Berdon Ledger Shows Net Gains in Productivity, Scalability Due to Symantec Security and Data Protection Solutions

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1 Berdon Ledger Shows Net Gains in Productivity, Scalability Due to Symantec Security and Data Protection Solutions With a huge volume of sensitive client information to protect, turned to Symantec to guard against a variety of threats. Symantec security products have provided completely effective protection against borne viruses even as the volume of threats has increased four-fold in two years. To ensure the integrity of its information, Berdon depends on data protection products and a PC imaging solution from Symantec as well. The firm has seen significant productivity improvements, including a 97 percent decrease in time to reimage corrupted PCs and an 85 percent decrease in backup time. Company Profile provides a broad array of accounting, tax, financial, and management advisory services to a range of individual and organizational clients. Industry Accounting Solution Data Protection Information Security Tax laws, client security drive needs for data protection With the U.S. Internal Revenue Service s tax code running to more than seven million words and 46,000 pages, an estimated 60 percent of individuals, businesses, and organizations filing a tax return now rely on professional service firms like to comply with the Treasury Department s dizzying array of rules and regulations. Founded in 1917, Berdon employs more than 350 professionals who provide accounting, tax, financial planning, and management advisory services to a broad range of clients from the firm s two locations in Manhattan and Jericho, New York. We believe the merger of Symantec and VERITAS will help us to reduce cost and complexity further by providing faster, easier, and integrated solutions for managing the company s data resources. With so much riding on the accuracy, timeliness, and integrity of every tax return, it is little wonder that Berdon takes extraordinary measures to safeguard the six terabytes of tax- and business-critical information it maintains for the firm s growing client base. To keep its clients trust while continuing to provide information integrity, Berdon must ensure that every one of its documents is secure, protected, and highly available. In addition, the company must guard against the never-ending onslaught of malicious code that arrives every day in the company s . Finally, Berdon must have a business continuity plan in place to ensure the company s ability to recover its data no matter what kind of disaster might occur. This responsibility means that job number one for Berdon s IT organization is to protect and secure its information around the clock. That job has been getting harder, due in part to the astronomical increase in the number of malicious threats in recent years. Five years ago, there were far fewer virus attacks than there are today, relates, network manager for Berdon. These days, we have to constantly monitor and upgrade our security infrastructure to keep pace.

2 A comprehensive information security and data protection solution based on Symantec and VERITAS software provides Berdon with substantial operational efficiencies, with results that include an 85 percent faster backup window and 97 percent faster PC reimaging. Every day Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange software blocks an average of 80 infected attachments... from reaching Berdon s Microsoft Windows 2003-based PC environment with 100 percent accuracy. Symantec delivers end-to-end antivirus protection Berdon s approach to information security is multilayered, relying on a combination of Symantec software products. Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition software defends the company s 350 desktop and laptop PCs, while Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange software protects the server against malicious agents carried by incoming . Berdon installed Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition and Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange software in 2001 to replace McAfee products, which had a history of generating conflicts with other applications and running too slowly for Berdon s fast-paced environment. As a financial institution, we rely on Symantec to prevent disruptions to our business caused by malicious code. Every day Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange software blocks an average of 80 infected attachments, an 800 percent increase from an average of 8 each day in 2003, from reaching Berdon s Microsoft Windows based PC environment with 100 percent accuracy, explains David Pikelny, network manager for Berdon. The Symantec products work well, and we re very pleased with their overall performance. With hundreds of new viruses coming out every week, Berdon appreciates Symantec s LiveUpdate technology, an integral part of Symantec s antivirus products. LiveUpdate delivers automatic antivirus updates to the company s PC and server environments for improved security, while reducing the administrative overhead of constant reminders to users to download new virus definitions. As a network manager, it s difficult for me to understand why anyone would not choose an antivirus product with an automatic update feature to protect the IT environment, relates Pikelny. With Symantec, we ve never had a virus penetrate our defenses, which makes my job much easier. It s reassuring to know that Symantec is protecting our network 24x7. Moving up from VERITAS Backup Exec to VERITAS NetBackup Building a resilient infrastructure requires paying attention to both information security and information integrity. Both VERITAS and Symantec products have played key roles in Berdon s information integrity strategy. The firm s experience with VERITAS products goes back to 2003, when it deployed VERITAS Backup Exec software to protect its business-critical data. VERITAS Backup Exec has provided us with reliable service over the years, recalls Pikelny. I rarely spent any time thinking about it. Berdon recently determined that it was time to upgrade its software data protection infrastructure. A couple factors drove this decision. To begin, the firm s volume of data was skyrocketing because of the increase in the number of computer-based applications and the growing acceptance of electronic document transfers, with a 25 percent annual increase in data volume over the last three years. And Berdon expects this dramatic growth curve to continue at an even greater rate over the next several years. Also, in order to realize productivity gains through streamlining the movement of documents while reducing the risk of accidental disclosure of sensitive client information through improper disposal of office trash, the firm planned to digitize all of its paper-based information as part of a paperless office initiative. In April, 2005, Pikelny and his team decided to migrate from VERITAS Backup Exec to VERITAS NetBackup Enterprise Server software, purchasing two licenses from Dell Inc., a

