return on security investments

RETURN ON
SECURITY
INVESTMENTS
A NETWORK
SECURITY
CASE STUDY
RETURN ON SECURITY INVESTMENTS
The client choose a fully managed solution from Sentor, 24/7
Client Challenge
Sentor got involved in a client’s security infrastructure investment and its associated challenges.
The client had made a substantial investment in a commercial vendor driven IDS brand for their
headquarters and main IT data centers. They were generally pleased with the product, but felt
that the substantial cost for hardware, software and support where hindering them in their roll
out of the surveillance platform globally to sales offices and production sites. The level of false
positives and the time consuming task of managing and monitoring the security infrastructure
started to become unmanageable. They needed a solution.
The IT operations teams work load was overwhelming and the cost of hiring a 24/7 team was
not a reasonable option. Someone had to manage incidents and make sure they were
distributed to the right teams and solved within a reasonable timeframe. The same someone
also needed to go through the alerts and analyze them to make sure that correct alerts were
distributed and false positives where tuned away in the infrastructure. This someone did not
exist within the organization.
Solution
Sentor offered a managed solution on the current security infrastructure, to maintain quality
24/7 and to utilize their big investment to its full capacity. Sentor also offered its own,
proprietary Network Sensors for local offices and production sites.
The solution started off as a co-managed solution during the “proof of concept” period where
Sentor placed their proprietary sensors on remote offices and handled the alerting functions
from the commercial sensors. 60 days in to the pilot project, a revised proposal was sent,
where the management of the entire IDS security infrastructure was in scope.
The price difference was that Sentor’s sensors managed to fit into the cost post of the support
of the commercial sensors. The distributed environment and the management of all the sensors
globally proved to be so appealing that the client exchanged its entire security investment for
fully managed solution from Sentor, 24/7.
They ended up with eighteen Network Sensors which are easily managed by Sentor, now one
of our longest relationships where Sentor manage the incidents and distribute them to the right
persons within the right business area. Sentor also escalate an incident if it isn’t resolved in a
specified time period agreed upon with the client.
The client’s IT organization has one single point of contact regarding security and a monthly
service review meeting with their dedicated Technical Account Manager (TAM). They have one
portal for security incident handling and security reporting. The Sentor Client Portal provides the
security manager with a consolidated view of the incidents, resolution times, and comments
from each business unit regarding specific incidents and feedback from Sentor’s SOC.
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Result
The client managed to obtain a 24/7 surveillance well within their budget. They exchanged an
expensive unmanageable solution for one with more sensors from Sentor, which not only lead
to a price efficient service, but also a full coverage of all satellite sales offices and production
sites. As of today, Sentor delivers an average of 25 incident reports monthly to the client. The
vast majority of these are from production sites and sales offices distributed globally.
”Sentor enabled the security surveillance we required, to a price lower than
the cost of just the commercial sensors needed to fulfill the task. Today
Sentor acts as the extended incident response team we just couldn’t
justify to hire.”
CISO at Client
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