Have you ever asked yourself why you lock your front door at night?
As protections go, a locked door has limited value against a determined intruder. If someone really wants to get in, picking the lock or breaking the frame down are simple enough solutions against most doors. In many cases, the intruder can simply navigate around the door to find an easier point of entry.
So why do we lock the door?
Because it acts as a deterrent for the casual intruder, it’s a ticked box for insurance coverage and most importantly, it makes us feel safe. Unfortunately it also creates that false assumption of absolute safety.
This is similar to many IT protections, and it’s something we face on a daily basis with clients.
One of our major clients initially had their IT infrastructure covered by an incredibly expensive array of security software and protections. They regularly scanned for intrusions and applied the latest security patches. On paper, they were covered. They had their front door locked. It gave them the assumption of safety. They didn’t realise their front door didn’t protect them against all threats, nor did they have a system in place for how to manage an intruder once they were inside.
IT threats are not like physical threats. You can see an intruder in your house, but a digital intruder inside your business can operate unseen for a long time. The points of access are far greater and more vulnerable than your house, yet the solution remains the same: If you control all the access points, you keep out the intruders.
Threat Assessment
While threats can be both internal and external, the great weakness in IT security is the double-edged sword of the Internet. It’s a valuable resource, but without controls in place it becomes an open access point for attack.
The threats facing IT managers are not defeated by iron locks and metal, they are defeated by electronic safeguards. They are defeated by extensive management and control, with refined methods of information delivery.
However it takes more than a simple barrier to safely protect your IT infrastructure. What’s required is a dynamic system that acts as more than just a door, it controls the pathways in and out of your system, and organises the system itself.
Teba achieves this aim through our use of Citrix technologies.
Citrix Netscaler
One of our greatest assets at Teba is our use of Citrix Netscaler, the most advanced application delivery controller in the world.
Netscaler is progress in full motion, adaptable to each individual business’ network needs, and constantly updating to meet every possible challenge. Able to be delivered either virtually or as a hardware appliance, Netscaler optimises the information flow of your business; anything that wants to get access to your network from the Internet must go through that gateway first.
This provides a host of advantages beyond preventing attacks. If your business’ network is the asset to be protected, Netscaler doesn’t simply act as a static front door to access it, it’s an active, moving agent in protecting, supporting and integrating your technologies together to optimise your network itself.
Working in concert with other Citrix technologies such as XenDesktop and Sharefile, Netscaler can achieve the security and management goals of any network infrastructure, improving every possible aspect such as data compression, caching, virtualisation, communications, organisation and access.
Through uniting every component of the network together under a single command and control centre rather than working several separate systems out of sync or taking the risks of housing information in third-party applications on the Internet; Netscaler provides the best possible security for your network. By putting the network fully in your control, protecting it with extensive safeguards and providing cutting edge synergy between your network’s technologies, it provides the optimisation to cover you from attacks and catastrophes, and the resources and awareness to respond to any threat.
Playing it Safe
When our client first came to us, they wanted to achieve an increase in productivity and management for their systems through the resources we provide. What they came away with was not only those resources, but a new understanding on how productivity and management are not standalone elements of an IT system.
Their $80,000 security was monumental in scale but disturbingly, limited in purpose, not least because it gave the client assumptions. They didn’t come to us about a security issue, because they didn’t believe they had any.
Now, with Netscaler in place, that client’s security has advanced years ahead of their starting point through the extensive control placed in their hands, and the continuous evolution and optimisation of their system for a third of the price they paid for a barrier. They no longer simply lock the door and walk away. They had a working, secure gateway.
While the problems and threats have constantly evolved, the solution to playing it safe with security has had the same answer for thousands of years: Stay ahead of the threats, control the situation, and invest in the best secure gateway available to ensure you’re protected.
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