Enterasys announced that the Australian National Audit Office is employing its built-in security networking solutions for providing a unified communications platform. This is expected to cater to the needs of 320 staff members using 650 networked devices like laptops, PCs, MFDs and VoIP phones.

 

Enterasys (News - Alert) is the network infrastructure and security division of Siemens Enterprise Communications Group and its solutions and support will enable the limited IT staff of ANAO to achieve total network visibility and protection. This also allows the auditors to remotely connect their two office locations.

 

The Australian National Audit Office is a government agency and operates two offices, one in Canberra and the other in Sydney. It provides a full range of audit services to the Australian Parliament and Commonwealth public sector agencies and statutory bodies.

 

“Because of the nature of the work we do, security and granular visibility of network activity was our highest priority when replacing our end-of-life solution,” said Gary Pettigrove, CIO of ANAO.

 

“We also needed a solution that would support our initiative to add VoIP to the environment. Enterasys was able to demonstrate superior security features and support for VoIP at a fraction of the cost of comparable vendor solutions,” said Pettigrove.

 

The Audit Office selected Enterasys as it also supports IPv6 besides supporting financial, human resource and Microsoft (News - Alert) business applications, and exhibits the flexibility to operate in a multi-vendor environment.

 

ANAO’s network comprises of Enterasys N-Series switches in the core, the network edge and across four floors of desktop PCs in the main office in Canberra. The network also includes a secure Internet café for office visitors and guests. The built-in dynamic routing capabilities of the N-Series can prioritize voice traffic over ANAO’s Alcatel-Lucent VoIP telephony system.

 

Enterasys Intrusion (News - Alert) Prevention System helps the IT team in ANAO to stop undesirable protocols at the network edge. The IPS responds to vulnerabilities automatically and prevents attacks by locating and containing threats, said the company.

 

Pettigrove continued, “As auditors, our job is to gather documents from government agencies, and store them on our network. We also built an Information Security Best Practices and Compliance Manual for all the agencies to follow. It would be embarrassing if we were to have a data leak.”

 

He also said that the Enterasys IPS gives the ability to have a high level of granular visibility into the organization’s network, for keeping classified documents safe.