Large manufacturers face their own unique set of security challenges, owing to \u2013 among other things \u2013 a global presence, an extended supply chain, and key intellectual property. Add to the mix the heightened profile of a household name, and any manufacturing company can become a target.<\/p>\n
Verizon\u2019s 2015 Data Breach Investigations Report\u00a0looked at security threats in 12 different industries and identified two that registered as high in frequency of data disclosures for manufacturing: cyber espionage and crimeware.<\/p>\n
Global marketer of consumer and commercial products Newell Rubbermaid is no stranger to these issues. The $6 billion manufacturer of such familiar consumer names as Rubbermaid, Sharpie, Graco, Calphalon, Irwin, Lenox, Levolor, Paper Mate, and Aprica knows the importance of protecting its portfolio across a global network on a 24×7 basis.<\/p>\n
It faced a challenge, however, with its previous DNS, DHCP and IP address management (DDI) solution for running core network services, which, in its words, only did an \u201caverage\u201d job. It was prone to failures, which threatened the network\u2019s availability. Given Newell Rubbermaid\u2019s worldwide growth plans and disaster recovery, scalability and management requirements, \u201caverage\u201d was nowhere near good enough.<\/p>\n
After conferring with a number of vendors and resellers, Newell Rubbermaid deployed 14 Infoblox appliances throughout its data centers in the United States, including facilities in Illinois, Louisiana, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Texas. As a worldwide organization with many regional offices and brands, Rubbermaid found that Infoblox\u2019s Grid\u2122 technology provides simple and easy access to the entire global system.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe like the way we can set custom grids and maintenance anywhere in the world,\u201d **bleep** Emford, Manager of Network Services, Newell Rubbermaid Inc. \u201cWe can change domain names and give authorization and granular access control to the grid. And Infoblox appliances provide seamless changes and require little to no training of our IT staff. We can sit down for 10 – 15 minutes, and they are good to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another driver for using Infoblox appliances was the management of subdomains and continued visibility into the network. Using Infoblox\u2019s graphical user interface, a regional server was setup to manage all of Newell Rubbermaid\u2019s subdomains. The IT staff can now retain overall control of appliance configurations, ensuring they use the right forwarder and apply the necessary access control details.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Infoblox we are able to generate detailed usage and audit reports based on user, IP, MAC, date, or on any combination. I can see what is granted and what is expired and that is a beautiful thing,\u201d said Emford.<\/p>\n
With protection that is no longer \u201caverage,\u201d Newell Rubbermaid has infused its network with higher levels of availability, security, and reliability \u2013 exactly the kind of protection a global manufacturer needs.<\/p>\n