Stonesoft Customer Newsletter
The Stonesoft Newsletter is an email publication that provides up-to-date information on new
Stonesoft products, promotions, upcoming events, case studies, and other company-related news. The
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Stonesoft Customer Newsletter Issue 2, 2008
I want to thank you for your valuable input that you
provided us in the Stonesoft Customer Satisfaction Survey 2008. Customer Satisfaction is a
fundamental value and a key driver for us at Stonesoft. Based on your feedback, we are able to
further develop and enhance our core functional areas to ensure our customers success also in the
future.
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Summary
Company News
- Stonesoft Helps Organizations Meet Requirements Set by the New PCI Data Security Standard
- Success Factors of Stonesoft in Spain: Customer Commitment, Good Reputation and Strong Experience
- Stonesoft Participated in a Security Event Organized by IDC in Spain
- Upcoming Events
Stonesoft in the News
- The Hidden Challenges of Virtualization Podcast
- The Hidden Challenges of Securing a Virtual Environment Whitepaper
- Security as a Process Whitepaper
Customer Stories
-
New StoneGate Management Center Visualizes Physical and Virtual Network
Security
-
New StoneGate Management Center Videos Available
-
Complimentary Performance Upgrade of 25-33% in StoneGate FW-1050 and FW-1020
Appliances
Partner News
Tip of the month
Company News
Stonesoft Helps Organizations Meet Requirements Set by the New PCI Data Security Standard
Stonesoft helps organizations meet PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance requirements. The new
data security standard requires that after June 30, 2008 all Web-facing applications must be
protected against known attacks. The StoneGate Firewall/VPN and IPS provide easy and cost-efficient
solutions for comprehensive protection and PCI compliance reporting.
Read the whole press release
here.
Success Factors of Stonesoft in Spain: Customer Commitment, Good Reputation and Strong Experience
In this issue we will look into the Spanish security market and Stonesoft’s presence there.
Maria Campos, Country Manager discusses the challenges, success factors and future outlook of
Stonesoft in Spain.
How would you describe the development of Stonesoft´s presence in
Spain?
After eight years in the Spanish security market, we could say that the words that best
describe our evolution during this time are commitment, maturity and continuous growth. If we
consider the numerous changes that have taken place in the IT market in terms of purchases, sales
and mergers, Stonesoft is in fact one of the few vendors with such a stable path. During the last
years, we have been able to consolidate our positioning as well as increase our market share at an
annual growth three times higher than the average growth of the security market. We have achieved
this by working closer with our customers and partners, and by providing real added value to their
businesses.
What are Stonesoft’s key target groups in Spain?
Our key message is directed to large and medium-sized organizations with IT security needs.
We answer the common challenge of securing the information flow with the lowest possible impact on
infrastructure management, such as by optimizing the management of the resources. Thanks to the
versatility of the StoneGate Platform, we work with organizations from various industries such as
government, finance, telecommunications, retail and healthcare.
During the past few years, our ratio of winning new customers has been over 150% per
year. For instance, some of our latest projects are with customers including ACA Valores,
Infojobs, Renfe, ACS and several government departments. Also, even more important is that we have
a retention rate of, more than 90%. Me and my team strive to continuously provide operational
excellence to our customers in cooperation with our channel partners.
What about virtualization in Spain?
Together with VMware we can provide added value to virtual environments on the security side.
We must remember that virtual environments face the same security challenges as physical ones,
which means that we need to provide the appropriate solution to answer these needs. Our proposal,
based on simplifying the management of the virtual and physical network security, has proven to be
very attractive to our customers.
There are very few players that have Stonesoft’s extensive experience with securing virtual
environments. We have been supporting virtualization since 2002 and have an advantage of
understanding and helping organization overcome their virtualization challenges.
What is the main focus for Stonesoft in Spain during 2008?
We are committed to continuously enhancing our presence in accounts that benefit from using
our solutions. We plan to increase our focus on distributed organizations, Managed Service
Providers (MSPs), as well as companies in the retail and healthcare industrieswhere there is an
increased demand for our platform.