3 BERDON LLP Symantec partner. The decision was based on Berdon s successful experience with VERITAS Backup Exec software as well as its need for an enterprise-class backup-and-restore solution that could support the company s exponential growth in data. Berdon also appreciated the multiplexing backup feature in NetBackup software that promised to shorten the firm s backup window. Berdon also deployed VERITAS NetBackup Advanced Open File Option, to protect against open files getting left out of the backup job. To ensure that all critical data is effectively protected, Berdon relies on two additional software agents: VERITAS NetBackup Agent for SQL Server and VERITAS NetBackup Agent for Exchange Server. The decision to migrate to NetBackup software is already paying dividends for Berdon. The firm has accommodated rapid data growth, which is expected to increase from 2.5 terabytes today to more than three terabytes by the end of 2006, without having to increase backup administration staff. At the same time, backups are running 85 percent faster, taking only 4 hours now compared to the previous 26 hours. Enhancing business continuity solution with VERITAS Replication Exec With VERITAS NetBackup software handling day-to-day data protection, Pikelny turned his attention in late April, 2005 to improving the firm s business continuity strategy. Each of Berdon s two offices in Manhattan and Jericho has an ADIC Scalar i2000 tape backup system. Since each site was performing daily backup increments, the archive copy could be as old as 24 hours, putting a substantial amount of data at risk. Also, tape-based recovery can take hours, delaying recovery in the event of a disaster. Replication offered a viable solution, since the Manhattan and Jericho offices are connected via a T-1 telco line. Berdon decided to upgrade its data protection capabilities by implementing VERITAS Replication Exec software to provide the Our people learn technical aspects from VERITAS Education that we would never learn on our own. The solution is not complete without the training package. capability to replicate business-critical data continuously between the two locations. In particular, Berdon selected VERITAS Replication Exec software because it minimizes traffic on the T-1 line by limiting incremental backups to changed data blocks, not entire files. With our data replication volume spiking nearly all the time, we appreciate the reduced impact on T-1 bandwidth that VERITAS Replication Exec software provides, Pikelny says. Using VERITAS Replication Exec software has reduced Berdon s recovery point objective (RPO) from 24 hours to just the network latency, usually a few seconds, ensuring virtually no lost data in the event of a failure. Rebuilding PC images with Symantec Ghost Solution Suite software When one of Berdon s PCs is corrupted, the IT staff can easily retrieve the data from the most recent backup. But there s more to the task of restoring the user s PC, since the operating system, applications, and configuration must be reloaded as well. Setting up a new PC or rebuilding a corrupted PC from scratch can take up to a day to load the operating system and to install the necessary applications from backup tape, remembers Pikelny. Also, we want users to have a standard, companyapproved desktop environment, and it was difficult for us to police each PC, since different users required different sets of applications. SOLUTION AT A GLANCE Business Drivers Prevent disruptions to business caused by malicious code Reduce IT staff time devoted to virus protection and PC management Minimize risk of catastrophic data loss Lower IT support costs for configuring new PCs Technology Challenges Implement highly automated PC imaging and deployment support Screen all incoming to block viruses Assure integrity of and high availability for business-critical data Deploy high-performance backup-andrestore solution Solution Combined information integrity solution based on Symantec antivirus, Symantec PC imaging, and VERITAS data protection products and services. Symantec Products Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange Symantec Ghost Solution Suite Symantec LiveUpdate VERITAS NetBackup Enterprise Server with Advanced Open File Option, Microsoft SQL Server Agent, and Exchange Server Agent VERITAS Replication Exec Technology Environment Server Platform: 60 Dell PowerEdge 2650 servers running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Storage Infrastructure: 6 Dell PowerVault hard drive arrays; 3 Dell PowerVault 775N NAS servers; ADIC Scalar i2000 tape drive PC: 230 Dell Latitude laptops and 120 Dell OptiPlex desktops running Microsoft Windows XP Software: Microsoft Exchange; Microsoft Office; Microsoft Outlook Symantec Services Symantec Gold Maintenance VERITAS Technical Support (Extended Support) Symantec Education Symantec Partners Dell Inc.

