The Hempel: MXSweep to improve IT performance and email security.
The Customer
Located in West London, The Hempel is a five star boutique hotel with 50 rooms, 70 staff and a turnover in the region of £5m. Like the majority of top end hotels, The Hempel also comprises of conference and event facilities, along with a restaurant and bar.
Business Challenges
In business it is essential that communications are first rate. Hotels in particular need to maintain integrity at all times due to the public facing nature of their business. The Hempel hotel is a 24 hours, 365 days a year business and as such cannot afford any downtime at all. Like many businesses, The Hempel has come to rely heavily on email, using it to communicate with suppliers, partners, staff and customers on a daily basis.
However, there was a time when email was proving to be more of a burden than a help. The Hempel’s exchange server was being bombarded with literally hundreds of SPAM emails every day, slowing IT performance and exposing systems to the risk of viruses. The Hempel deployed MXSweep Email Protection because it required a solution that could provide secure reliable email filtering. This is provided by removing the responsibility of purchasing, installing and maintaining email protection software or an email security appliance. Instead MXSweep hosts a multi-layered protection service in two enterprise class data centres and provides access to the system via a web portal on a true pay-as-you-go subscription basis.
The move to MXSweep was as simple as changing the MX Records in the domain name server and the job was done. There was zero implementation of hardware or software with the result that there was no interaction with the network or with desktops.
Gareth Banner, general manager at The Hempel explained “Prior to implementing MXSweep we had not previously used any other vendor’s solution. We were receiving unacceptable levels of unsolicited email and really wanted a system that could provide effective protection and peace of mind.”
Customer
The Security-as-a-Service model requires no initial investment to set up and a provides a flexible infrastructure that can be scaled according the needs to the customer. Cloud computing takes away maintenance and other responsibilities enabling both end users and IT administrators the freedom to carry on with their normal everyday activities. All email is filtered offsite, threats are quarantined and only clean email is relayed to the email server. Email quality is guaranteed by industry-leading detection rates and real time virus and spam outbreak protection. Should The Hempel’s email server fail, the MXSweep solution ensures users can always access, compose and send email.
Banner added: “Since deploying MXSweep we have noticed a definite productivity improvement and an increase in end user satisfaction. It provides us with a safety net, inboxes no longer get clogged up and viruses can be effectively avoided. We view MXSweep as a sort of insurance policy. When you talk about ease of use, MXSweep is effortless to use as it is virtually invisible. It works behind the scenes requiring the minimum amount of interaction. We take it for granted really.”
Case Study: Vision Labs
The Customer
Vision Labs is the UK’s largest manufacturer of prescription lenses. The company employs over 300 people and is supplier to Specsavers throughout the UK, Irish Republic and Netherlands. With a turnover of over £25m Vision Labs specialises in surfacing and coating treatments for optical lenses.
Business Challenges
Like many businesses, Vision Labs has come to rely heavily on email, using it to communicate with suppliers, partners and customers on a daily basis. The problem with systems like email is one that it shares with a number of other technologies we now take for granted; we simply don’t appreciate how important it is until things start to go wrong. Vision Labs was receiving levels of unsolicited email that were proving problematic, staff productivity was being affected costing both time and money. In addition, the company had also found itself contaminated by a virus that had been able to penetrate IT systems via the email server. Luckily the problem was identified before any serious damage could be done, but the security breach did disrupt the work of a number of staff.
Vision Labs, on the advice of its IT supplier Advantage TS, chose to deploy MXSweep Mail Control, a security-as-a-service solution. Instead of Vision Labs purchasing and installing email protection software or an email security appliance and then managing maintenance in its environment, MXSweep hosts a multi-layered protection service in two enterprise class data centres and provides access to the system via a web portal on a true pay-as-you-go subscription basis.
Moving to MXSweep was relatively simple, only really involving a change to mail exchange records in the domain name server. There was no interaction with the network or desktops due to the fact there is no hardware or software to be installed.
Kevin Murrall, head of operations at Vision Labs said: “We had been working with Advantage TS for a while and were having some issues with email traffic that was slowing things down. We looked at a few options and narrowed it down to two products, Black Spider and MXSweep. Advantage TS suggested that MXSweep was the best solution for our needs so on its recommendation we went ahead with the implementation. ”
“Deployment was seamless and we have been delighted with the results. On a day-to-day basis it has been absolutely ideal, we haven’t had any problems, in fact I don’t think I’ve got anything bad to say about it at all.”
Customer benefits
With zero set-up costs the Security-as-a-Service approach provides redundancy and scale-on-demand infrastructure. The Cloud Computing model is a key strength and is a true ‘set and forget’ solution for both the end users and IT administrators. By switching to this Security-as-a Service model Vision Labs has seen a significant increase in productivity and end user satisfaction. In addition, Vision Labs can be confident that the security weaknesses responsible for previous infections have now been reinforced. All email is filtered offsite, threats are quarantined and only clean email is relayed to the email server. Email quality is guaranteed by industry-leading detection rates and real time virus and spam outbreak protection. MXSweep even provides an insurance policy which ensures users can always access, compose and send email even in the event of Vision Labs’ own email server failing.
Kevin Murrall added: “The working day for a large number of Vision Labs staff now runs noticeably smoother than it did before with productivity of those staff most affected by rogue email considerably improved. We were getting an awful lot of spam and potential viruses. Now we just get an alert whenever anything comes through that appears to be a rogue email. This has had a big impact upon the orderliness of the email traffic, preventing inboxes from getting clogged up and ensuring legitimate emails do not get lost. From an efficiency point of view, some of our users get a very high volume of email, so it has definitely improved their experience. MXSweep has been a great fit for Vision Labs.”
