After years of battling with a free open-source security platform, Orange Christian School has moved to the enterprise edition of the Endian Unified Threat Management (UTM) device, which is solving their security and reliability issues, as well as providing them with added features that have proven valuable.

Orange Christian School is based in the central west of New South Wales and has 330 students ranging from kindergarten to senior high school. The school has 140 computers which are utilised in all aspects of student school work, along with staff research, reporting and administration. It is critical that they have a sound and reliable internet security device that protects students, protects the privacy of students and families and protects the schools sensitive data.

‘Many programs in our school, for both staff and students, operate through and rely on the internet. Our teachers do their research and reports on computers, our students are increasingly using computers in all subjects, and our administration staff use computers daily. For this reason, internet security is a top priority for Orange Christian School’ commented Orange Christian Schools Business Manager Andrew Kent.

Formerly, the school had been using a free open-source security platform which proved to have a number of flaws. It was not well supported, it required many add-ons to achieve a suitable amount of features and these add-ons were unsupported by the makers of the system. Updates for the system usually meant a reinstallation of the add-ons and updates for the content filter were provided by yet another group which was also unreliable.

‘Although it filled its basic requirements the old system was unreliable. It was also completely unsupported except for what information you could find from other users’ commented Orange Christian Schools IT support consultant Michael Van Baast.

Mr Van Baast was pleased when given the opportunity to source and implement a more productive, commercial solution for the school.

‘As the IT support person for the school I had set up and maintained the previous system and was pleased when the opportunity arose to look at something commercially produced and as such, well supported to improve the internet security, particularly the content filtering’ noted Mr Van Baast.

Orange Christian School required an appliance with more features which worked together to improve the reliability of the internet connection while maintaining a high level of security over the network. The essential features were: improved internet web content filtering, more tightly controllable firewall and the ability to easily browse web usage logs.

‘The priority for our school is child protection, and with the increasing use of technology by staff and students it is vital that we have an internet security system that is highly reliable and allows us to be confident in embracing new technology. Our firewall system has to be the best we can get’ commented Mr Kent.

Using the knowledge and experience of the schools IT support consultant and after trialling a more costly UTM device Orange Christian School installed the Endian enterprise edition.

Developed by Italy-based Endian and distributed throughout Australia by Veritech Corporation the Endian device is designed to fulfil the demand of small and medium businesses requiring a comprehensive security solution that offers the highest level of network security.Unlike the previously used free open-source security platform, the Endian enterprise edition has commercial-grade support and updates. It has a support infrastructure that leverages off the great stability of 'open-source' systems, but adds the support which schools and businesses really need if they are serious about having a reliable firewall solution.

Since installing the Endian the Orange Christian School enjoys an internet connection that is reliable and far more secure than was previously possible. Additional benefits associated with the solution’s extended functionality were twofold: the Active Directory integration features have allowed the school to specify different levels of content filtering for different groups of people, and the advanced firewall features have allowed the network to be secured to a much greater degree than anticipated.

‘We didn’t realise the extent of the flaws in our old system until we had the Endian installed. We are now confident and comfortable with internet usage and potential usage at our school. It is reassuring to know that your security system is doing what it should be doing’ commented Mr King.

For details on Endian reseller DMX Technologies visit www.dmxtech.com.au

For details on the Endian range visit www.endian.com.au

For details on Veritech Corporation visit www.veritechcorp.com.au