Cut IT costs and improve productivity with Modern Internet access technology - Security

Computer Technology Review, Jan, 2004 by Dave Kresse

It is hard to believe that a mere decade ago, the majority of companies worldwide provided little or no Internet access to their employees. Indeed, the Internet itself was just emerging as a popular medium and few could have predicted that it would become so ubiquitous so quickly, both in personal and business affairs. Historically, enterprises have managed Internet access by means of proxy server software installed on general-purpose servers, and a large percentage of companies still do. This is unfortunate. Among other things, legacy proxy servers are not scalable, fast or reliable enough to cost effectively serve the massive increase in users, and the systems lack the functionality required to ensure that employees use the Internet in the most efficient way possible. Fortunately, scalable, multi-functioned Internet access technology has now matured and can dramatically enhance employee productivity, improve speed and reliability, cut administration and maintenance costs, and reduce the need for additional hardware and software.

Reliability, Scalability for More Cost-Effective IT

When companies began to roll out Internet access in the mid-90s, they had to rely on the access management technology available at the time. Typically, this consisted of proxy server software such as Netscape Proxy or Microsoft Proxy running on general-purpose Windows or Unix boxes. Administrators had to add separate applications piecemealed to enhance security, defend against viruses or filter or cache content. Integrating these applications was not easy and generally reduced the reliability of the system as a whole. But perhaps the most significant limitation of legacy proxy servers was their lack of scalability. The systems were designed to handle a limited number of users, and when the user base grew beyond that number, companies had to add more systems. If one box could handle X amount of traffic, and the traffic increased six times, the administrators would have to install six more boxes. They would then have to attend to all of the complicated issues surrounding integration with supplementary applications and company infrastructure.

When companies build out their Internet access systems in this way--i.e., by adding general-purpose servers with proxy server software--they increase hardware, software and administrative costs proportionally and have little power to improve the productivity of even the most competent and dedicated IT staff. Simply put, more boxes require more administrators. Beyond that, the more boxes administrators install, the more complex a company's IT infrastructure becomes, and this generally results in less reliability and more expense. In addition, as the original servers and software age, their reliability tends to decrease. A proxy server that requires constant fixing, rebooting, monitoring and management can swell IT costs. Since downtime increases as reliability decreases, this build-out strategy also negatively affects the productivity of personnel enterprise-wide. When the access system is down, employees can't use the Internet to conduct their business.

Fortunately, employers no longer need to rely on traditional proxy servers to accommodate the growth in Internet users. Appliance-based Internet access management systems now exist that are far more scalable and combine proxy server functionality with a wide range of other capabilities including content filtering, caching, security applications, and so on. Appliance-based solutions are typically more reliable, easier to manage, and have higher performance than general-purpose servers. More importantly, the enhanced scalability allows companies to consolidate the load of many servers onto just a few appliances. Hence, there are fewer systems to maintain, less that can go wrong, less need for maintenance and repair, and far less system downtime. The new systems significantly reduce the IT workload and increase the productivity of IT staff. This, in turn, reduces the need to add staff as the Internet user base grows. In addition, since a few appliances are much easier to manage than a large set of servers, appliance-based solutions enable companies with many facilities to manage Internet access from a central location. Thus, companies need not place proxy servers in remote locations, and need not hire IT staff to manage them.

Filtering and Caching for Enhanced Productivity

Modern Internet access technology can significantly improve employee productivity in several ways--it can reduce the time and bandwidth wasted on unproductive Web surfing, accelerate business-appropriate Internet activity, and free-up time for non-Internet related projects. Unproductive Web surfing has become a major business issue, especially with the proliferation of new and tempting content and services. IDC recently published a study with some startling statistics:

* 60% of on-the-job Web surfing is non-business related

* 72% of Web pornography is viewed at work

* 70% of online purchasing takes place at work