RCM
RCM Challenges
- With the move to its new HQ and following the re-structuring of the group IT organisation, RCM was faced with the challenge of either in-sourcing network and security management or engaging a local managed services provider.
- Avoiding investment in costly in-house resources, ongoing training and additional management tools was a key deciding factor.
- RCM opted for an external partner to design and implement a new internet and email gateway and to manage this as well as the network infrastructure over a three-year period. 2e2 subsequently provided a great deal of pre-sales resource to help RCM define its internet and email security requirements.
Solution
- Liaising with RCM’s IT department under Alan Rowe, Head of IT, 2e2 ran a series of workshops to help identify and define the IP addressing and demilitarized zone (DMZ) design that best suited RCM’s requirements.
- Perimeter security is provided by a high availability firewall solution designed and implemented by 2e2 to give a highly secure layer between the RCM corporate network and the outside world.
- Web content filtering providing secure access to the internet is achieved via a dual layer proxy environment that allows RCM to enforce its web access policies, while still isolating its users from direct internet access.
- URL filtering software to enable flexible internet use policies to be set based on user credentials.
- To protect against web-borne threats 2e2 deployed behaviour-based web security software that helps protect RCM’s business in real time, preventing attacks from reaching its internal systems.
- Advanced email protection is delivered by hardware-based email security appliances providing RCM with realtime email filtering, blocking spam and viruses and enabling corporate email policy enforcement.
- 2e2’s solution also provides secure remote access to corporate applications via the internet. An internet roaming solution means that staff travelling abroad can select the most cost effective local internet access using their laptops.
Business Advantage
- The business is achieving a 20% annual cost saving for ongoing support and management of the network and security infrastructure.
- RCM also has a detailed understanding of the availability, performance and security of its network infrastructure and benefits from swift on site support when required.
- 2e2 provides the business with a virtual network and security support team, which allows RCM’s IT Department to maintain a minimum staff complement to focus on network development initiatives that provide a tangible return to the business.
- RCM has avoided the need to invest both in additional staff and on site specialists and in the regular training required to ensure that internal staffing skills are kept up-to-date.
- A detailed monthly service report provides a summary of observations and recommendations for the previous period in addition to device inventory, availability and performance statistics and graphical information. This not only gives RCM consolidated information relating to its LAN, WAN and security infrastructure, but it also highlights key trends and provides information vital for effective capacity planning.
Bringing network services in-house was not practical. 2e2 provided a viable cost effective solution that met our requirements. 
