Protecting Critical Human Services with the Symantec Email Security and Availability Solution Slowed by network downtime due to security incidents, turned to Symantec for a comprehensive email security and availability solution. Since solution deployment, network disruptions caused by successful attacks have been stopped, email application performance has improved twofold, data backup and restoration is 100 percent reliable for the first time, and spam is successfully and accurately being blocked, saving 6,336 staff hours annually. As a result, has achieved 100 percent payback in 16 months. Getting people back on their feet Company Profile (www.mission.com.au) makes a powerful and sustainable difference to individuals, families, and communities by giving them the support they need to get back on track and lead more fulfilling lives. It offers more than 320 innovative services in metropolitan, rural, and regional Australia, in every State and Territory, to 80,000 people a year. Industry Nonprofit Solution Email Security and Availability A homeless man with a 20-year addiction to drugs and alcohol works with counselors and frees himself from his addiction, eventually getting a job, a place to live, and dignity. A child who lost a parent is able to take a course on coping with grief and stops having recurring nightmares. An orphan struggles at a high school where the dropout rate for indigenous people is 85 percent, but gets financial support and counseling and manages to graduate. Now she s studying successfully at a university. Our Symantec solution blocks 97 percent of spam, with virtually zero false positives. This reduces the 432,000 emails we get each month by 44 percent. That means less load on our mail server. These stories, drawn from s Web site, show the kind of differences the organization has made for over 140 years. Today, over 80,000 people a year turn to at its 215 sites throughout the country. They seek critical human services that can move them from crisis to security. When networks fail Providing those services are s 3,200 staff members, who depend heavily on the organization s IT network for support. But a half-dozen times in 2005 that network ground to a halt, infected by email worms, staying down for an average of two days each time. Many lives are affected by network downtime. Checks are slowed up. Employers can t post jobs. Job seekers can t find them. Requests for service go unmet. It was s network that truly needed to be moved from crisis to security. That was the job facing and his 28-person IT team in 2005. Gasparovic had joined the organization the year before. He already had his team working on a gap analysis to determine how to get the network back on its feet.
CUSTOMER SUCCESS The Symantec email security and availability solution has doubled email application performance and storage utilization efficiency. The Symantec Email Security and Availability solution has eliminated disruption from worm and virus attacks. That s down from six major security incidents that had taken our network down earlier in the year. Needed: reliability We re under budgetary constraints that you d expect a charity organization to have, Gasparovic says. We need to deploy suitable technology tools to all our sites. Because we can t compete in salary with corporations for IT workers, it s difficult for us to have a large enough IT team. So, any technology improvements we were to implement had to pay for themselves quickly and had to lower the demand for infrastructure management, not increase it. When the IT team s gap analysis was complete, it showed that the network needed adequate security protection, an email archiving solution to improve email performance and availability, storage optimization, data center availability, and complete and reliable backup. Searching for a technology provider Having identified requirements,, beginning in early 2005, reviewed a range of solutions from IBM, Computer Associates, and Symantec. We held each company and their offerings up to three key selection criteria, Gasparovic recalls. We wanted centralized management for all solutions to lower staff overhead, superior enterprise email archiving, and superior data center availability. Symantec came out on top in the evaluation on the strengths of its centralized management, and its email archiving solution, Gasparovic says. Symantec s chief advantage is that we can manage its entire security, availability, backup, and archiving solutions from one console. That means that skills transfer from vendor to staff is much simpler, and skills development is more cost effective for us as well. Email Security and Availability The most important need at Mission Australia was to protect email and improve its availability. In an organization like ours, nearly all our critical information is in our email, Gasparovic says. But our mailboxes were buried in spam and we had no spam filter. Email was a gateway for malicious code that brought our net- Symantec Network Security and Availability Architecture Symantec AntiVirus Enterprise Edition combines Symantec's industry-leading virus protection, content filtering, and spam prevention technologies on servers. Symantec Mail Security 8160 appliance helps reduce total email volume by 30% at by stopping spam. Symantec Brightmail AntiSpam software is also deployed at the server level to provide multitiered protection against spam. Internet Veritas Enterprise Vault software archives all email older than six weeks, improving email performance at twofold by reducing demand on the email server. Symantec Mail Security 8260 appliance provides antivirus and content filtering protection, and uses Brightmail technology to block 95% of spam. Servers Storage Veritas Storage Foundation software streamlines storage management to accommodate a 35 percent annual data increase with 45 percent fewer administrator hours. Symantec NetBackup software is used in a disk-to-disk to tape backup process at to deliver 100 percent complete enterprise backup, with 100 percent reliable recovery, for the first time. Veritas Volume Replicator will be used to reliably, efficiently, and consistently replicate s data to remote locations over an IP network protecting against data loss and prolonged downtime.
