As one of Tasmania’s most respected schools, St Mary’s College educates girls from kindergarten to grade 12. When the College’s gateway security was due for renewal, its IT team seized the opportunity to increase visibility of online threats. Inspired by a presentation by Fortinet at Data#3’s annual JuiceIT event, the College investigated the advantages of real-time reporting in tackling an ever-changing threat landscape.
St Mary’s College ICT Manager, Gerardo D’Amico, commented, “We needed the confidence that our technology would protect students and staff on the school network, but our appliance did the minimum we were after. It would protect us from malicious websites, but we didn’t have clear reporting on what was happening.”
The College’s IT team compiled a list of the modern security features needed to enable safe online access for students. The security gateway is a critical element of threat reduction, but with the contract on the existing solution ending, the College needed to install a replacement in a matter of days. D’Amico enlisted Data#3’s help.
“There was no hesitation – our account manager made a few calls and was able to reassure us that a unit would arrive, and it could be done, and in the end, it went like clockwork,” said D’Amico
Working out of hours, the College and Data#3 replaced the aging gateway with a Fortinet FortiGate 500E NextGen Firewall, a highly available platform that offers superior security visibility and welfare reporting. Together with Fortinet’s FortiAnalyzer, a powerful analytics-powered security and log management tool, the solution gives greater control of content allowed through the gateway. Its built-in intelligence enables increased visibility of traffic, leading to increased performance.
“We saw networking and internet access trends we could never have seen before. This is granular level reporting that can identify the exact device or person accessing an app or site, and having that level of reporting makes our job easier,” said D’Amico.
Data#3 Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Laurence Baynham, commented, “This is a great example of how technology can enable students to explore the online world more securely. The next-generation gateway plays a key role in IT security, and has helped St Mary’s College to balance security, performance and visibility.”
