Choosing a firewall solution was not difficult, according to Watson.At the time, the company had already installed Check Point SoftwareTechnologies' FireWall-1 and VPN-1 applications at various locationsin its network on a trial basis. "We knew we would be using CheckPoint in our network," says Watson, for whom it was essential that thetechnologies used were provided by vendors who were reliable andtimely when it came to good global support delivered by technicalsupport teams that were experienced and very familiar with all mannerof firewall products and Chartered's requirements.

Choosing a firewall platform was a bit of work, though. "What weneeded was a platform that was the best to operate this applicationon, that could be implemented as a turnkey solution, and that is easyto manage," says Watson. But after a three-month process of evaluationand trials, which involved Chartered's IT Network, and Assurance andSecurity departments, the company settled on a platform constructed ofa number of different IP series security appliances byNokia.

Immediately after the decision was made the Nokia IP650 was deployedat Chartered's Singapore data centre, the IP330 at a number of thecompany's larger sites, the IP120 at smaller remote sites, and theIP71 at even smaller offices with five or fewer staff.

Savings and Freedom

Now, two years on, Chartered's choice in firewall solution andplatform has delivered on its promise, unequivocally, even though thecompany has yet to put its entire global network on thisplatform--which is expected to happen, along with a plannedenterprise-wide migration to Check Point's latest version of firewallsoftware called NG, by the middle of next year. "The key benefit isthat the main focus of the IT Assurance and Security staff no longerhas to be on the management of the firewalls," says Watson, whose teamnow handles complex installations and configuration work, as well asadminister software patches more easily and quickly, and remotely froma central location, using the Nokia Horizon Manager.