Forcepoint > Case Studies > Southern Communications– Data Services Ltd.

Southern Communications– Data Services Ltd.

Customer Company Size

Mid-size Company

Region

Europe
Africa
Asia

Country

United Kingdom
Other

Product

Forcepoint NGFW
Secure SD-WAN
Intrusion prevention system

Tech Stack

SD-WAN
NGFW
Deep Packet Inspection

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Revenue Growth
Customer Satisfaction
Productivity Improvements

Technology Category

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Hybrid Cloud

Applicable Industries

Telecommunications

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Use Cases

Process Control & Optimization
Cybersecurity

Services

System Integration
Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
Cybersecurity Services

About The Customer

Southern Communications (formerly Link-Connect) is a provider of mission-critical infrastructure as a service (IaaS) for medium to large scale enterprises, with a major focus on SD-WAN. When a business outsources the management of their infrastructure, internal teams can focus their efforts on IT systems and projects that provide long-term value to their organization. For years, the company used their signature product, dubbed Smart-Connect, to bond multiple broadband lines together with a technology developed in-house. Smart-Connect fulfilled customer needs for a period of time, but as broadband lines improved, leased lines became more affordable, and new technologies became available, the customer desired an alternative solution that could support larger enterprise customers.

The Challenge

Southern Communications, a provider of mission-critical infrastructure as a service (IaaS) for medium to large scale enterprises, was facing a challenge with their signature product, Smart-Connect. As broadband lines improved, leased lines became more affordable, and new technologies became available, the customer desired an alternative solution that could support larger enterprise customers. Managed services are a commoditized market, and Southern Communications needed a way to differentiate their offering from its competitors. The new solution needed to support a wide range of connectivity options, allow for redundancy at each site, have the ability to assign priority to business-critical application traffic, provide visualization tools and reports, offer next-generation security, and have centralized management.

The Solution

Southern Communications selected Forcepoint NGFW with Secure SD-WAN as it satisfied their requirements for the new solution. Clients’ sites are first connected to virtual firewalls housed in the Southern Communications data center. After physical firewalls are installed at client sites, network traffic is moved from the virtual firewalls to physical appliances. Each installation is tailored to a client’s specific needs: while some prefer to replace MPLS lines altogether, others feel more comfortable augmenting MPLS with other technologies. Forcepoint NGFW with Secure SD-WAN enables the addition of new connection technologies without complex configurations or downtime. In addition to SD-WAN, the company offers their customers the option to outsource security management. Lastly, the company offers Forcepoint’s email and web security products with sandboxing (Advanced Malware Detection), as threats that originate from email or web are top of mind for many security teams.

Operational Impact

The company has doubled their business in the past four years since adopting Forcepoint NGFW with secure SD-WAN, increasing staff, and implementing a new sales strategy.
The company now manages over 400 Forcepoint NGFWs to meet the demands of their ever-expanding client base; these span multiple sites for each client, often times deployed as clusters.
With Forcepoint’s SD-WAN dashboard, reporting, and visualization tools, the company provides clients with granular details on network traffic, drilling down to specific activities that are consuming the bulk of their bandwidth, and even identifying the responsible end-users.
From there, the company can determine the best course of action to achieve their clients’ desired results and enforce security policies.

Quantitative Benefit