Challenge
Digital connectivity expands the attack surface and vulnerabilities
Although business acquisitions have helped fuel Glen Dimplex to grow at an extraordinary pace, their integration had led to an assortment of fragmented cybersecurity platforms – each separately supporting an acquired line of business. This in turn had increased the risk of security blind spots, inefficient workflows, and delayed threat response.
The company’s specific challenges were:
- Simplifying management: The requirement for individual firewall and connectivity configuration, monitoring, and maintenance at each site was creating multiple issues.
- Creating a more intuitive connectivity experience: The rigid hub-and-spoke multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) model required traffic to be backhauled and led to inconsistent security policies.
- Centralising control and visibility: Disparate, complex security solutions left Glen Dimplex more exposed to cyberthreats such as ransomware. Creating simple zero trust policies wasn’t possible.
- Reducing costs and demand on resources: Maintenance and manual intervention were creating significant overhead for network administrators.
“Platformization is a cornerstone of our cybersecurity strategy. It’s AI-powered, fully integrated, open, and end to end. By addressing complexity, it can dramatically lower Glen Dimplex’s risk posture, reduce costs, and unlock improved business opportunities.”
– Andy Marshall
Chief Information Technology Officer, Glen Dimplex
SOLUTION
2,500 users protected without compromising experience
Glen Dimplex has switched to a unified platform approach to security, partnering with Palo Alto Networks to deliver connected network and secure access service edge (SASE) security.
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Simplicity starts with network security
Glen Dimplex kick-started its platformization strategy with the deployment of Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFWs) to create maximum zero trust visibility and protection. This technology has delivered a proactive, cloud-based, and machine learning-driven approach to security. “Palo Alto Networks is the ideal enterprise control point, serving as the first line of defence in our modern, effective security strategy,” says Brendan Morgan, Glen Dimplex’s Group Head of Cyber Security. -
Simple, intuitive SASE strategy cements security
The team then moved to implement Prisma Access, centralising its SASE solution in the cloud. Critically, Glen Dimplex was able to use the same zero trust management as for its existing hardware firewalls, which significantly simplified its security operations while simultaneously raising the bar for protection. This forward-thinking move enables Brendan and his team to monitor, enforce policies, and protect web traffic across more than 23 sites and over 2,500 users, all from one screen – freeing resources from monitoring multiple screens to focus on adding value to security.
Brendan explains: “We have a single global picture of who is logging in, from where, and what they are accessing. Previously, it would have taken an hour to log into each of the 11 VPN gateways; now we can do it in less than one minute.” -
Potentially saves “hundreds of thousands of dollars” annually
By consolidating multiple security functions – firewall, virtual private network (VPN), secure web gateway (SWG), etc. – into a single cloud service, Glen Dimplex has reduced the need for costly on-premises hardware, internet service provider (ISP) services, and dedicated IT resources for maintenance and management.
“Our SASE strategy is saving the business hundreds of thousands of dollars by eliminating the cost of complexity of different systems and processes,” says Brendan. “Where before it might have taken months to connect a corporate acquisition or new office, we can now complete it in days. That agility translates into faster time to business value.” -
Using AI today to secure tomorrow
Palo Alto Networks natively integrated Cloud-Delivered Security Services (CDSS) offer consistent best-in-class protection everywhere, using Precision AI® to stop known, unknown, and zero-day threats.
Looking ahead, Glen Dimplex is evaluating the use of Prisma Browser to expand secure remote access to even more users, such as contractors and employees bring your own devices all part of the StrataTM Zero Trust platform. In time, the existing SD-WAN fabric may be replaced by Prisma SD-WAN, further unifying the SASE strategy.
PODCAST
In this episode of Threat Vector, host David Moulton speaks with Sam Ainscow, Group Chief Security Officer at Hill & Smith PLC
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