Customer Success Story

Multi-M/IA Internet Architects BV

• Industry: Internet/e-commerce
• Products: VShell® for Windows, SecureCRT®, and SecureFX®
• Summary: Using VanDyke Software's end-to-end solution, Multi-M/IA implemented a secure, collaborative environment for their employees. VanDyke's software is interoperable with OpenSSH and CVS running on Multi-M/IA's Linux server and client machines.

Organization

Multi-M/IA is an internet consulting firm that provides e-business solutions for its clients including web site development, management of internet and e-business projects, and integration of internet initiatives with existing business processes. The company specializes in the integration of their clients' internet efforts with their other communication channels and business processes.

Multi-M/IA's clients are spread across industry and geographic boundaries and include companies such as TNT Post Group, General Motors, McCann Erickson, and The United Nations (UN).

"I was able to deploy and configure VShell, SecureFX, and SecureCRT on our ten PC Windows network with ease. The total setup took about four hours and I haven't had to look at it since." – Leo Simons, UNIX Administrator

To provide their clients with the best possible e-business solutions, Multi-M/IA employs and collaborates with a wide variety of information and communication technology executives, marketing professionals, database engineers, programmers, and outside consultants and partners.

Challenge

Multi-M/IA needed to develop a collaborative network environment for its employees, consultants, and partners that provides secure file revision and project management.

Multi-M/IA's requirements include the following:

• Highly secure remote connections
• Products with proven stability and security track records
• Ease of deployment and maintenance
• A file transfer client with an easy-to-use interface
• Interoperability between Windows and Linux
• A complete solution with a low total cost of ownership

Basic account and logon information has to be protected. However, the most important asset to protect is their customers' data. At the same time, Multi-M/IA needs to ensure efficient operations by supplying their employees with an uncomplicated, polished interface.

Solution

Multi-M/IA requires interoperability since they manage several externally hosted Linux servers and need secure access to SOAP services (SOAP allows applications to communicate with each other over the internet, regardless of platform).

Multi-M/IA had been using a Cygwin and OpenSSH solution. They found that this solution was a challenge to maintain, primarily because of the difficulty that Windows users have using command-line windows.

A VPN was out of the question since it was beyond the scope of their needs and they did not want to commit the resources required to maintain a VPN. "VPN gave me a lot of headaches as it is implemented really badly within Windows 2000," said Leo Simons, a UNIX administrator at Multi-M/IA who also manages a small Windows workgroup.

Multi-M/IA looked at a variety of solutions, but Simons found that most solutions did not meet his requirements of relatively easy setup and maintenance and straightforward user interface. In addition, total cost of ownership increased to hundreds of dollars per seat for some products.

Simons decided to evaluate VanDyke Software products as a possible solution and found that the combination of security, interoperability, ease-of-use, and stable track record was unique to VanDyke's products. "I decided to investigate VanDyke packages," said Simons. "I was able to deploy and configure VShell, SecureFX, and SecureCRT on our ten PC Windows network with ease. The total setup took about four hours and I haven't had to look at it since."

Multi-M/IA selected a combination of VanDyke software and open source software. VShell was deployed on the Windows 2000 Workgroup server, which provided simple configuration and administration. For their Windows end users, the company chose a combination of SecureCRT, SecureFX, and WinCVS (an open source Windows client for the open source CVS version control system). SecureCRT was used for port forwarding and SecureFX using SFTP provided secure remote file access for employees.

OpenSSH and CVS were set up on the Multi-M/IA Linux server and client machines. Files are served by the Windows Workgroup server. CVS and SOAP are hosted on external, dedicated Linux servers. SOAP services are secured with Secure Shell tunneling. A firewall at all connection points to the internet (both servers and clients) blocks all incoming traffic except Secure Shell (port 22).

By combining VShell, SecureCRT, and SecureFX with open source and Linux servers and clients, Multi-M/IA achieved a secure, user-friendly environment that met their total cost of ownership requirements. VanDyke's implementation of the Secure Shell protocol provided interoperability with OpenSSH running on the Linux platform. The VShell server and the SecureCRT and SecureFX clients gave Multi-M/IA an easy to set up and maintain system with a polished, easy-to-use interface that required little training and reduced support.

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