Advizex Empowers Financial Industry Leader With State-of-the-Art Network Security and Efficiency

The Problem

A major financial services company that deals with private and public sector clients was coming to the end of an expensive contract for legacy Cisco core switches. So, they searched the market for a more flexible security and network vendor that could reduce costs, simplify management, increase efficiency, improve security, and enhance compliance.

"Based on their business, they have significant compliance drivers," says Rob Dunn, an account manager at Fortinet. "So, any technology decision they make, compliance requirements and security are certainly top of mind."

The Partnership

Advizex's solution architects started working right away. We spent several months on-site assessing the company's security and networking environment. Then, we provided their team with several viable options.

"We always like to sit in front of the customer and say, 'How can we help? What challenges can we solve today?'" says Eric Anderson, a network and security solution architect at Advizex. "But it's also about educating the customer and letting them know what we're seeing in the marketplace and helping them any way we can."

"Fortinet and Advizex worked incredibly well on this project from the get-go," adds Dunn. "Everyone came to meetings fully prepared. We talked about what our goals were, and all our interactions were great."

The company had experienced some success with Fortinet products in the past. However, they needed a simplified management solution that took care of both switching and networking so that the company could continue to provide high-quality services, security and compliance, and technology innovations for its many clients, including federal government agencies.

The Solution

Security is a huge deal for this company, and so is compliance. So, we recommended the Fortinet switching and networking ecosystem, which takes care of both. This innovative infrastructure comprises the following:

· Two FortiSwitch 448Es

· Two FortiSwitch 1048s for each of the company's data centers

· Two FortiGate 600Fs

Says Anderson:

"The security fabric provided the strong security that [the company's] legacy infrastructure had lacked. That was all at a fraction of the cost of what Cisco offered."

The Results

Our Fortinet partnership allowed the company to share threat intelligence through switches and create more of a security mesh architecture. Having both the network and core layer, as well as the layer 3 routing layer, all working together within the same common security fabric was the key to success.

Security and network vendor consolidation also led to a reduction in costs and an increase in security. By creating a single operating system, we reduced overhead and extended the security fabric the company already developed.

So, what's next for this partnership?

"We want to keep this relationship healthy," says Dunn. "Once everything is implemented, we can take it from there and realign with what the priorities are moving forward."

About Advizex

Advizex specializes in infrastructure and enterprise application solutions. From storage to network security, we drive innovation that creates incredible business value. Learn more about Advizex today.

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