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| | |Microsoft Forefront: Security Products for Business |

| | |Customer Solution Case Study |

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| | | |CDW Simplifies IT Security Management to Safeguard Information and Reduce Costs |

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|Overview | | |“With Forefront security solutions, we can protect our infrastructure easily and effectively, and do |

|Country or Region: United States | | |it at much lower cost than with third-party products that don’t provide a complete solution.” |

|Industry: Information technology | | |Pat Simpson, Microsoft Practice Architect, CDW |

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|Customer Profile | | | |

|A provider of technology solutions for | | | |

|business, government, and education, CDW | | | |

|employs approximately 6,250 people and | | | |

|generated sales of U.S.$8.1 billion in 2008. | | | |

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|Business Situation | | | |

|CDW wanted to protect confidential data, | | | |

|reduce risks to its IT environment, | | | |

|centralize security management, and develop | | | |

|expertise in deploying advanced security | | | |

|solutions for its customers. | | | |

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|Solution | | | |

|To simplify messaging security and safeguard | | | |

|users from spam, viruses, and spyware, CDW | | | |

|deployed Microsoft Forefront Protection 2010 | | | |

|for Exchange Server in its Microsoft | | | |

|consulting practice. | | | |

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|Benefits | | | |

|Centralized security, reduced costs | | | |

|Productive messaging environment | | | |

|Comprehensive security management | | | |

|Enhanced customer offerings | | | |

| | | |CDW provides customized technology solutions and expert implementation services to customers in every|

| | | |commercial and public sector, including banking, manufacturing, healthcare, government, and |

| | | |education. To protect confidential information, the company had developed a solid user authentication|

| | | |infrastructure for its messaging and collaboration environments, and it wanted to further protect |

| | | |information and users from viruses and other attacks. CDW wanted to reduce risks to its own IT |

| | | |infrastructure, centralize security management in its messaging environments, and develop expertise |

| | | |in deploying advanced highly secure messaging solutions for its customers. By participating in a |

| | | |Microsoft Technology Adoption Program for Microsoft Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server, |

| | | |the CDW Microsoft practice simplified and enhanced its messaging security, reduced costs, and |

| | | |expanded its offerings. |

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Situation

CDW provides customized technology solutions and expert implementation services for the business and the public sector. Founded in 1984, CDW is ranked number 41 on the Forbes list of “America’s Largest Private Companies.” It employs approximately 6,250 people and generated sales of U.S.$8.1 billion in 2008.

CDW business units include a dedicated Microsoft consulting practice to serve customers with significant investments in Microsoft software. A Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, with competencies in many areas including networking and security, CDW is committed to deploying the latest available Microsoft technology in-house so that its consultants can recommend and implement new solutions for customers using knowledge from hands-on experience.

Further, CDW serves many large customers in the government, healthcare, banking, manufacturing, and education sectors, and it has a close relationship with Microsoft and is a large HP and Cisco reseller. In its communications, CDW often has to use nondisclosure or confidential information from customers in internal messaging and deliverable documents.

“As a consulting organization, we have to exchange a fair amount of confidential content,” says Pat Simpson, Microsoft Practice Architect at CDW. “We have to make sure that information is being protected.”

The CDW Microsoft practice manages its communications with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2010, and uses Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to help manage documents and internal collaboration. While CDW has to protect its customers’ confidential information, it also has to provide remote access to applications and data for its employees in the field. CDW consultants routinely work from remote locations, relying on e-mail and access to Office SharePoint Server 2007 libraries through the Internet to communicate and collaborate.

To control access to its messaging and collaboration environments, the CDW team uses the Active Directory service and Microsoft Identity Lifecycle Manager 2007 to manage and synchronize user identity information, which is used to provide authorization and authentication to these resources. CDW safeguards its Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Exchange Server environments from Internet-based threats with Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2006.

To augment its infrastructure for authenticating user credentials and to maintain strong messaging security and safeguard confidential information, CDW uses Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server to help provide secure messaging and to mitigate threats such as viruses, spam, and malicious software. Further, Microsoft Forefront Client Security is in use to help provide endpoint security for company desktop and portable computers.

CDW plans to continue deploying the most advanced security management tools available in its messaging environments. At the same time, the company wants to develop expertise in the latest security solutions available, especially solutions that can simplify and integrate security management and reporting for its customers.

“Our customers face an expanding web of attack opportunities against their infrastructures,” says Simpson. “They often respond by piling solutions on top of each other, with different configuration settings, update schedules, and management consoles. We want to help our customers standardize and simplify their security management.”

Solution

CDW participated in a Microsoft Technology Adoption Program (TAP) for Microsoft Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server, a highly secure messaging solution that is designed to detect viruses and spyware quickly and effectively. The CDW team began deployment in February 2009 and has deployed Microsoft Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server to approximately 300 users in its Microsoft practice.

