Following an audit of Earnshaws multiple sites across Yorkshire, it was determined an upgraded Next Generation Firewall was required along with a Cloud to Cloud backup solution for Earnshaw’s 365 estate.

The approach ACS IT utilised was to firstly upgrade the installed Firewall to a Fortinet UTP. Considerations were taken to ensure the unit was not only fit for purpose today but also could grow with and support Earnshaw’s IT estate moving forward, with the increasing of internet speeds and moving to more hybrid working the unit was specifically installed to ensure throughout was not detrimentally affected whilst full security settings are applied.

The ability to securely connect remotely was an essential prerequisite to the project, however this also needed to be a straightforward process for the end users. To achieve this ACS IT deployed FortiClient VPN endpoint subscriptions which has a simple and user-friendly UI with Forticare Premium and Software based One Time Password (OTP) authentication. This solution provides high levels of security due to multiple layers of protection with automatic encrypted tunnels and Zero trust being applied automatically.

The pre-existing firewall at the main office of Earnshaw’s was reutilised at a satellite office so that the initial asset and security investment was not lost, a site-site connection was made to the new unit for unified connectivity between sites.

ACS IT also deployed Office 365 Backup and security as part of the project. The backup is an immutable and infinite storage backup, automatically running 3 times per day with no slowdown or lag on Earnshaw’s environment and items can be restored with one click. Teaming this up with Multi Factor authentication (MFA) to access 365 means Earnshaws now have security processes in place for access control but also a robust backup should anything go wrong. The solution is co-managed between ACS IT and Earnshaws with knowledge share provided to the Earnshaws IT team during the deployment process.