National Arts Screen and Broadcast School

Client

The client is a government funded tertiary education provider offering courses in professional media studies both online or in-person at their campus.

On-campus training allows for a more in-depth and focused study by giving students hands-on experience with their technical teaching spaces, specifically in film and television, radio and recording, theatre, post-production and editing. By giving their students the best access to the technical teaching spaces, and in order to create a culture of creativity and flexibility, the school also provides a publicly accessible media resource centre, cinema and café for students to make complete use of.

Opportunity

The client required a secure network infrastructure environment to be able to continue to deliver exceptional multi-media courses – both online and in-person. Their network needed to be reliable, with all systems being connected, in-sync and working together to improve services offered to students and staff alike.

The arts screen and broadcast school needed to be able to provide both staff and students with reliable and secure technology to train and educate with efficiency, creativity, and flexibility. They identified significant organisational risk from a security perspective which needed to be addressed if they were to continue to operate efficiently and effectively.

Solution

Since the client’s environment is complex, with a large and diverse student population, they needed to ensure their valuable data assets were secure. Outcomex assisted in providing a holistic, cohesive, and comprehensive approach to protection, risk mitigation and remediation of these assets while at the same time addressing internal and external business requirements.

We provided a portfolio of security and enterprise network products which drive these key requirements. By taking a portfolio approach, we were able to deploy products within an overall architecture that do not operate in a silo-based format. This means that these products are integrated and aware of each other, working in tandem to provide optimal efficiency and security.

Since this tertiary school is a highly reputable brand and has close association with government, the risk of attack is elevated significantly. This means that the school, students, and staff are all at risk of attack through the use of non-trusted devices accessing network resources.

To address these issues and meet the client’s internal and external business requirements, we deployed a best of breed solution composed of Cisco Security and Enterprise Network products. This solution delivers efficiency and resiliency, and – purchased within Enterprise Agreement (ELA) construct – is consumed in a cost-effective manner.

Through employing a Cisco policy management and control platform, the tertiary education provider was given greater visibility in terms of context and control, gaining knowledge on which devices are connecting to their network. This ensures compliance while limiting risk, transforming passive security solutions into active and vigilant security systems. Additionally, the use of Cisco Malware Products, provides an advanced malware protection, helping to secure emails, web traffic and endpoints. It essentially provides protection against viruses, malware, and cyber-threats through detection, prevention, and responsiveness, automatically remediating malware by continuously analysing all system activity. Cisco Email Security provides heightened email security by rapidly detecting, quarantining, investigating, and remediating cyber-attacks that target email.

In addition, we deployed Cisco Secure Network Products to give enterprise-wide visibility, from private networks to the public cloud. By continuously analysing network activity and comparing it to the baseline of normal network behaviour created through advanced machine learning algorithms that detect anomalies, it can immediately detect and respond to threats in real time.

Due to the nature of courses being split both online and on-campus, multiple students across a range of endpoints connect to the campus network and make use of internet, both through their own devices and those offered by the school. In order to provide multiple levels of defence against internet-based threats, we installed additional Cisco Security Products as a first line of defence to securely transform their networks with SD-WAN and embrace direct internet access.

Furthermore, we leveraged an integrated security architecture that automates integrations across Cisco Security products, simplifying threat investigations and responses.

Since this portfolio of security and network solutions integrate, working together, it provides an advanced security layer for the broadcast school to continue to operate in and thrive.

Technologies used

• Cisco Security and Enterprise Network Products

Impact

The national arts screen and broadcast school now enjoys a robust investment in cyber security and network enterprise solutions ideal to protect the range of technology they utilise, giving them the ability to provide students and staff with a network that is highly available, rich in content, secure in delivery and at the cutting edge of possibility.

The nature of this EA drives cohesive, long-term engagement which Outcomex will fulfill ensuring that the school’s business innovations, outcomes and initiatives are looked after professionally.