University of Florida Foundation Secures Donor Information and Business Process Workflow With Enterasys

Market Wire, April, 2008

Enterasys Networks Inc., the Secure Networks Company™, announced today that the University of Florida Foundation, Inc., the fundraising arm of the University of Florida, has chosen Enterasys to provide network connectivity, security compliance, and voice convergence with very strong service and support. The UF Foundation's Enterasys solution delivers identity-based policy enforcement for its multi-vendor network infrastructure; protecting private donor information and helping security administrators comply with Payment Card Industry (PCI) and State of Florida regulations by leveraging easy to use management software that requires minimal IT staffing resources.

The UF Foundation selected Enterasys after evaluating proposals from other leading networking vendors based on the Enterasys reputation for cost-effective, reliable solutions that uniquely build-in security protections rather than bolt them on.

"We partnered with Enterasys because of the proven return on investment and optimized efficiency and effectiveness," said Cavelle Grimes, Director of Computing Services for the UF Foundation. "The solution didn't require additional time or staffing resources for network management. With Enterasys, our staff of three full-time IT employees can easily manage a secure solution that gives us, our users and our donors built-in security protection and reliability enhancements."

The UF Foundation's purpose is to serve the private giving needs of the University of Florida by raising and managing gifts, then directing those funds and assets according to each donor's intention. The Foundation recently launched the public phase of a capital campaign to raise $1.5 billion by 2012. Securing private giving requires a great deal of trust on the donor's part, and the UF Foundation felt it could best prove its trustworthiness by ensuring its network protects credit card holders' data through compliance with PCI regulations, as well as Florida statutes for data protection.

The UF Foundation relies on the Enterasys NetSight® centralized visibility and control management suite to proactively protect the confidentiality of donor information through "what you need is what you get" policies that map to business departments and processes. With Enterasys NetSight in place, more than 350 users and 1,000 devices are authenticated across five buildings and several remote locations in Miami, Gainesville, Tampa, Atlanta and New York.

"We can operate our Enterasys infrastructure with two people, part time," explained Brian Marquis, Network Systems Administrator for the UF Foundation. "Secure Networks technology is solid and the personalized knowledge and helpful support staff make it easier to justify and choose Enterasys."

The UF Foundation's Enterasys solution is simple to manage, helps its IT security staff automate compliance, and operates seamlessly with existing, multivendor equipment such as Dell switches and a Nortel VoIP platform. The Nortel phones are automatically discovered, classified, prioritized and secured by the Enterasys switches, preventing users from plugging PCs into the back of phones placed in public areas. In addition to the secure storage of donor data, the network supports standard business applications such as PeopleSoft, Microsoft Windows Vista and Office 2007. Guests at the UF Foundation are able to connect to the network and access the Internet, but introduce no risk to any of the UF Foundation's other IT assets.

With Enterasys NetSight Policy Manager in place, the UF Foundation's network has passed both state and PCI network security audits. The IT staff has a full understanding of every device on its network, how these devices are being used and by whom, thanks to the role-based security provided by Enterasys. Continuous, identity-based policies provide real-time control over who gets access to what information from any wired or wireless connection. This compliant network will be a major asset to the Foundation as they seek to reach their goal in the current capital campaign.

"We can now prove, in an audit, to our Board of Directors, and to our current and potential donors, that our network and their personal information is secure," Marquis said. "Every department at the Foundation needs access to very specific resources to do their jobs. With Enterasys, we can provide granular visibility into which departments have access to certain types of information -- which is crucial for us to validate when the auditors arrive."

In addition to best-in-class security and connectivity, Enterasys also provides high-touch customer support -- even when the unthinkable happens.

"Normally we measure Enterasys uptime in years, not days. When our main building recently sustained a severe lightning strike, Enterasys went the extra mile to make sure we didn't suffer any additional network downtime," Marquis noted. "Their support team rushed in replacement gear, avoiding the havoc that could have been created otherwise. I can sleep easier knowing I have a solid solution in place and a dedicated support team behind me."