The Equitable Bank

The Customer

The Equitable Bank, based in Wisconsin, has been serving local customers since the 1920’s.With 12 branches throughout the Southeastern part of the state, The Equitable Bank brings peace of mind and security to local businesses, consumers and homeowners.

The Challenge

The IT staff at The Equitable Bank faced a common challenge that is typical with users of a Linux-based and BIND core network services solution. They were using a product that had to be managed independently and required experts to assist with maintenance and the frequent updates/patches. Additionally, in a disaster scenario, there was little to no ability to easily recover core network services because of a lack of a central point of management for administrators. Security was also an ever present concern. The Equitable Bank was left vulnerable due to older versions of BIND that could expose and leave the bank open to attack.

“The Equitable Bank is a Wisconsin community bank,” said Mike Block, Information Technology Officer, The Equitable Bank. “People and businesses throughout the Southeastern part of thestate look to us for safe, reliable and service-oriented banking needs. Network reliability is essential for day-to-day operations. It was important to have our core network services product be highly available, secure and easily managed.”

The Solution

In 2008, when their product was reaching its end of life, The Equitable Bank looked to its trusted reseller Avtex for an appliance-based solution. Working closely with Avtex, The Equitable Bank discussed their need to build a cost-effective, centrally managed solution with little to no downtime.

With Avtex’s help, The Equitable Bank evaluated the Infoblox solution and found it to be the best appliance solution on the market. They were particularly impressed with the Infoblox solution’shigh availability features, central management, easy updates/patching and “one-button” disaster recovery capability. All of these advantages would allow The Equitable Bank team to significantly reduce expert resources spent managing their DNS systems and allow them to focus on more strategic projects.

The Equitable Bank also conducted a cost analysis of Infoblox appliances vs. their previous solution. Taking into consideration server renewals, licensing, and the hiring of a contracted IT worker to monitor and maintain patching and upgrades, the bank determined it would save more than 30 percent annually using Infoblox appliances.

“It was important that we work with a partner who could manage all aspects of the project from sales, to support, to engineering and project management,” said Block. “Avtex worked with our schedule, budget and staff to make the process smooth and uneventful. They had a great amount of experience working with DNS, which was important to us. Overall, there was a phone call here, phone call there, and everything went according to the schedule. We couldn’t ask for more than that.” Their Infoblox solution currently consists of three Infoblox appliances—2 appliances deployed at the Company’s headquarters datacenter and a third production device operating as a master candidate.

The Result

“Infoblox has billed their appliances as a cost-effective solution with minimum downtime, andthe products work as advertised,” Block concluded. “We needed a stable solution to manage DNS. Infoblox has delivered. We have had the Infoblox product in since February, 2009 and therehas not been a single bump in the road.”