Support is always dependent on what the customer feels is necessary. All Guardian Digital products include an annual subscription to the Guardian Digital Secure Network, which is a complete Internet software delivery system designed to distribute software and services directly to the customer's server.

All too often customers have the impression that their business is too small to be of concern to an attacker or they would rather try and secure some other Linux instead of starting with an integrated system that's engineered to be secure. You may recall the opening example of the Windows server that was hacked thirty minutes after it was installed.

Wreski pointed out that methods are available to improve the security of off-the-shelf Linux distributions, but it's often time-consuming, prone to error, inconsistent, and dependent on the specific skills of the person configuring the system. By engineering applications to be secure, instead of 'bolting on' the security, customers can better focus on their core business.

"To date we are not aware of a single server that has been compromised. In fact, we have many servers that are directly Internet-facing, without being protected by any type of firewalling. The sophisticated levels of access control, replacing 'legacy' applications with more secure alternatives, auditing and reporting, as well as threat mitigation should an attack succeed, allows our customers to sleep well at night," Wreski commented.

"Security is about defense, in depth. Every customer's requirements are different and Guardian Digital is constantly working with customers both prior to the sale and afterwards to develop contingency plans for their particular environment. This may include building a replica datacenter, better enforcing corporate security policies and assisting them with deploying intrusion detection," he said.

Some Guardian Digital customers had very strict security and support requirements.

NY Spinal Care used EnGarde and several other enterprise products to address the HIPPA health care requirements recently imposed by the U.S. government. They were able to securely communicate between their branch offices and mobile users including using email encryption.

Implex Corp. (a large orthopedics company) used EnGarde, along with other products, to secure their entire Internet infrastructure. They had stringent FDA requirements that included user data and privacy concerns. Guardian Digital provided network monitoring and intrusion detection services, as well as email and firewalling functions.

Case studies can be found on the Guardian Digital web site at http://www.guardiandigital.com/company/casestudies/.

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