Syndicate Bank Opts for UTM Solution
By Priyanka Akhouri
Mumbai, Jul 20, 2007

Syndicate Bank- the first public sector bank in India - has moved on to a new Unified Threat Management (UTM) solution. It has deployed Fortinet's FortiGate 5000 series to protect its core banking system and various branches.

Prior to this, the bank was using Cisco Pix 525. According to Atul Kumar, assistant GM (IT) of Syndicate Bank, Cisco Pix 525 was an old product. The bank needed a transformation because UTM is a solution that not only takes care of its needs, but also provides important security applications and needs. "We evaluated Fortinet's UTM solution because, earlier, Cisco didn't have a UTM solution," said Kumar.

The bank deployed 4 FortiGate-5020 Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (ATCA) compliant enterprise-class multi-threat security systems, 4 FortiGate 5001 blades, and 1 FortiManager 400.

After evaluating Cisco and other products, the company zeroed in on Fortinet's UTM and realized that this solution fulfilled their requirements, enabling them to achieve a secure enterprise network.

The company also revealed that some companies that have the UTM device don't have their anti-virus application. This forces them to integrate some other third party solution. Kumar claimed that in a bank, they cannot depend on a third party. Therefore, they chose Fortinet - because all its products are from the same family.

Fortinet's UTM solution provides protection from threats, firewall, anti-virus, VPN, intrusion prevention, traffic shaping, etc. It protects the data of the customers and makes it easy for them to transact money safely through the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), various branches, internet banking, etc.

With more than 2200 branches in India and about 90% of their business into core banking, this solution protects their entire networking system from threats. The data center is protected at the gateway level. The center has got an ATM switch, customer database, car database, database of ATM, etc. This solution protects more than 50 applications at their data center. It's a part of their security infrastructure, which helps them to manage their business.

The solution enables the bank to protect the tangible assets of its customers like the balances, their pin number, etc. "In a bank, what we are protecting is not an email. We need to protect the assets of our customers," said Kumar.

The intangible benefits of deploying this solution, according to Kumar, are that the customers are satisfied and trust the company with the best secure system deployed.

Kumar claims that providing a secure solution to their customers has been their biggest challenge. "Any organization requires a solution, which enables them to transact their business without any threat," said Kumar.

It took 6 months for the company to deploy this solution. In March, the solution was deployed by the systems integrator - Wipro Infotech - at the bank's Mumbai data center and their disaster recovery site in Bangalore. The solution is priced close to Rs.1 crore.

According to Kumar, IT plays an important role because it enables one to deploy and take care of the various important assets of the organization. The estimated IT expenditure of the company for this year is around Rs.100 crore.

Syndicate Bank has various channels such as toll free numbers, complaint desk, internet banking, etc. to cater to its customers. Infrastructure deployed at their data center, apart from Fortinet, includes Cisco routers, firewall, and Network Intrusion Prevention System (NIPS). The company is also looking forward to other future deployments such as an identity management solution, which is mainly requirement driven. This deployment should be completed soon.


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Syndicate Bank Secures Network and Data