Business Needs & Networking Requirements
Financial service enterprises such as retail banks, electronic stock exchanges and insurance companies have branch offices distributed across multiple regions. Most of the retail transactions occur through branch offices. Spurred by technological developments and the Internet, there has been an explosive growth in online transactions for functions such as banking and stock trading. This requires instant processing & updating of critical financial data. Hence, having secure, highly available network connectivity between the main processing centers and branch offices is both a business necessity as well as a source of competitive advantage for financial service companies.
Most financial service branch offices are likely to be limited size organizations with no local IT support staff. As a result, the IT staff at the enterprise network operations center (NOC) will be required to deploy network infrastructure at the branch sites, and manage this equipment remotely. To keep pace with customer demand and exploit new opportunities, they will need the ability to rapidly deploy infrastructure and turn up services at a new site. New branch offices are likely to use the Internet, rather than leased lines, for network connectivity. Given the nature of financial service transactions, putting in place appropriate security measures is a critical requirement. Hence, services such as firewall and VPN will be required at each branch office.
Based on the business needs discussed above, the key branch office networking requirements for financial service enterprises can be summarized as follows:
- High service availability to support mission-critical applications
- Multiple network and security services at each site
- Highly secure network infrastructure with ability to respond rapidly to new security threats
- Comprehensive, always available remote management access
- Rapid & low-cost expansion into new regions
Limitations of Traditional Solutions
Traditional solutions, based on cascaded point devices, are unable to meet the "online-anytime-anyplace" requirements of today's financial service companies. Support for multiple services requires the disruptive addition of new devices and can be expensive. System management is complex, with little or no support for remote management. Downtime levels can be high, due to delayed trouble-shooting & recovery from problems and time-consuming, disruptive service upgrades. This may result in significant financial losses, loss of customer trust and a decline in market share. Furthermore, the traditional approach to layered security has not been fully effective in meeting new security threats in the open, Internet-based network environment.
NetDevices Unified Services Gateways
NetDevices Unified Services Gateways are purpose-built solutions architected from the ground up to unify multiple branch office networking services on a single platform and deliver unprecedented levels of serviceability and availability to enterprises. With its rich set of innovative, next-generation features, NetDevices unified services gateways are ideally suited to meet the branch office networking requirements of financial service companies. The key features of NetDevices services gateways and the benefits for financial service companies are summarized below.
| Key Benefits | Benefits for Financial Service Enterprises |
| Unified services on one platform with full modularity - Firewall, VPN, Voice, Routing, QoS, Ethernet Switching |
- Simple deployment - both network & security services on one platform
- Modular addition of new services on an as-needed basis
- Low CapEx to expand into new regions
|
Innovative approach to unifying and securing multiple branch services
-Unique OnePassTM packet classification & inspection coupled with LifelineTM management framework |
- Fast response to even the most sophisticated DoS attacks & other security threats
- Efficient propagation of new security filters & updates to all branch offices
- Uninterrupted system access under even the most adverse conditions
- High performance & scalability for advanced security services
|
| Highly resilient, fully modular system architecture |
- Non-disruptive service upgrades & configuration changes
- Insulation of system from failure of any one service
- Fast, often automatic, recovery from problems
- Bottomline: highly available branch office applications
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Always available access to system management with 100% remote manageability
- Lifelineâ„¢ management framework |
- Efficient operations & management - all sites managed from main NOC
- Easy addition of new services via remote upgrades
- Easy expansion into new branch sites - ship chassis, remotely configure & provision services
- Rapid trouble-shooting & recovery from problems
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