Cedecra

With the help of VEM sistemi, Cooperative Credit Banks of Emilia Romagna choose to implement Fortinet security solutions and Certego service platform.

The IT services company of the Cooperative Credit Banks of Emilia-Romagna, Cedecra Informatica Bancaria has renewed its security infrastructure by relying on VEM sistemi and choosing the firewall solutions of Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT) and the services IT and cybercrime of Certego.

Seven years after its deployment, Cedecra’s firewall infrastructure was technologically obsolete and the performance of the firewall cluster no longer adequate to adequately respond to the changing needs of society. In addition, in recent years, user demands in terms of Internet access, the opening to Web 2.0 and social networking, and the dissemination of multimedia content for training have changed profoundly.

The goals that Cedecra’s technical structure set out to achieve through technological renewal were an increase in the performance of the firewall cluster so that it would be more adequate to current traffic volumes, greater real-time visibility of events and traffic, and a better perception of network activity and its traceability to each user. They also wanted to achieve qualitative and quantitative recognition of network applications, greater assurance in threat detection (particularly activity by botnets or malware), and the ability to provide Cedecra customers with answers in terms of flexibility and operability without sacrificing necessary security precautions.

Following a software selection process that compared several vendors, Cedecra chose Fortinet security solutions, which, in collaboration with reference partner VEM sistemi, was found to be highly competitive from both a performance and economic standpoint. The availability of entry-level equipment that can be purchased at affordable prices even by small banks such as those served by Cedecra contributed to the choice of the Fortinet offering in anticipation of possible future distributed installations.

VEM was able to support the client from the design phase, accompanying it in the migration from the pre-existing infrastructure – characterized by great complexity – to the new configuration, minimizing the disruptions that such a complex migration could have entailed. VEM also provided innovative value-added security services for which the Fortinet firewall proved to be an essential element. In this regard, Fortinet technology was effectively integrated within the Certego service platform-the VEM sistemi group company specializing in the provision of managed IT security and counter cybercrime services-allowing it to constantly monitor anomalies in data traffic flows, alert the client in the event of intrusions or compromise of systems, and support them in incident management operations.

Cedecra has deployed a cluster consisting of two FortiGate-3240C high reliability Active-Passive mode appliances operating at the Bologna site. A similar third single appliance is planned at the Disaster Recovery site.

The FortiGate-3240C integrated security application offers top-level performance, along with flexible deployment and high security for large enterprise networks. The high-availability cluster of two FortiGate-3240Cs serves a fairly complex network providing services to Cooperative Credit Banks in Emilia-Romagna, both for Internet access and for all services strictly related to banking operations. Approximately 35 site-to-site IPSEC VPNs have also been migrated from the old firewall installation that securely connect Cedecra via the Internet to various institutions and entities.

Fortinet

Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) protects networks, users, and data from evolving threats. As the world’s leading provider of high-performance network security solutions, we enable enterprises and government to consolidate and integrate stand-alone technologies without impacting performance. Unlike costly, inflexible, low-performance alternatives, Fortinet solutions enable customers to adopt new technologies and seize business opportunities while protecting critical systems and content. Learn more about on. www.fortinet.com.