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Press Release
CONSENTRY NETWORKS SECURES COMPLEX NETWORK FOR LEADING PROVIDER OF DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING SERVICES
Alliance Imaging Uses LANShield Controllers and Switches to Protect Against Attacks, Comply with Industry Guidelines
Milpitas, CA – April 23, 2007 – ConSentry Networks, the leader in secure switching, announced today that Alliance Imaging, the nation’s leading provider of diagnostic medical imaging services, has deployed the ConSentry LANShield Controllers and plans to deploy the LANShield Switches to secure its complex network environment. Alliance is using its ConSentry installation to protect against malicious attacks, virus outbreaks, and vulnerabilities posed by wireless access as well as to comply with government and industry guidelines.
In addition to major sites in California, Arizona, Ohio, and Massachusetts, Alliance also operates more than 80 fixed-site imaging centers and more than 400 mobile services in 44 states. Alliance also maintains equipment on-site at many hospitals and other medical facilities. In many cases, data from those on-site facilities needs to traverse both Alliance’s and the hospital’s network, a situation that gave rise to serious security issues.
“Because we often depend on our partner hospitals’ networks for transmission, but we can’t control those networks, I needed a way to protect our infrastructure and secure the data,” said Adam Le, director of IT infrastructure at Alliance Imaging.
Le faced a number of security challenges. The large number of off-site locations put Alliance at a higher risk of malicious attacks propagated from within, and because the company shares its network, Le worried that virus outbreaks at a hospital could cross into Alliance’s network. Vulnerabilities posed by employees installing unauthorized wireless access points were another concern. In addition, the company needed better tracking and logging mechanisms to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and standards set by the Joint Commission, a healthcare standards-setting and accrediting body with its own reporting standards.
Alliance investigated a number of discrete products that could each handle a piece of the security functionality it needed, but integrating and operating multiple products is quite challenging. “Seeing a demonstration of the ConSentry platform quickly eliminated all other options,” noted Le. “The platform’s comprehensive set of LAN security services, and its ability to apply access control to users regardless of how they connect to the network, presented me with a shortcut to achieve my goals.”
ConSentry’s secure switching enables enterprises to control every user and secure every port on the LAN. The ConSentry LANShield platforms provide network admission control (NAC), traffic visibility, identity-based control, and threat control, including malware containment.
“The LANShield platform also met our requirement for a high-performance device,” said Le. “We always have to look at how much bandwidth network appliances can really handle, and the ConSentry hardware is world class; it actually has more capacity than ConSentry advertises. And the platform was easy to install; you drop it in, connect a few cables, and you’re done.”
Alliance has deployed the LANShield Controller at its major sites and plans to install LANShield Switches at its remote sites as it updates the existing edge switches. Today, the company uses ConSentry’s NAC, threat control, and traffic visibility capabilities, and it anticipates implementing identity-based policies to apply finer-grained control over the resources users can access. “ConSentry’s comprehensive set of security services deliver an extra security measure for peace of mind,” said Le.
Its ConSentry deployment has provided Alliance with a number of benefits compared to a multi-product solution. Installation took only a matter of hours, rather than months, and did not require the use of professional services. Ongoing operating and management expenses are far less, and Le has even saved on head count in the IT department. “In case of a virus outbreak, I don’t need a full team of operations folks to turn on and off ports, block protocols, block packets, and track the outbreak,” said Le. “The ConSentry devices do it almost automatically for me.”
“Alliance is like so many of our customers, who have deployed the LANShield Controller and now, with a wiring closet refresh project, have the opportunity to expand the deployment with secure switches, using our LANShield Switch,” said Tom Barsi, ConSentry Networks’ president and CEO. “Secure switching, in both the Controller and the Switch, provides enterprises with per-user, per-application control embedded directly in the LAN so they can protect their critical business assets.”
About ConSentry Networks
ConSentry Networks enables enterprises to control every user and secure every port on the LAN. With the ConSentry family of award-winning LANShield platforms – the LANShield™ Controller and LANShield Switch – businesses can protect their corporate assets, ensure continuity of operations, and dramatically reduce the risk of security breaches. ConSentry's LANShield platforms and InSight™ Command Center provide network admission control, visibility, identity-based control, and threat control. This combination of pre- and post-admission controls provides enterprises with a simple, proven, and affordable means of integrating secure switching into their LAN infrastructure to control access to business resources and applications. Backed by blue-chip venture capital firms that include Accel Partners, DAG Ventures, INVESCO Private Capital, and Sequoia Capital, ConSentry is headquartered in Milpitas, California.
ConSentry Networks, the ConSentry Networks logo, LANShield, and Control without Compromise are trademarks of ConSentry Networks Inc., for use in the United States and other countries. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective holders. product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective holders.
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