Stonesoft Customer Newsletter
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Stonesoft Customer Newsletter Issue 4, 2008
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Dear
Customer,Summary
Company News
- Stonesoft positioned in the Challengers Quadrant in Gartner´s Enterprise Network Firewalls Magic Quadrant
- Latest News From Stonesoft U.K.
- StoneBlog: Stonesoft goes 2.0
Stonesoft in the News
- Conversation with Stonesoft
- Stonesoft received order from Russia at the value of USD 1,9 million
- Thema TIC : la sécurité totale, réalité ou utopie ?
- Le soluzioni per la sicurezza virtuale StoneGate certificate per la piattaforma VMware
- Stonesoft liefert Firewall für Remote-Standorte
Webcasts and Whitepapers
Customer Stories
- Laboratorios Rubió Bets on Stonesoft to Secure its Communications and Increase the Availability of its Resources on Network
- Stonesoft Optimizes Wise Business Forms’ Network Performance and Security at Significant Savings
Product News
Training News
Partner News
Company News
Stonesoft positioned in the Challengers Quadrant in Gartner´s Enterprise Network Firewalls Magic Quadrant
Stonesoft has been positioned in the Challengers section in Gartner´s latest Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Network Firewalls report. Gartner regards the enterprise firewall market as “one of the largest and most mature security markets.” Gartner evaluates vendors based on the following criteria: ability to execute, which includes product or service, overall viability, sales execution/pricing, market responsiveness and track record, market execution and customer experience and operations; and completeness of vision, comprising of market understanding and strategy, sales strategy, offering strategy, business model, vertical, industry and geographic strategy and innovation.
Read the press release about Gartner Magic Quadrant.
Latest News From Stonesoft U.K.
In this issue, Ashish Patel, Country Manager at Stonesoft UK, describes the strategies and activities carried out by the UK office and discusses the market opportunities and challenges for 2009.
Q: Please outline the structure and sales strategy for Stonesoft UK?
In the UK, we are very much focused on driving sales through direct touch sales. Our partners really are our eyes and ears out in the market. They have their fingers on the pulse of what’s driving enterprise security strategy and, hence purchases, so it is important that our partners are an extension of our sales, marketing and service operations.
We have a small team of channel managers that work directly with our partners to manage existing customers and drive sales and marketing activities towards prospects. They, in turn, are supported by a team of pre-sales engineers that work directly with partners on proof of concept projects and implementations with customers. Also, as a company, one of the strengths we have is that we help our MSSP channel partners support customers directly, which is something that not many competitors take the time to do.
Stonesoft technology is built to deliver in the largest of enterprises, and is proven at that level with a number of UK customers. However, we are able to deliver that large enterprise feature set at a small to medium enterprise price level and, through our channel partners, have been very successfully building our SME customer base.
Our partner base is key to the continuing take up of Stonesoft products and solutions among UK enterprises and, quite rightly, we put the vast majority of our resources into the channel.
Q: What does the UK market look like for Stonesoft UK?
Stonesoft UK works across most vertical markets including financial, telecoms, government, retail, leisure and entertainment, selling a variety of business continuity, security and virtualisation solutions. Geographically we have won accounts from across the UK and Ireland, with a high concentration of accounts having been won from the North-West of England.
One particular area of success for the UK team has been within local government organisations thanks to the product suite having achieved Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL) 4+ of the Common Criteria international security evaluation standard. The purpose of the certification is to ensure confidence that the system’s principle security features are reliably implemented, tested to the varying degrees, and meet set requirements.
Q: Why do you believe organisations are choosing Stonesoft here in the UK above its competitors?
The fact that multiple security features are combined into one centrally managed system that spans all of our solutions, and at a reasonable cost in comparison to our competitors, is definitely a big bonus for customers, especially in the current climate. Prospects and customers I visit instantly recognise the cost savings and the benefits of one easy-to-use management centre that reduces administration time especially if they have previously had to deal with multiple vendors.
I also believe that we have a unique product offering for virtualised environments that is currently ahead of the curve. At virtualisation events I have attended recently, I had discussions with key IT employees at some of the largest global banks and airlines who simply had not even considered the security implications of their virtualisation strategies. As soon as I explained how virtualisation changes security requirements - and the vulnerabilities they were therefore leaving their organisations open to - their jaws dropped and I had a very captive audience!
Q: What are the latest developments from Stonesoft UK?
As a result of our collaborative work within the channel, we have recently announced a major partnership deal with Magirus, a pan-European distributor focused on virtualisation solutions that was very well received by the UK media. This partnership will offer the channel a simplified route to providing their customers with security solutions for virtualisation projects and the media exposure has already opened a number of exciting connections and leads.
We are also proud to announce that our partner Cohort is now the first accredited training centre for our products and believe this will help enhance the profile and understanding of our technology among channel partners.