Our partners form a core part of this strategy and we will continue our close cooperation
with them in terms of business development, training and marketing.
Are you satisfied with the current distribution channel?
During the last two years we have paid special attention to our distribution channel in order
to get the optimal structure to cover the Spanish territory. We have achieved good results with our
two distributors, Afina and Ingecom. The agreement with Ingecom is helping us achieve our mission
of expanding our geographic presence into northern and eastern Spain. We are happy with this
structure and achieving satisfactory results, so I do not see any need to change it.
Stonesoft Spain offers training programs; do you think this has
had an influence on the company´s success in Spain?
There is no doubt that we are building closer working relationships with our customers and
partners by providing local training services in our local language. In addition to differentiating
us from our competitors, this reflects our commitment to providing added value and superior service
to our both our customers and channel.
The demand for training services is continuously growing and we are tremendously satisfied
with the good response we have achieved in this area.
Stonesoft Participated in a Security Event Organized by IDC in Spain
Stonesoft participated in a security event, organized by IDC on February 26th and 28th in Madrid
and Barcelona. The slogan of the event was “Security Challenges in a Connected and Convergent
Society,” with an introduction into security in virtual environments.
In the event, aimed at professionals in charge of computer security, recognized experts
shared their knowledge on different trends, the latest solutions in the market and updates in the
area of information security.
During the event, María Campos, Country Manager for Stonesoft in Spain, held a presentation
with two of Stonesoft’s new clients, RENFE and Infojobs, entitled “The Challenge of Secure
Virtualization: Real Security for an Increasingly Virtual World." The presentation included an
analysis showing on how necessary it is to optimize processes from a security point of view in
complex and distributed environments with limited resources. The presentation also included a case
study about security in distributed organizations.
This event gave attendees the opportunity learn more about the importance of securing the
information flow and about different security solutions in a world with a continuously increasing
information loads.
Upcoming Events
Check out upcoming events
here.
Stonesoft in the News
In Virtual Environments Maintaining Visibility is Key (TechNewsWorld)As corporations increasingly virtualize their environments, they are finding that
traditional physical security and network applications are not adequate for their needs.
"Most network security solutions are based on custom-made ASICs (application-specific
integrated circuits) running customized software, and don't provide adequate security in a virtual
environment," said Mark Boltz, senior solutions architect at Stonesoft.
In a "really good" virtual solution, all the elements of a physical environment –
the Web servers, application middleware and the back-end databases – are virtualized, but then,
external network security devices "can't see virtual systems talking to other virtual systems, and
can't see if the virtual system is compromised or running rogue software," he added.
Read the whole article
here
More media coverage about virtualization below:
Virtualization: History repeats itself
with a search for security
(Government Computer News)
VMworld: Stonesoft builds virtual firewall
(SC Magazine)
Firewall, VPN und Intrusion Prevention für virtuelle Netzwerk-Umgebungen
(SearchNetworking.de)
Stonesoft mette
in comunicazione il mondo fisico con la dimensione virtuale
(DataManager)
The Hidden Challenges of Virtualization Podcast
To find out what you need to consider as your organization embraces virtualization, now you can
listen to “The Hidden Challenges of Virtualization” podcast featuring Robert Whiteley, Senior
Analyst, Network Operations & Architecture for Forrester Research, and Mark Boltz, Senior
Solutions Architect for Stonesoft.
The podcast will explore the critical impact of virtual technology including:
- The different types of virtualization and how they impact your network
- How virtual solutions can help overcome emerging challenges
- Recommendations for maximizing your network investments for a virtual infrastructure
- How security in a virtual environment is a mounting issue
Register to download the podcast
here.
The Hidden Challenges of Securing a Virtual Environment Whitepaper
Virtualization is taking the IT industry by storm. In a recent InformationWeek poll, 70 percent
of the respondents reported they’re running at least one virtual server, yet less than 12 percent
have a security strategy tailored to their virtual environment. Where does your organization fit in
these statistics?