MISSION AUSTRALIA work down. Our email servers were overloaded and very slow. And they weren t being backed up adequately. We turned to Symantec because it offered an end-to-end Email Security and Availability solution. Now at, the Symantec solution is reducing large volumes of unwanted spam, stopping viruses, automatically managing the lifecycle of older emails through archiving, streamlining legal discovery, providing enterprise backup, and helping to keep the email infrastructure resilient, while reducing the total cost ownership (TCO). SOLUTION AT A GLANCE Business Drivers Support rapid growth of nationwide IT network used to deliver critical human services Minimize IT total cost of ownership (TCO) Enhance the effectiveness and security of email Minimize productivity loss due to spam and email security threats Minimize disruption to operations in case of disaster Technology Challenges Centralize, streamline, and minimize security, email, and storage administration Increase email and storage hardware utilization, productivity, and performance Ensure compliance and operational efficiency by deploying an email archiving solution Block malicious code from disrupting network, increasing uptime Block spam without false positives Establish disaster recovery and business continuity/failover capabilities Layers of protection Protection begins outside the firewall. A Symantec Mail Security 8160 appliance uses its patent-pending traffic shaping technology to deny or approve email connections based on sender reputation as a spammer or legitimate sender. The connections denied reduce the volume of spam before messages ever hit email servers. Sender reputations are updated frequently based on an ongoing analysis of spam in Symantec s global probe network of thousands of decoy mailboxes. A second layer of protection is a Symantec Mail Security 8260 appliance just inside the firewall. The appliance uses Symantec Brightmail AntiSpam technology and Symantec AntiVirus technology to filter out spam, viruses, and unauthorized content. At the server level, Symantec AntiVirus Enterprise Edition and additional instances of Symantec Brightmail AntiSpam software provide further protection from spam, viruses, spyware and worms. Both Symantec solutions use integrated LiveUpdate functionality, to deploy virus cures and updated spam signatures rapidly, providing optimal protection against quickly spreading threats. Solution Comprehensive email security and availability solution, with information security, storage optimization, business continuity, data center availability, and data protection Symantec Products Symantec Mail Security 8160 Symantec Mail Security 8260 Symantec AntiVirus Enterprise Edition Symantec Brightmail AntiSpam Veritas Enterprise Vault Veritas Storage Foundation Veritas Volume Replicator Veritas NetBackup with Options: Veritas NetBackup Desktop and Laptop, Veritas NetBackup Shared Storage, Veritas NetBackup Vault Agents: Veritas NetBackup for Lotus Notes, Veritas NetBackup for Microsoft Exchange Server, Veritas NetBackup for Microsoft SQL Server Technology Environment Applications: Community Services Information Management Systems (MACSIMS) Databases: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Server Platform: Two clustered IBM x365 servers running Microsoft Windows 2003 Advanced Server Storage: IBM TotalStorage DS4800 Tape Drive: IBM TS3310 Tape Library Computing Environment: Approximately 3,200 machines including Dell OptiPlex GX260 desktops, Dell Latitude D505 laptops, IBM ThinkCentre M52 desktops, and IBM ThinkPad R52 laptops, all running Microsoft Windows XP Symantec Services Symantec Education Services Symantec Consulting Services Symantec Platinum Support agreement
CUSTOMER SUCCESS BUSINESS VALUE AND TECHNICAL BENEFITS Operational Efficiency 100% reduction in network disruption from worm/virus attacks, from six major incidents in early 2005 to zero 97% of spam blocked in 432,000 emails a month, reducing email stream by 44% Virtually zero false positives reported in spam blocking IT Staff Productivity 35% annual increase in 6TB of data storage accommodated with a 45% reduction in storage administration time Thanks to Veritas Storage Foundation software, even though our data is increasing by 35 percent a year, managing storage takes 45 percent less time than before. Storage Utilization Two-fold improvement in storage hardware utilization efficiency 60% decrease in email storage space required due to compression from email archiving System Performance Two-fold improvement in email performance due to reduced email server load after email archiving Regulatory Compliance Enhanced ability to be compliant with regulations and legal discovery Data Center Availability Future enhanced data center availability and disaster preparedness via replication/clustering solution. Cost Savings $253,440 in annual staff time (6,336 hours) saved by blocking spam 1 $37,440 annual savings due to 45% reduction in storage administration overhead 3 Payback 100% payback in 16 months on total Symantec Email Security and Availability solution Says Gasparovic, Since we deployed the Symantec Email Security and Availability solution in mid-2005, it has eliminated disruption to our network from worm and virus attacks. That s down from six major security incidents that had taken our network down earlier in the year, and it s a major improvement. Adding the equivalent of three employees at no cost Best of all, Gasparovic continues, our Symantec solution blocks 97 percent of spam, with virtually zero false positives. This reduces the 432,000 emails we get each month by 44 percent. That means less load on our mail server. Because spam is blocked, Mission Australia staff members no longer have to spend time deleting the 190,300 spam email messages the organization receives each month. At about 10 seconds saved for each message, that adds up to 6,336 hours a year, worth about $253,440 2, that can be devoted to better uses, such as delivering additional services. For, it s the equivalent of adding three full-time employees. Faster email speeds up care Another important improvement comes from the email management component of our Symantec solution, Veritas Enterprise Vault software, Gasparovic says. We use it to archive emails older than six weeks. They re still available to users in their familiar
