Colby-Sawyer College
About Colby-Sawyer College
Colby-Sawyer is a dynamic and innovative liberal arts and sciences college located in the scenic Lake Sunapee Region of central New Hampshire. The
Colby-Sawyer College story began back in 1837, when local citizens gathered
to create a coeducational secondary academy on a hill in lovely New London,
N.H. The school evolved into a junior college for women in 1928, before
becoming the comprehensive liberal arts college for men and women that it
is today.
Colby-Sawyer has since become a rising star among comprehensive
baccalaureate colleges in the North, recognized for its low student-to-faculty
ratio, small classes, closely knit community and personalized quality of
education Colby students enjoy many benefits, including access to preprofessional
internship programs, small class sizes, and a fully wireless
campus that embraces new technologies.
Security Demands
Embracing new technology, of course, means that the campus network must
securely deliver that technology. The network interconnects approximately
800 college-owned PCs and laptops and 1000 student computers, using both
wired and wireless access. A central server infrastructure both physical and
virtual servers, with common SAN storage. The network is designed around
a central core switch, with all buildings connected via 100Mbps optical fiber.
Server farms are connected to the core with multiple gigabit Ethernet links;
the servers being divided between multiple server rooms.
Student network activity varies from Internet access to college-hosted
services, and there is a constant battle to protect the network from the
introduction of malicious code and malevolent activity. While faculty and
staff generally connect to server resources via a Citrix session, security
concerns in these core areas also exist, requiring that both the network edge
and core server farms be protected. In addition, monitoring network activity
through the collection and analysis of flow data is critical in a mobile, largely
wireless campus environment.
“ ... since the implementation of the IPS solutions there hasn’t
been a single virus that has made it onto the network.”
Network Protection with NitroSecurity’s NitroGuard IPS
Colby-Sawyer College was actively looking for ways to manage and mitigate intrusion attempts both into our
network as well as within our network. The goal was to shield the network and infrastructure from attacks
which could cripple the network. Due to the open nature of a college network environment it was necessary to
implement multiple layers of security devices to protect valuable assets.
“At Classic Networking we focus on solutions that integrate well with the customer’s IT infrastructure. We integrated NitroGuard IPS with Campus Manager from Bradford Networks. Combining Network Access Control with Intrusion Prevention provides a very valuable security solution for Colby-Sawyer College. We appreciate a powerful IPS with integration partnerships.”
Colby-Sawyer college currently uses the
NitroGuard Intrusion Prevention System (IPS)
both at the network edge (the demarcation
between the college network and the Internet),
and the core server farms. Multiple
NitroGuard IPS devices are used, operating in
both IPS and IDS mode, depending on both the
device’s location in the network, and the
specific signatures being used for a specific
security profile. A tuned signature profile is
used to provide active protection, immediately
blocking high-risk activity, while alerting on a
broader set of less critical signatures. All
activity from the NitroGuard IPS is available
for later security analysis.
The synergy between the NitroSecurity
solution and Bradford Networks’ Campus Manager allowed Colby-Sawyer to combine intrusion prevention,
security information and event management, and identity-based network access control, providing best-practice
security while simplifying operations. NitroSecurity worked with NitroConnect partner Classic Networking
to provide professional services through all phases of the implementation.
“The database engine and the ability to handle and process as
many flows as the IPS can handle is incredible! An IPS that can
use signature and behavioral anomaly techniques as efficiently
as Nitro makes proactively protecting the campus
infrastructure possible.”
Visit Nitro Security for more info.
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Classic Networking Inc. is a trusted industry leader in building and maintaining network infrastructure, along with being experts in specific technologies, for medium to large enterprises in all parts of the United States. We continue to strive hard for each customer’s trust and respect in order to build strong long-lasting relationships with each customer.
The service we provide to each customer will continue to be a cornerstone of our business and we will continue to improve our services to be the best available.
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