When Birmingham managed services provider Abussi sought to scale up support for distributed customers, including schools with campuses across the UK, it turned to next-gen firewalling from Untangle.
Craig Sharp, founder of Abussi, says his company often deals with clients that have no network security in place. The cloud services and support provider needed a low-cost offering that would also work for smaller organisations and that eased remote management of multiple customers.
“Other comparable products only cover the basics for network security, with other elements requiring additional investment of either hardware or services to get a complete solution,” he explains in the post-implementation Untangle case study.
“We generally start off with the trial version of NG Firewall to gain visibility on the network and run reports to show the gaps that could be fixed.”
Sharp says that when a breach or a virus hits, or slow bandwidth becomes an issue, Abussi can quickly demonstrate the benefits of Untangle and its ability to easily fix problems.
This gives an opportunity to showcase the complete package — from compliant Layer 7 visibility, control and protection of the customer network to cost-effective remote management from any browser for MSPs.
NG Firewall enables Abussi to track customer bandwidth usage and spotlight waste, configuring policies and creating rules that relieve the strain — for example by limiting staff access to social media. With NG Firewall, Abussi can configure policies not just by day and time but also by user.
The next-generation firewall can also be downloaded to in-house hardware and tested for efficacy at each individual customer site, according to Untangle.
Chad McNaughton, technical marketing engineer at Untangle, tells Weirdware that the NG Firewall and Command Center solution is GDPR-compliant. It also offers multi-layered security, including two-factor authentication, for remote access to client boxes and alerts to unknown devices and traffic.
“With more data breaches occurring and sensitive information being released, businesses globally must protect their assets and personnel information from future threats,” McNaughton confirms.
“Implementing a next-generation firewall and intrusion prevention system is a necessary step for network administrators.”
For MSPs supporting education institutions, including school teachers and administrators, Untangle NG Firewall’s advanced web filtering and monitoring capabilities block malicious and inappropriate content.
This is in line with the Department of Education’s statutory guidance, says McNaughton. Untangle also works within UK Safer Internet Centre guidelines for appropriate filtering and monitoring provision.
Additionally, students can be kept focused on their studies — with potential time wasters such as chat apps and media streaming only made available outside class times, according to McNaughton.
Click here to read the full Abussi case study on Untangle’s website, or watch a five-minute Untangle explainer on YouTube here.
( Image: © 2021 Untangle )
