About the Parish of Caddo
The Parish of Caddo covers 852 square miles with its borders being, Texas to the West, Arkansas to the North, the Red River to the East and DeSoto Parish to the South with a small section at the South-eastern corner adjoining Red River Parish. According to the 2000 Census approximately 252,161 people reside in Caddo Parish.
The Challenge
The Parish of Caddo in Louisiana is using the Astaro Security Gateway software version on hardware the city already owned. While working with the Astaro Security Gateway Kerry Kirby, Information Systems Manager, noticed the Astaro RED menu option appear on the user interface. Curious about the new product, Kirby began researching Astaro Red and after learning more about the product had an idea for a unique application for RED.
Kirby explained: “I would use the Astaro RED to connect three remote sites so that our Facilities and Maintenance Department could remotely monitor and adjust our HVAC equipment.”
A New Solution
The Astaro RED’s compact size meant it easily fit into the buildings’ existing controller panel along with the DSL devices and HVAC controllers. Kirby deployed an Astaro RED unit at each remote location. “Because it was easy to set up and all three devices could be managed from a central location it was the perfect solution for our remote office connectivity issue,” said Kirby.
Success with RED
The alternative to this unique Astaro RED deployment would have been to deploy full UTM devices at each location that would need to be installed and managed individually. By selecting the Astaro RED over full UTM appliances, Kirby was able to drastically reduce their connectivity and remote HVAC management costs as well as the amount of time needed to manage each locations’ HVAC systems.
The Future with Astaro
Moving forward, Kirby plans on replacing all of the Parish of Caddo’s UTM devices at remote locations with Astaro REDs because of the cost and time savings the Parish has seen with its current RED deployment. “In addition to replacing our current remote UTM deployments with Astaro REDs, we plan on using Astaro RED to connect a remote subnet that connects by a wireless link to an internal DMZ that provides a common interlink between agencies. RED would provide firewall capabilities facing the DMZ virtual interface,” said Kirby.
About Astaro RED
Astaro RED is the first security solution to offer complete and centrally managed Unified Threat Management for branch offices. It empowers organizations to connect their remote locations to a central location (headquarters) within minutes and without onsite technical expertise. For more information about Astaro RED watch this short video here: http://www.astaro.com/red/2me
