate offices and more than 400 FortiGate-60C and FortiGate-40C boxes at the branch offices, Shriram Group has reduced network and application latency.

The security architecture, deployed as a two-layer firewall with data center zoning, replaced all the routers at the branches, helping the group’s branches provide secure network access and Internet connectivity via 3G modems conveniently plugged into the USB ports of the FortiGate appliances.

The FortiGate 3040B has distributed loads across multiple Internet service provider connections and with eight 10GbE ports it has increased the firewall throughput. TheFortiManager virtual appliance centralizes policy management and controls the endpoints via the FortiClient software installed at the branch offices. Thanks to FortiClient’s Web filtering and application control features, Shriram Group restricted Internet and Web-based application access at a granular level. The FortiAnalyzer-1000C centrally performs network analysis and reports on network anomalies.

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