The first FireSIGHT Management Center deployment in Austria

This experience benefited our long-standing customer and partner, »OBSERVER« GmbH, whose previous firewall had just exceeded the warranty period and who therefore wanted to replace their traditional solution with the new, more comprehensive security concept. »OBSERVER« GmbH is an Austrian family business and has been the local market leader in the field of media monitoring and analysis since 1896.

Q&A with the IT engineers at Iphos on the initial implementation:

We interviewed the two IT engineers (Marco Gschaider and Manuel Kern) from Iphos IT Solutions who were responsible for implementing the first FireSIGHT Management Center.

Q: Which model did you choose?

A: Together with the customer, we decided on the ASA 5512X model with IPS, URL and AMP license, which should offer enough reserves for the expected growth in the coming years and cover all requirements. The FireSIGHT Management Center runs as a virtual appliance on an ESX hypervisor.

Q: How did the implementation go?

A: The commissioning of the ASA 5512X Firewall went smoothly and quickly, since we already have a lot of experience with Cisco ASA products. The configuration of the FireSIGHT management solution required a little more time, especially with regard to obtaining licenses. After all, we were the first in Austria and so we worked particularly intensively with Cisco at the beginning. In the course of the implementation, we were also able to identify two problems and solve them together with Cisco.

Q: Have you had any first successes?

A: We are still in the process of adapting the firewall policies to the continuously increasing requirements of the customer, but in the first month after implementation we have already recognized or blocked around 1 attacks and exploits and identified several malware files.

Q: What is the current status?

A: At »OBSERVER« GmbH we protect around 150 clients and servers, which send several GB of data through the firewall every day. The FirePOWER services have no negative impact on the performance or data throughput of the firewall. We can recommend the comprehensive security solution to any company that wants to be well prepared for the security challenges of the coming years.