Apr. 2018

Data and application protection in on-premises infrastructures, virtual environments and Cloud is a critical priority for most organizations. To support that, Datanet Systems organized a workshop in mid-April to present and analyze the constituent elements of security architectures, illustrating the benefits of an integrated approach.

Forrester Consulting carried out in 2016 an analysis of the economic impact (Total Economic Impact) generated by adopting and implementing Cisco’s integrated security architecture within an organization. TEI analysis, completed over a three year period, revealed three major benefits:

• 38% yield;
• 20% CAPEX reduction (decrease of investments in hardware);
• 25% OPEX savings (lower license fees).

Since 2016, Cisco has constantly expanded its portfolio with new security applications and is adding new features in a fast pace. For this reason Datanet Systems Specialists, Cisco’s main local partner (as per number of projects and number of certified engineers) recently presented in a workshop the main news brought by the updated solutions:

• Identity Service Engine (ISE v2.3 si 2.4);
• Firepower Threat Defense (FTG v6.2.0);
• Email Security Appliance (ESA OS 10.x, 11.x si 12.x);
• Web Security Appliance (WSA OS 10.x si 11.x)
• Adaptive Security Appliance (OS 9.6, 9.7, 9.8 si 9.9);

as well as new features integrated with Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) and Umbrella.

Datanets consultants Alexandru Nacea and Faruk Hairedin’s presentations did not solely focus on Cisco’s technological advances. Datanet Systems’s IT security consultants have illustrated practically by usage scenarios how and what benefits are provided by integrating these solutions into a unitary security architecture that is capable of improving protection across the entire organization. A special attention has been paid to the automation options offered by Cisco solutions that help: • early detection of potential threats; • decreasing the detection time and the magnitude of a security incident; • increasing the effectiveness of remediation solutions and • reducing operational effort.

 

Multivendor approach, a necessity

In order to deliver complete and effective local protection, Datanet promotes the concept of a multivendor integrated security architecture, capable of covering specific functional areas. A justifiable approach, in terms of vendor specialization in niche areas, and which Datanet supports through advanced security system integrator competences, accumulated over the course of 20 years.

In this context, Datanet Systems specialists have presented the main advantages of BIG-IP Application Security Manager (ASM), a scalable F5 Web Application Firewall solution dedicated to the protection of classic, virtual and Cloud media infrastructures that provide protection against an extended range of attacks (“Zero-day”, DoS / DDoS, SQL injections, CSRF, etc.). The presentation focused on practical aspects such as ways of defining, implementing, and enforcing security policies using ASM, or how the solution identifies early on the pattern of a DoS Layer 7 attack.

Another F5 solution from the Datanet Systems portfolio, presented in the workshop, was Advanced Web Application Firewall (AWAF), which protects web and mobile applications against a wide range of threats. For this solution Datanet specialists have detailed the usual usage scenarios, namely how F5 AWAF protects organizations from theft of credentials, what are the benefits of Behavioral Analysis of DoS attacks (Behavioral Analysis DoS), and how Anti-Bot Mobile SDK can be used to detect legitimate traffic generated by mobile applications.

The multivendor approach was completed by Petre Popescu, Presales Manager Datanet Systems, who explained the advantages provided by StableNet Enterprise, an Infosim network management solution. The Datanet Specialist has analyzed and detailed the benefits of advanced tools for monitoring performance of business applications and processes, and automated tools for detecting issues and network events.

The Security Architecture Workshop is part of an extended series of events organized by Datanet Systems and addressed to cybersecurity professionals and organizations for which data, applications and business process protection are a priority.

Datanet Systems is one of the leading system integrators in Romania, with advanced competences in the field of integrated security architectures, as confirmed by the numerous projects implemented in critical infrastructures, financial-banking institutions, telecom operators, etc.

For more information, visit www.datanets.ro