SIM secures campus with Juniper Networks
ConvergenceAsia staff
25/07/2008

Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) is securing its campus, lowering bandwidth costs and enhancing user productivity using Juniper Networks’ networking and security solutions to deliver secure remote access, routing and network firewall measures across its campus.

The new infrastructure supports IP traffic growth from SIM’s expanding staff and student population, including time sensitive network services for administration, communications and coursework.

Founded in 1964, SIM is one of Singapore’s oldest private education organisations. Rapid student growth led to a corresponding increase in campus network traffic, intrusion attacks and the need for fast, reliable and secure access at scale for remote and mobile employees. SIM needed to filter content, control bandwidth utilisation and protect student information such as examination results and other sensitive data.

The challenge was to deploy a comprehensive and integrated security solution that would ensure constant vigilance for both the internal and external networks, said Jeffrey Ho, Manager, Network & IT Services, SIM.

“We evaluated other security point products, such as anti-virus, Web filtering and anti-spam solutions, but they did not meet our expectations or cost structure. Only the Juniper security suite met all our key criteria for performance, security, reliability, and the ability to handle high traffic loads, while minimising operational expenses and support,” he said.

SIM is securing its network perimeter with Juniper NetScreen and security devices, which tightly integrate best-in-class Unified Threat Management (UTM) features to protect against worms, Trojans, viruses and other malware. Additionally, Juniper’s firewall/VPN solution offers full Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) capability with the optional Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP) security modules.

SIM also benefits from multiple management mechanisms including complete command line interface, WebUI or centralised management via the NetScreen Security Manager to facilitate rapid deployment while minimising ongoing operational costs.

Secure remote access for SIM’s faculty is provided by Juniper’s remote access equipment which uses SSL, the security protocol found in all standard Web browsers, as the secure access transport mechanism. The use of SSL eliminates the need for client-software deployment, changes to internal servers and costly ongoing client maintenance and desktop support.

Juniper’s remote access appliances also offer sophisticated partner/customer extranet features that enable controlled access to differentiated users and groups, with no infrastructure changes, no DMZ deployments, and no software agents.

“Centres of learning, such as SIM, depend on fast, reliable and secure networks to accelerate the delivery of intellectual property and vital resources to better serve their constituents,” said Beni Sia, Juniper’s country manager for Singapore.

With Juniper’s high-performance network infrastructure and best-in-class security solutions, SIM has greater choice and control in securing network performance without compromise, all while enhancing user productivity and reducing operating costs, Sia added.

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