Sophos Australia and New Zealand, a leader in anti-virus
protection for businesses and government departments, has today
announced that Bega Valley Shire Council will deploy more than 250
Sophos Anti-Virus licences across its operations to protect Windows
workstations, laptops and network servers.
Bega Valley Shire Council's Information Services Manager Ron
Dale said protecting Council's day-to-day operations from viruses,
worms, trojans and other malicious programs was the major priority
behind the decision.
"We selected Sophos because of its proven track record in
similar environments and for its ease-of-use, excellent
administration features and automatic updating service. Council can
rest easy knowing that its computer systems will be protected
around the clock by the Sophos service and backed by 24x7 live
support," he said.
The Council operates from 7am-10pm weekdays and also Saturday
mornings. According to Dale, most recovery situations occur outside
of normal working hours, so Sophos's 24x7 support was viewed as
being of critical importance.
The Bega Valley Shire, with a population of 30,000, is halfway
between Sydney and Melbourne on the south coast of New South Wales.
The Council provides local government and infrastructure management
services across some 6,052 square kilometres and its various
operational centres are connected via the Internet and a dedicated
wide area network.
The Council will also deploy Sophos's administration tool,
Enterprise Manager, for simplified ongoing administration and to
ensure automatic updating. According to Dale, "This will deliver
significant labour and cost savings to the Council, especially
considering our widespread geographic territory, while ensuring
best practice anti-virus protection for the long-term".
Sophos's Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand, Rob
Forsyth, said that protecting operational resources and sensitive
ratepayer information from computer viruses is a critical
requirement for any council.
"Given the impact and associated costs of a virus incident on a
large distributed network, the financial savings obtained through
deployment of a robust anti-virus product, are self evident. It's
gratifying to see Bega Valley Shire Council taking steps to protect
its computer systems with Sophos and ensure that its local
government services are available without interruption.
"Their decision to deploy Sophos will ensure the Council
receives ongoing and cost-effective protection, and sends a clear
message to Bega Valley Shire businesses and other local governments
that they too should ensure their operations are protected and
updated at all times," Forsyth said.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.