Leading UK construction company GB Building Solutions chooses
Sophos
IT security and control firm Sophos today announced that it is
providing comprehensive IT security to leading construction
company, GB Building Solutions Ltd. The UK-wide firm chose Sophos
from a number of alternatives, including Symantec and Trend, to
defend its corporate networks against the growing risk from
threats, such as viruses, spyware and spam. Sophos Endpoint
Security and Data Protection and Web Security and Control have been
deployed to secure content as well as scan every web link that is
accessed by a GB Building Solutions' computer, providing complete
protection at the gateway from web-borne threats.
Formerly known as Gleeson Building, GB Building Solutions
provides construction services in a number of sectors including
accommodation, education and healthcare. The company has six
offices across the UK with a total of 400 employees.
When the time came for Mark Hardcastle, IT Manager at GB
Building Solutions, to review the company's existing IT security
solutions - which had been in place for three years - there were
two very important factors to consider. "The management console for
the previous solution was complicated, and we really needed to
minimise the amount of time spent on administration," said Mark.
"The other important consideration is that we handle the bulk of IT
from HQ - 90 percent of our endpoints are administered remotely -
we needed a solution that was appropriate for this
arrangement."
Having previously worked with Softcat, their trusted IT partner,
on a number of other large scale projects, GB Building Solutions
asked Sophos's platinum partner to put forward their
recommendations. Taking the company's specific circumstances into
account, Softcat positioned offerings from the top five security
vendors to Mark and his team. After reviewing the products GB
Building Solutions opted to deploy Sophos Endpoint Security and
Data Protection and the Sophos Web Security Appliance.
Endpoint
Security and Data Protection is a unified software solution
that provides protection against viruses, spyware, adware and spam
and allows organisations to manage the use of applications such as
instant messaging and games, as well as the use of removable
storage devices. The Web
Security Appliance is a hardware appliance that sits at the web
gateway to GB Building Solutions' network and provides a further
level of protection against threats from the web, such as drive-by
downloads and the risk of infection from visiting compromised
websites.
"Not only are organisations having to defend against web and
email threats, but they also need to consider how to ensure that
their data is kept within the company network," said Adam Price
Account Manager at Softcat. "GB Building Solutions were looking for
a solution that would ensure this security whilst being easy to
deploy and manage."
"The necessary training, installation, integration and full
roll-out of the Sophos solutions took place over the course of one
week - all the while we had a Sophos engineer either on site or on
call," continued Mark. "A testament to how simple the process was
is that nobody noticed the switch! The new solution sits quietly in
the background and we don't have to spend time on settings and
management - we've had the burden removed and at the same time know
that we're completely protected."
Limited budgets, time and resources are making it difficult for
organisations to solve the increasingly important problem of
data protection. Sophos simplifies the task by incorporating
proven encryption technology in one set of solutions, defending all
avenues from data loss.
"Keeping data safe is one of the biggest challenges for
organisations today - not a day goes by without a new data loss
scandal hitting the headlines," said
Jonathan Hughes, VP of Sophos UK. "GB Building Solutions should
be applauded for taking proactive measures to secure confidential
data and protect its employees from the dangers of surfing the web.
Solving this problem within budget is no mean feat but GB Building
Solutions has opted for a solution that tackles the issues of cost
and complexity with a single solution."
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.