MISSION AUSTRALIA Microsoft Outlook email interface, but they re no longer on the email server. That has improved our email performance at least twofold, and it s a huge relief to everyone. Enterprise Vault has also reduced email storage by 60 percent because it compresses archived email, and if a message with a large attachment is sent to many people, it stores only a single copy. Enterprise Vault is delaying a need to purchase additional storage, and just about doubling the amount of time we can work with our current message infrastructure, protecting our investment, Gasparovic says. Also, to maintain our status as a charity, we need to be able to produce financial information going back seven years, Gasparovic explains. With Enterprise Vault s ability to archive our email and do a full text search of attachments, we have streamlined our ability to demonstrate compliance. And it makes responding to legal discovery requests easier. Accommodating data while decreasing cost needed help with the storage of its other data as well, all six terabytes worth. Until now, our storage administrator had to go to each storage disk and use its standalone service to manage it. But thanks to Veritas Storage Foundation software, we have one central picture of our entire storage solution from a single console. We manage storage more easily. At the same time, we ve doubled the efficiency of our disk utilization. And even though our data is increasing by 35 percent a year, managing storage takes 45 percent less time than before I have almost half of a staff person s time available now for other uses. That s worth $37,440 3 a year. Making services more reliable To ensure the availability of the data center and therefore of social services, is in the process of deploying Veritas Volume Replicator software (purchased) and Veritas Cluster Server software (currently being evaluated), which along with Veritas Storage Foundation software will provide a clustering/replication solution. Plans call for clustering key applications such as email and replicating the organization s data between the primary data center in Sydney and remote data centers in Melbourne and Brisbane. This will be a big step forward in reliability, Gasparovic notes. As we looked at data replication and clustering solutions, we were won over again by the centralized, streamlined management that the Symantec Email Security and Availability solution offers. That s essential to us." Achieving peace of mind When Gasparovic joined Mission Australia, enterprise backups were not being done. We had reached the limit of our backup window. As a result, information that was vital to us was not getting completely backed up, he explains. Gasparovic and team worked out a centralized backup solution using Veritas NetBackup software as part of a disk-to-disk-to-tape backup process. Using firmware in our IBM DS4800 storage subsystem, we take a snapshot of enterprise data, Gasparovic says. We then use NetBackup to copy the data to tape during the day. This is enabling 100 percent complete backup, with 100 percent reliable recovery, for the first time. The main benefit is peace of mind. Symantec Consulting Services was instrumental in formulating a detailed design and deployment strategy based on best practices and previous deployment experience. As a result, implementation created little to no disruption to our production environment.
CUSTOMER SUCCESS We achieved 100 percent payback on our Symantec Email Security and Availability solution in just 16 months. Optimizing backup performance To enhance that peace of mind, the team chose the NetBackup Desktop and Laptop option, enabling them to backup business critical data on senior management laptops without intervention from the laptop owners. The result has been zero data loss. The team also chose the NetBackup Shared Storage option because it enables dynamic sharing of individual tape drives through "virtualization" of tape resources. This further reduces costs. In addition, chose the NetBackup Vault option to automate the complex and tedious process of backup duplication and offsite media management. Profiles in the Vault option determine what, when and how backups are duplicated, and when tapes will be shipped to and from the offsite vault. Errors are minimized, and the staff can concentrate on more valuable tasks. also engaged Symantec Education Services to get detailed training on Veritas NetBackup 6.0 and Veritas Enterprise Vault software, before they were installed or configured. The classes from Symantec Education Services helped us significantly reduce implementation and support time, and allowed us to immediately take advantage of advanced product features, Gasparovic notes. Payback time Because our network disruption has been minimized, and with all the other positive results, we achieved 100 percent payback on our Symantec Email Security and Availability solution in just 16 months, Gasparovic says. You could sum it up this way, Gasparovic says. To move people from crisis to security, we need an infrastructure that is secure and available. And we get that from Symantec. Besides those options, we chose Veritas NetBackup agents for Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange Server, and Microsoft SQL Server. In our clustered environment, these agents have further enhanced backup and restore functionality for their particular applications, Gasparovic says. 1 One spam message received = 10 lost seconds of productivity. 10 sec.*190,300 spam messages per month\60 sec\60 min=528 hours per month*12 months=6,336 hours per year available for more valuable uses 2 6,336 hours per year*$40 per hour=$253,440 saved per year 345% reduction in storage administration overhead=one full time employee (2,080 hours/year)*45 percent* $40/hour salary plus benefits =$37,440 saved. Key to faster implementation To optimize deployment time and results for the total Symantec solution, asked for expert help. Symantec Consulting Services was instrumental in formulating a detailed design and deployment strategy based on best practices and previous deployment experience, Gasparovic explains. As a result, our physical implementation stage created little to no disruption to our production environment. Copyright 2006 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved. Enterprise Vault, NetBackup, Storage Foundation, Symantec, Symantec AntiVirus, Symantec Brightmail, the Symantec logo, and Veritas are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec