9th September 2008 - With the steady rise in Internet-borne threats to its network, financial services company Prudential recognised the need to upgrade the web security platform for PGDS, its global IT organisation that provides 24-hour infrastructure support to its international businesses, in order to minimise business risk and maximise employee productivity.

Calyx was selected as Prudential’s technology partner to advise and implement a web security solution and provide professional consultancy services. As part of this, Calyx has been providing regular product upgrades for Prudential to ensure its security capabilities stay ahead of the evolving threat landscape.   

Prudential needs a web security solution that allows staff to use web browsers and Internet based facilities safely, without risk to the business.

Colin Newman, Web Infrastructure Manager at Prudential, is responsible for the organisation’s Internet facing security infrastructure:

“As Internet communications are such a prevalent and vital tool in the workplace, employees have the capacity to unwittingly open backdoors for viruses just by using seemingly innocent applications such as IM or personal email.”

According to Newman, the problem extends even further than security: “Employees can impinge on company productivity by using up crucial bandwidth for video or music file sharing for example, or even impose upon legal liability through exposing private company information on the web.”

To combat these threats, Prudential identified the need to upgrade its existing security solution in order to comprehensively deal with the plethora of Web vulnerabilities it was facing.

Following a competitive tender, Prudential chose Calyx who chose to deploy a Blue Coat solution to support over 8,500 users, blocking Internet security threats and inappropriate content, and providing better management of employees’ activities on the web.

The new system has state-of-the-art caching capabilities and can scan up to 90 Mbps of traffic for viruses or any other malicious content as well as user identification and authentication tools, providing Prudential with vital visibility and control over their employees’ web communications. 

Newman continued: “The increased control over our employees’ use of bandwidth for Web browsing purposes means that the applications that are most critical to our business are performing well and all security threats are contained before any damage is done.”
 
Andy Mills, Managing Director at Calyx comments, “We have been working with Prudential on a variety of IT projects over the last eight years and are pleased to extend our services for them into the Web security space. At Calyx we understand the importance of security for a company like Prudential and this is a great example of how our professional IT services are able to provide ongoing advice and support to our longstanding customers.”