Q: What do you see as the key challenges, market opportunities and objectives for 2009?
Obviously everyone is concerned about the effects of the economic downturn and I think we will begin to see budgets being streamlined and constrained to products that are considered “essential” or can provide very clear return on investment. From our perspective we see this very much as an opportunity not a threat.
With a very clear return on investment, interest in virtualisation continues to be high so we are confident that our security solutions for virtualised environments are an ‘essential’ purchase as part of these investments. Further, organisations that are looking at replacing or upgrading their existing security or business continuity solutions are taking a keen interest in Stonesoft because we are able to help them not only consolidate multiple functions into a single product, so reducing costs, but also to simplify ongoing support via the centralised management portal.
As a local sales organisation we have had phenomenal growth since I joined the company, doubling our turnover in just over two years. This is undoubtedly due to the hard work from the dedicated team that I am lucky enough to have here. I believe that the current market issues such as the credit crisis and PCI compliance, together with the help of our dedicated channel partners and distributors, will help to ensure we exceed our targets once again in 2009.
There is nothing better than open and interactive communication. To encourage this, we have launched StoneBlog , the new community unifying Stonians, StoneGate users, and Stonesoft passionates from around the world. StoneBlog (http://stoneblog.stonesoft.com) is a place where you can find the latest news, information, discussions, hints and tips and tutorials about StoneGate solutions. StoneBlog will be moderated by Stonesoft employees but information can be contributed, published, and discussed by everyone willing to! Go visit StoneBlog , to read what's already available, register to enable yourself to contribute and come back often to see it growing with lots of cool, interesting, useful information.
Waiting for you there,
StoneBlog Admin Team
Check out upcoming events here
Stonesoft in the Second Security Industry National Meeting in Spain (ENISE)
Stonesoft participated in the Second Security Industry National Meeting in Spain (ENISE), an event organized with the aim of highlighting the importance of the security industry in Spain and to convene its key players to enhance the discussion and exchange of ideas. The central themes of this year´s event were banking and insurance, public administration, and utilities.
The Second edition of ENISE was celebrated from 22 to 24 Oct., after marking in its first edition an inflection point as it analyzed the industry and the challenges of the coming years. The next step of this second edition was to renew that analysis, both from the perspective of supply and demand, and with particular emphasis on the three key sectors.
Stonesoft participated in the workshop "Secure Infrastructure in the financial information systems," which covered topics such as preventing the leakage of information, audit and internal control of financial institutions, mainframe technologies in the service of the security environments in financial and job security, among others.
Stonesoft in the News
- Conversation with Stonesoft
- Stonesoft received order from Russia at the value of USD 1,9 million
- Thema TIC : la sécurité totale, réalité ou utopie ?
- Le soluzioni per la sicurezza virtuale StoneGate certificate per la piattaforma VMware
- Stonesoft liefert Firewall für Remote-Standorte
Podcasts and Whitepapers
Virtualization Security : Issues, Adoption, and Strategy for Success
Virtualization technology is being rapidly deployed by today's companies, but traditional security solutions are insufficient for protecting these environments. Taking a risk-based approach that combines the necessary requirements for both virtual and physical security can increase your organization's overall network security.
Read the whitepaper or listen to the podcast and learn more about:
- The important basics of implementing security for virtual environments.
- How to establish best practices in integrating virtual and physical security strategies for comprehensive network protection.
- Different approaches to securing the virtual infrastructure and tips for choosing the right method for your company's needs.
Register for the whitepapers and podcasts .
Customer Stories
Laboratorios Rubió Bets on Stonesoft to Secure its Communications and Increase the Availability of its Resources on Network
Laboratorios Rubió in Spain has introduced StoneGate solution as a firewall to ensure high security and availability of their networked resources. After taking into account the results of the security audit, conducted by Secor, and the growth expectations of the Laboratories Rubió, the results indicated a need for a more distributed and complex security. Another goal was to provide communications and security of increased availability, to centralize policies control and network access. StoneGate replaced a previous firewall from Symantec, which did not have the ability to manage the bandwidth and did not meet the specific security control needs of the laboratory.
Implementation
The deployment was guided by Secdor. Thanks to their working knowledge of the whole laboratory environment, the time spent at the design of the new rules was significantly reduced.
In the future, Laboratorios Rubió plans to have a second redundant unit to ensure the availability of the platform in the headquarter, and deploy StoneGate in the rest of their delegations.
Read the entire press release about Laboratorios Rubió in Spanish
Stonesoft Optimizes Wise Business Forms’ Network Performance and Security at Significant Savings
Wise Business Forms (Wise), a leading print manufacturer, recently implemented StoneGate Firewall/VPN solution to easily integrate disparate office connections and significantly improve network performance and security. The deployment enabled Wise to successfully move from a Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) connection to a combination of more cost-effective Internet Service Providers (ISPs). As a result of the superior connectivity, ease of deployment and administration, and security advancements, Wise expects to record a ROI within 16 months of implementing the StoneGate solution.