Administrators configured the Exchange Server environment, worked through the installation steps, and installed Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server in less than an hour to two servers running Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and three servers running Exchange Server 2010.

“We installed Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server on a weeknight and the procedure was completed in minutes,” says Dennis Beatty, Senior Microsoft Consultant at CDW. “The installation instructions were clear and concise and there was no noticeable interruption of service during the install period.”

Participating in the TAP provided the opportunity for CDW to work with Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server and evaluate how it might work in customer environments. CDW provided valuable early feedback to Microsoft on Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server and related Forefront security solutions.

In late 2009, the company began deploying a pilot project to test Microsoft Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint to safeguard the SharePoint portals and document libraries in the Microsoft consulting practice from viruses, unwanted files, and inappropriate content. In the first quarter of 2010, the team anticipates deploying Active Directory Rights Management Services to provide more tools for safeguarding its messaging and collaboration environments.

Benefits

By deploying the Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server with its existing Forefront Client Security solution and its growing infrastructure for managing user authentication, CDW is enhancing the protection of its messaging environments while helping to provide endpoint security for desktop and portable computers.

With its new security solutions, CDW will simplify security management while reducing overhead. Moreover, the company’s consultants can now be subject matter specialists for CDW customers that are planning to deploy this technology.

Centralized Security, Reduced Costs

With Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server, CDW has been able to more effectively protect its e-mail environment from spam, viruses, and malicious software. At the same time it has been able to centralize security management across its Exchange Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2010 environments, making messaging security easier to understand and more cost-effective to administer.

“With Forefront security solutions, we can protect our infrastructure easily and effectively,” says Simpson, “and do it at much lower cost than with third-party products that don’t provide a complete solution.”

Advanced Messaging Environment

CDW can use Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server to maintain the most advanced messaging environment it can. For instance, administrators can fine-tune how to scan e-mail messages, tuning the scanning up or down as needs require, instead of having to use a broader setting that might allow threats to penetrate the system, or unnecessarily block nonthreatening e-mail messages.

“We can determine the number of scanning engines we’re running and how in-depth we want to scan, so we can better tailor the antivirus solution to the needs of our own environment,” says Beatty. “People are more productive when their e-mail delivers everything they’re supposed to get, and nothing they don’t want. In the long term, Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server will save us time and money.”

Comprehensive Security Management

CDW is deploying Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server with Forefront Client Security and the team’s authentica-tion infrastructure. It anticipates deploying Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint and Active Directory Rights Management Services in 2010. Currently, CDW is evaluat-ing other Microsoft security solutions such as Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010, which helps protect users from Web-based threats, and Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010, which helps system adminis-trators manage remote-access security.

“Having insight into our Exchange servers from a security standpoint is important,”

Jim Vanden Boom, Solutions Manager for Microsoft Server and Security Practice at CDW. “With Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server and with other Forefront security solutions, we expect to realize additional savings around managing security for our Microsoft environment.”

Enhanced Customer Offerings

With the opportunity during the TAP to gain experience and provide feedback to Microsoft regarding the next generation of Forefront security solutions, CDW will be able to offer better service and better messaging, collaboration, and endpoint security solutions to its customers that use Microsoft software.

“Now our customers can look to us for experience and knowledge about how Forefront Server Security functions,” says Beatty. “We’ll be able to offer customers greater system visibility and increased capacity to respond to threats proactively.”

Microsoft Forefront Product Portfolio

The Microsoft Forefront comprehensive line of business security products provides greater protection and control through integration with your existing IT infrastructure and through simplified deployment, management, and analysis. Forefront is a comprehensive solution that helps provide protection for the client operating system, application servers, and the network edge.

For more information about the Forefront product portfolio, go to:

forefront

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|“As a consulting organization, we have to |

|exchange a fair amount of confidential |

|content. We have to make sure that information|

|is being protected.” |

|Pat Simpson, Microsoft Practice Architect, CDW|

|“We installed Forefront Protection 2010 for |

|Exchange Server on a weeknight and the |

|procedure was completed in minutes. …There |

|was no noticeable interruption of service |

|during the install period.” |

|Dennis Beatty, Senior Microsoft Consultant, |

|CDW |

|“With Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange |

|Server and with other Forefront security |

|solutions, we expect to realize additional |

|savings around managing security for our |

|Microsoft environment.” |

|Jim Vanden Boom, Solutions Manager for |

|Microsoft Server and Security Practice, CDW |

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|Software and Services | |

|Microsoft Server Product Portfolio | |

|Microsoft Forefront Client Security | |

|Microsoft Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange| |

|Server | |

|This case study is for informational purposes | |

|only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR| |

|IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. | |

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|Document published November 2009 | |

For More Information

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For more information about CDW products and services, visit the Web site at:



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