SASE delivers secure modern working for IVE Group

The Modern enterprise needs to use tools that are secure, easy to access and maintain while supporting complex functions in a fast-moving business environment. One stand out need driving much attention is the need to provide secure modern working to users accompanied by a high quality user experience.  These two opposing forces typically create a problem in delivery.

A significant element to assist with this strategy is the adoption of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE). This addresses two of the largest challenges facing IT leaders today. Businesses, such as the IVE Group, needed to support hybrid workforces to work securely from any location.. SASE uses modern security tools and methods to support IT Teams as they navigate these challenging changes to their user’s needs.

IVE Group is a leading ASX listed Australian holistic marketing services provider. Success comes through a laser focus on the needs of its customers, including a significant focus on the protection and security of customer information and data.

We have a very diverse and complex business. Strong security is critical to IVE’s success. Our clients, whether they use our data driven marketing and communications services or our diverse production and digital services, demand the best possible protection for their data and we have led the industry on our security capabilities,” explains Paul McMaster IVE Group’s General Manager Group IT.

“IVE historically had very old-school tight controls around network access, other than a handful of essential VPNs, we have not allowed any access to our network remotely.

At the start of the pandemic, we were extremely challenged with needing to quickly provide a suddenly remote workforce with the ability to work from home.”

“We deployed a Remote Desktop Protocol solution to enable users to access their computers at work, air-gapped from their home PC, but this raised big issues with our large fleet of notebook users. This left notebook users without the ability to access key BAU files in network shares, as well as a raft of services and applications that were only delivered when people we directly connected to the network,” commented, Paul.

“Whilst a number of key systems were already available over Citrix, one of the key issues that developed was an explosion in the use of cloud based file storage solutions, like OneDrive, to keep and share documents internally and with customers, against our longstanding policy of documents only being saved and tightly controlled in our on-prem network file servers.”

“We couldn’t resist this tide of shadow IT, as it was out of business necessity that our people were adapting – we had no other solutions available to provide our people with the access they needed.”

“We needed to rethink our approach to network security and needed our network security solutions to enable us to work efficiently and effectively at all times from any location, rather than get in the way,” added Paul.

What is SASE?

Businesses now rely on cloud-based applications and services – SASE is a blueprint architecture that converges networking and security services into a single cloud native service.