Read the entire press release about Wise Business Forms.
Product News
Stonesoft has been named a finalist in the 2009 SC Awards program for outstanding achievement in information technology (IT) security. The StoneGate SSL VPN solution was named in the Best IPsec/SSL VPN category of the Reader Trust Award competition, which honors best-in-class security products and services.
The StoneGate SSL VPN was selected from more than 600 entries submitted in more than 30 technology categories. Winners will be chosen by a panel of readers that represent the circulation of SC Magazine. The Reader Trust Voting Panel is comprised of a cross section of SC Magazine readership that is comprised of large, medium and small enterprises from all major vertical markets.
“ The StoneGate SSL VPN is among today’s most respected security solutions as chosen by our panel. Security is a key challenge for IT organizations and businesses worldwide and our readers recognize that companies such as Stonesoft are helping them meet their security challenges,” said SC Magazine Editor-in-Chief Illena Armstrong.
Winners of this year’s SC Awards will be announced at a gala dinner and award ceremony to be held in San Francisco on April 21, 2009.
Stonesoft recently introduced the StoneGate FW-310 for full-scale network security at a competitive cost-performance ratio.
“The deployment and management of a full-scale network security solution requires resources and competence that most remote offices just don’t have. We have seen there is a clear demand for a solution that is easy to use and protects network data at the perimeter or at network segments. The new StoneGate FW-310 offers increased throughput and performance, enabling remote offices to protect their networks at a very competitive cost-performance and cost-functionality ratio,” highlights Klaus Majewski, Vice President of Marketing at Stonesoft.
Read the press release about StoneGate FW-310
Stonesoft has retained Network Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) Certification for its StoneGate IPS- 2000 from ICSA Labs, an independent division of Verizon Business. Stonesoft remains among a handful of selected vendors with this distinction. The StoneGate IPS-2000 version 4.3.0 successfully passes network IPS maintenance testing by providing protection against enterprise vulnerabilities.
Read the press release about the certification of StoneGate IPS-2000
Stonesoft recently announced that its StoneGate IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) provides pre-emptive protection against the latest vulnerability announced by Microsoft. StoneGate customers have had full protection against this most recent vulnerability since August 2006. On 23 rd of October, Microsoft provided an emergency fix for a critical vulnerability in their system. The Stonesoft Vulnerability Analysis Team advised that Stonesoft already offers pre-emptive protection for the vulnerability in question. Thus, all Stonesoft customers that use StoneGate IPS to protect their Windows networks are protected against this vulnerability.
Read the press release about StoneGate IPS protection about the Microsoft vulnerability
Stonesoft complements its StoneGate product family by introducing a UTM (Unified Threat Management) solution for remote locations. Available as an integral part of the new StoneGate FW-310 firewall appliance, the StoneGate UTM protects corporate networks from multiple threats and secures the information flow of even the most remote offices. The StoneGate UTM ties together virus protection and intrusion prevention for Web traffic, e-mail and VoIP.
Read the press release about StoneGate UTM
Stonesoft recently introduced the StoneGate SSL VPN 1.2 for full mobility, security and ease of administration. With the new version, log details and monitoring of SSL VPN appliances are integrated with the StoneGate Management Center, providing a centralized view of all remote connections.
Read the press release about StoneGate SSL VPN 1.2
Training News
StoneGate Firewall 4.3 Online Upgrade Training introduces the new features and enhancements in: StoneGate Management Center 4.3, StoneGate Firewall/VPN 4.3, StoneGate IPS 4.3 and StoneGate SSL VPN 1.2.
The course is free of charge and it is intended for StoneGate administrators who have been using previous versions of StoneGate products and would like to have a quick summary of the new features. The course also introduces many tips and tricks that help you to make the daily administration tasks more efficient.
You also have the possibility to take the StoneGate Management Center Administrator certification exam after the course. For more information about the exam, please contact training@stonesoft.com . We hope you'll enjoy the course!
Partner News
Stonesoft and Magirus, one of the leading IT solution providers in Europe, have further extended their distribution agreement to cover the whole Europe. After initially covering Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy, the agreement has now been extended to include Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal and the Middle East. Through the cooperation with Magirus, Stonesoft further strengthens its market position and support services for its partners and customers.
Read the press release about Stonesoft and Magirus
Tip of the Month
Would you like to get rid of extra elements in your system? Try the "Search Unused Elements" tool (File > System Tools > Search Unused Elements) and see all the elements that are not referred.
Did you know you can drag & drop elements from one tab to another? For example, try to drag and drop a situation directly from the logs to the policy that is opened in another tab."