City of Greater Sudbury CASE_STUDY
Existing encryption product in place caused reoccurring issues of data corruption, needed a solution that would encrypt data with zero instances of lost data due to corruption.
SecureDoc Enterprise Server, an all-in-one full disk encryption solution, with ability to encrypt data on various devices, manage encryption keys & enable seamless user authentication and data access.
greatersudbury.ca
Overview: Issues faced (data breaches, device theft/loss risk to UT) that led to encryption requirement
Centrally located in Northeastern Ontario, the City of Greater Sudbury is home to more than 160,000 residents. Serving as a regional hub for financial and business services, tourism, healthcare and research, as well as education and government, it is imperative that the City of Greater Sudbury run like a well-oiled machine. The IT department manages the critical infrastructure for practically every facet of the city. They are responsible for ensuring that the hardware and technology needs for departments such as Public Works, Fire & Emergency and Water Treatment, are met. For any municipality, the importance of investing in the right technology, especially security technology, is critical to the safety of its inhabitants.
In a world where data breaches are capable of debilitating an organization's internal and external operations in a matter of minutes, municipalities like the City of Greater Sudbury are on high alert for any instance where falling victim to a malicious cyberattack is possible. The City's IT department is responsible for ensuring the data protection of any and all personal information tied to employees, as well as the city residents. As such, when an existing encryption product in place caused reoccurring issues of data corruption, the department realized that they not only needed a solution that would successfully encrypt data, but also one that promised zero instances of lost data due to corruption.
The existing encryption solution was proving itself to cause more technical headaches for the IT staff than could be handled, and was the leading cause behind an increasingly high volume of help desk calls. Employees were having trouble bypassing the solution's necessary credentials to log into their machines – productivity was being compromised and security was no longer being served. According to Jim Dolson, Manager of Hardware and Technology, City of Greater Sudbury, "The management of our previous encryption product was no longer feasible. The manpower cost required to implement the product and ensure that it would continue to do its job was not providing ROI.
Rationale: Review of what was needed to protect the organization (i.e., had to deal with X users, X devices and need to fully encrypt and secure removable media, etc.)
At the time of review, the IT department was looking for an encryption solution that could be implemented across 250 laptops. With the possibility of expanding the number ofusers, all of whom were dependent on the deployment's success, the team knew that the solution they ultimately chose needed to be efficient enough for a corporate wide rollout. The solution needed to reduce the amount of help desk calls that were backlogging the technical staff's resources and lastly, it needed to be completely transparent to end users.
Evaluation Process: Vendor selection, criteria vendors had to meet, major obstacles during evaluation
The evaluation process consisted of carefully testing four competitive products in the encryption market. Upon initial deployment in test environments, the IT team encountered various hardware issues with three of the four products, specifically as it related to hardware replacements and upgrades. In addition to these hardware issues, the team also found itself dealing with significant login and speed issues. Predisposed to a former solution that consistently proved itself to be unreliable in terms of hardware compatibility, the IT team found itself once again dealing with hardware problems that would continue to compromise the productivity and efficiency of the organization.
Selection Process: Why WinMagic was selected, expected benefits and product strengths vs. other vendors
The City of Greater Sudbury's IT department found what it was looking for with WinMagic's SecureDoc. An all-in-one full disk encryption, the solution's ability to encrypt data on various devices, to manage encryption keys and to enable seamless user authentication and data access across an organization's environment were key factors during the decision-making process. SecureDoc is a highly secure yet flexible solution that enables businesses to comply with privacy and security regulations by protecting sensitive data residing in laptops, desktops, servers and on removable media. SecureDoc provides customers like the City of Greater Sudbury with the most robust data encryption and security support in the industry, managing everything encryption related within the enterprise.
Says Dolson, "We chose WinMagic because of the unparalleled support provided during the initial pre-installation stages. The combination of application support, hardware support, ease of use and most importantly – ROI – made our decision to select SecureDoc easy."
Deployment: Review deployment process and best practices; impact on admin & user device performance; how they worked with WinMagic
Alongside the product's ability to successfully encrypt sensitive data without interrupting an end-user's experience, it was the level of onsite support that really drew the City of Greater Sudbury's team to WinMagic. A WinMagic engineer was present at the time of deployment and configuration, serving as an aid throughout the entire process. Any minor issues that occurred during the initial installation stages were quickly and efficiently solved. According to Dolson, his team found the deployment process to be "quick and painless."
Status: How is the solution working today? How is WinMagic supporting you? Are you realizing the benefits you expected? Any unexpected benefits?
Today, WinMagic's SecureDoc is installed on approximately 400 laptops. The City of Sudbury suspects that as more of its organization's employees continue to require mobile workstations, the need for encryption will continue to quickly escalate throughout the network. There has not been a single instance of HDD failure or corruption that was not manageable for recovery with SecureDoc - a stark contrast from the department's former encryption solution. The team can now confidently say that WinMagic's support and level of expertise is a welcome change that the technical staff has come to appreciate and now measures other vendors against the "WinMagic Standard". For more information on how WinMagic's SecureDoc can protect your data without interrupting user experience contact sales@winmagic.com
City of Greater Sudbury