In line with a comprehensive network security upgrade, BAAC purchased and deployed $250,000 worth of FortiGate multi-threat security systems, including: seven carrier-class FortiGate-5020 systems, nine enterprise-class FortiGate-800 systems, and one FortiManager management and monitoring system

Financial Institution Requires Superior, Manageable Multi-Threat Security

BAAC operates as a state-owned bank under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance, with the primary objective of stimulating agriculture in Thailand by extending financial services to those in the sector. The bank serves customers through approximately 700 branch locations across Thailand. BAAC's network enables branches and administrative personnel to exchange information on all aspects of agricultural policy and business, and to access information in a national database.

Following a wave of virus outbreaks, BAAC reviewed its security procedures and infrastructure and found that in addition to virus and worm outbreaks, large amounts of spam was flooding their network and causing outages at branch locations. Of paramount importance to BAAC in evaluating alternative security solutions was superior manageability, comprehensive protection against all types of threats - including viruses, intrusions, spam and Spyware - along with the ability to easily and cost-effectively scale with the bank's growth.

BAAC evaluated solutions from Fortinet, Juniper, SonicWall and WatchGuard and found that Fortinet best met all of its stringent criteria. BAAC was particularly impressed with the superior security and efficient management provided by Fortinet's FortiGate multi-threat security appliances and FortiManager management and reporting system. Additionally, the chassis-based modular architecture of Fortinet's FortiGate-5020 systems offered unmatched scalability, flexibility and performance.

"Our previous security solution - Check Point firewall software running on Sun Microsystems servers - could not defend against viruses and spam," explained Khun Wichan Ariratanawalai, director of network development for BAAC. "We found that the comprehensive security applications and services offered by Fortinet's ASIC-based appliances provided a much greater level of protection and performance.

"Additionally, with a network as widely-dispersed as ours, managing our security infrastructure can be challenging," continued Ariratanawalai. "Fortinet's integrated security appliances are efficient to manage and we no longer have to maintain numerous servers in many different locations to ensure a high standard of security."

Fortinet's market-leading FortiGate systems are ASIC-accelerated security appliances that deliver real-time network protection through the integration of a broad range of security functions - including firewall, virtual private networking (VPN), antivirus, intrusion prevention (IPS), Web filtering, traffic shaping, and anti-spam. FortiGate systems are kept up to date automatically through Fortinet's FortiGuard Network, which delivers continuous and automatic signature "push" updates that ensure protection against the latest viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware, intrusions and other threats around the clock, and around the world.

BAAC's Fortinet deployment was managed by Fortinet reseller partner Universal Communications Systems (UCS), and was completed in late 2005.

"The scope and size of BAAC's deployment represents one of the largest deals in the APAC region to date, and we are very pleased with it," said Hansen Chang, vice president for Asia Pacific, Fortinet. "As BAAC and other financial institutions worldwide have realized, Fortinet's integrated security systems best meet their stringent security requirements, while at the same time reducing management complexity and total cost of ownership."