4 More importantly, we wanted our skilled IT personnel to focus on the company s strategic initiatives rather than on restoring PCs. After evaluating carefully the full range of competitive products, Berdon selected Symantec Ghost Solution Suite software in It solves the problem by maintaining a set of predefined PC images that can be easily downloaded to configure a new PC or rebuild a corrupted one. Symantec Ghost Solution Suite software has reduced the time it takes to rebuild the operating environment from eight hours to 15 minutes, a 97 percent improvement in administrative efficiency. Total support and training solution For after-market support, Berdon uses its VERITAS Extended Support agreement for addressing the company s ongoing technical support requirements, as well as a Gold Maintenance subscription from Symantec to support its security applications. In addition, Berdon s IT team is eagerly anticipating a merged product, services, and licensing roadmap once the merger is completed. The good news is that these products just keep on working, so we haven t needed much help from their support team, reports Pikelny. In order to help ensure optimal management of the next-generation NetBackup software environment, Pikelny is sending a member of his staff to a five-day training course from Symantec Education on NetBackup for Microsoft Windows. The training from Symantec Education really completes the NetBackup software deployment, notes Pikelny. Our people learn technical aspects from Symantec Education that we would never learn on our own. The solution is not complete without the training package. Integrated solution for information integrity In the merger of Symantec and VERITAS, Berdon sees a technology provider that will offer product solutions focused on helping the company deliver the comprehensive information integrity its clients expect. For Berdon, the relationship between information security and information integrity goes hand in hand, explains Pikelny. We must ensure that our client data is secure to prevent accidental disclosure, while at the same time making sure that our accounting professionals can easily access the information they need to provide timely, accurate advice to our clients. Information and Data Protection Architecture Symantec LiveUpdate provides automatic antivirus updates to PCs and laptops as well as enterprise servers. Jericho Data Center (Primary site) VERITAS NetBackup backs up and restores data across server and storage environments. 60 Dell PowerEdge 2650 servers running Microsoft Windows Server 6 Dell PowerVault RAID arrays 3 Dell PowerVault 775N NAS Servers Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition replaced McAfee antivirus software and protects employee PCs and laptops as well as enterprise servers. 350 employee PCs/laptops Symantec Ghost Solution Suite provisions new PCs and laptops and reimages corrupted PCs and laptops. Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange protects against malicious agents carried by incoming . Microsoft Exchange Server Manhattan Data Center (Secondary site) ADIC Scalar i2000 tape drive for offline storage ADIC Scalar i2000 tape drive for offline storage T-1 line VERITAS Replication Exec provides continuous backup between the Jericho and Manhattan data center sites.

5 BERDON LLP BUSINESS VALUE AND TECHNICAL BENEFITS Productivity 97% improvement in time to restore corrupted PC desktop environment 85% decrease in backup times via migration to NetBackup software, from 26 hours to 4 hours Security Protection 100% accuracy in blocking daily average of 80 incoming viruses and malicious codes Disaster Recovery Recovery Point Objective reduced from 24 hours to a few seconds As a network manager, it s difficult for me to understand why anyone would not choose an antivirus product with an automatic update feature to protect the IT environment. Scalability 25% annual growth in data volume accommodated with no increase in staff 800% increase in incoming viruses and malicious codes, from 8 per day in 2003 to 80 today Already realizing various cost savings and avoidance as well as productivity improvements using its current Symantec and VERITAS solutions, Berdon anticipates higher efficiencies resulting from the proposed partnership. Reduced cost and complexity is an objective that is always front and center for us, Pikelny explains. We believe the merger of Symantec and VERITAS will help us to reduce cost and complexity further by providing faster, easier, and integrated solutions for managing the company s data resources. Berdon has also come to rely on Symantec and VERITAS to help sustain the company s mission. One of the most fundamental value propositions for Berdon is that we provide both end-to-end information security as well as data protection for our clients business-critical information resources. That s why we are so pleased with the comprehensive solutions we receive from Symantec and VERITAS, concludes Pikelny. Copyright 2005 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved. Symantec, the Symantec Logo, LiveUpdate, Symantec AntiVirus, Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange, Symantec Ghost, NetBackup, Replication Exec, and VERITAS are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.