SOLUTIONS

Security is a critical part of this service and Hogarth manages its own multi-layered secure access platform. Having grown rapidly over the last decade, the company had reached capacity on its legacy Juniper VPN solution that was also heading towards end of support. With the need to upgrade fast approaching, Hogarth decided to both refresh its secure access platforms to meet greater demand and gain access to more advanced capabilities. The company also decided to deploy a Network Access Control (NAC) solution to strengthen and enforce roles-based access and endpoint security policy for network user, guest and IoT devices.

“We initially created a shortlist of vendors from the Gartner magic quadrant and starting examining a few options,” says Peter Smith, Global Network Architect at Hogarth. “Our key criteria was a VPN and NAC platform that was easy to deploy and manage, with strong compatibility across a wide range of devices, plus the ability to adapt. Pulse Secure was able to meet these requirements.”

With a growing use of the cloud and SaaS, it was important that both solutions could be deployed as a virtual as well as physical appliance for certain remote sites.

Hogarth contacted AN Security, a trusted cyber security advisor that it had worked with previously on several projects. The team at AN Security provided guidance to help scope the project and design a technical implementation. “We looked at a number of options, but we felt that Pulse Secure’s NAC and VPN solutions offered the best combination of features and compatibility along with the flexibility we needed to meet our current requirements and future needs,” says Smith.

Based on these requirements, Hogarth selected Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) virtual appliances deployed within its main data centres in London and several branch offices across the world to provide VPN access. This is supported by Pulse Policy Secure (PPS), a next-generation NAC appliance that enables Hogarth to gain deeper visibility and understanding of its security posture.

“The virtual appliance offered better performance than our legacy solution and the Pulse Secure VPN and NAC appliances were easy to deploy with a low management overhead,” says Smith. “We have a high availability configuration and the built-in licence server makes it easy to add more users or devices as needed.”

The new solution has also helped Hogarth to meet the requirements of TISAX (Trusted Information Security Assessment Exchange) that enables mutual acceptance of Information Security Assessments which was a key requirement for several of its clients within the automotive industry.

“The upgrade to Pulse Secure has gone very smoothly, we have had no issues and the solution has delivered as expected with the potential to adapt as our security needs evolve,” Smith concludes.

RESULTS

The combined solution is deployed as part of a Zero Trust approach to security allowing Hogarth to ensure its distributed workforce is authenticated, authorized and secure when accessing applications and resources across its own data center and cloud-based resources.

The solution is integrated into its Ruckus based Wi-Fi network, Radius authentication server and Multi-Factor Authentication which runs in Azure. The data from all these systems is passed to a SIEM to allow the IT department to quickly detect any issues and automate threat response to mitigate malware, rogue devices, unauthorized access and data leakage risks.

The virtual appliance offered better performance than our legacy solution and the Pulse Secure VPN and NAC appliances were easy to deploy with a low management overhead,” says Smith. “We have a high availability configuration and the built-in license server makes it easy to add more users or devices as needed.