Find out how to ensure the security of your virtualized environments. Register to download
the Stonesoft whitepaper “The Hidden Challenges of Securing a Virtual Environment”
here.
Security as a Process Whitepaper
New demands are driving tremendous transformation in data centers and networks. An eroding
perimeter, data center consolidation, dynamic data center architectures, fully converged networks,
and new generations of applications vastly complicate security. IT must adopt a cyclical,
process-oriented view of security, driven by risk analysis, and become more proactive and rooted in
both security procedures and technologies. To minimize the effects of complexity, technologies
should be centrally managed, highly interoperable, scalable, and ideally deployable even inside a
virtual infrastructure.
Find out how you can take a more proactive approach to managing security.
Download the whitepaper
here.
Customer Stories
StoneGate Ensures Always-on Business Connectivity for Global Operations in Bermuda
Based in Bermuda, and one of the largest off-shore based law firms, Conyers Dill & Pearman
needed a superior networking solution to ensure continuous business uptime and minimize the
difficulties of managing a complex distributed network. This was essential to maintaining the firm’s
global productivity, especially in remote places.
After evaluating several solutions, the company chose to cluster and deploy the StoneGate
firewall/VPN solution with Multi-Link™ technology to guarantee seamless ISP and device failover,
maintain always-on connectivity across its branch locations despite ISP downtime, device outages or
inclement weather, and enhance network performance.
Read the
Conyers Dill & Pearman Case Study
Read other case studies
Product News
New StoneGate Management Center Visualizes Physical and Virtual Network Security
Stonesoft introduces StoneGate Management Center (SMC) 4.3 for advanced unified management. The
new SMC offers a fully customizable, graphical monitoring portal, an executive summary on the
network security status and a real time view to the network. The new SMC lowers the threshold for
security administrators to start protecting virtual environments, because they can be managed
exactly like regular network security appliances. This enables organizations to immediately protect
their fast growing virtual environments.
Read more about the new SMC
here
New StoneGate Management Center Videos Available
The StoneGate Management Center (SMC) forms the core of the StoneGate Platform, providing
unified management for StoneGate Firewall, VPN and IPS solutions. The SMC manages the security
solution holistically, utilizes shared network elements and provides shared logging, reporting,
auditing, and other tools.
Don´t miss the opportunity to check our latest videos where you see SMC in action:
Click here to pick a video
Complimentary Performance Upgrade of 25-33% in StoneGate FW-1050 and FW-1020 Appliances
The firewall throughput has been upgraded from 800 Mbps to 1 Gbps in the StoneGate FW-1050
appliance and from 400 Mbps to 500 Mbps in StoneGate FW-1020 appliance. Also the VPN performance of
these appliances has been upgraded from 150 Mbps to 200 Mbps. These complimentary performance
upgrades are available for all new customers as well as customers with a valid support and
maintenance contracts. The increased firewall and VPN throughput will be updated automatically
during the next license upgrade.
Training News
Check Out the StoneGate Courses Available
Stonesoft has a full schedule of StoneGate classes available through the end of the year around
the globe in Helsinki (Finland), Atlanta (USA), Milan and Rome (Italy), Frankfurt (Germany), Madrid
(Spain) and Reading (UK). You can choose between different IPS and Firewall/VPN courses, both on
fundamental and advanced level.
Read more about course outlines, timetables and further details
here.
Partner News
Stonesoft Expands Distribution in Europe
Since May, the StoneGate solutions of Stonesoft have been available in Germany, Austria and
Switzerland through Magirus, a leading distributor of IT solutions in Europe. Working with
Stonesoft aims to provide an even higher level of support and better market positioning for its
customers and partners.
Read the whole press release
here.
Tip of the Month
Did you know that you can get FREE online training for StoneGate Firewall/VPN 4.2?
Register for free online training
here.