Clover Stornetta Farms relies on StandGuard for the Heavy Lifting

Northern California Dairy Calls StandGuard a "Slam Dunk"

Clover Stornetta Farms, a locally owned and operated dairy processor in Northern California, faced the need to improve security when it expanded its operations and moved business offices to a second location. It found an easy and effective solution in StandGuard Network Security.

Clover Stornetta Farms is a locally owned and operated dairy processor specializing in organic and conventional dairy products from the bucolic fields of the North Coast of California. To keep up with increasing demand for its high-quality, sustainable, free-farmed dairy products, Clover expanded its milk processing facility at the Lakeville Petaluma location. The processing center extension forced Clover to move its business offices offsite to a second location, and Clover’s network was also expanded to link the two sites with Voice over IP (VoIP) and a wide area network (WAN) on the company’s System i. As the company grew, Ken Kuhn, Clover’s IT director, began to think about how he could best secure his company’s systems and data from unauthorized access.

REAL-TIME IBM i SECURITY POLICY ENFORCEMENT

After testing lots of different software and techniques, Kuhn chose Fortra's Stand Guard Network Security solution to protect Clover’s network. Stand Guard Network Security is a real-time IBM i security solution that lets system administrators easily and quickly set enforceable security policies across a network of multiple systems. By controlling access to, and functionality within, key services running on a company’s server, Stand Guard Network Security protects system data from accidental or intentional data loss. Stand Guard Network Security secures, monitors, and audits access to objects, network services, and resources on your IBM Power Systems servers running IBM i by using an object-based design that is consistent with IBM i object-level security.

By spending about 15 minutes a day over the course of a month, Kuhn was able to look at all the activities that were taking place on Clover’s network and approve or deny the various actions Clover’s users were taking. This phased approach to implementation let Kuhn build a highly effective network security policy that was perfectly adapted to Clover’s business environment. By building a security policy in this manner and defining security rules based on what users needed, there were no user interruptions when the network security policy was finally locked into place, Kuhn says. The implementation of the new policy was absolutely painless, and once the rules were set up, Clover’s team could sit back and let Stand Guard do the heavy lifting. "Stand Guard sits and watches our environment 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The tool runs itself," Kuhn says.

MESSAGE MANAGEMENT & VIRUS PROTECTION

Clover also uses MessengerPlus, a fully integrated IBM i messaging solution, to monitor its network. MessengerPlus provides essential monitoring, message management, notification, and statistical reporting features essential for reducing the high cost of operational management and downtime and for improving systems productivity and reliability. In case of a problem, MessengerPlus is configured to send Clover’s team e-mails or text messages notifying them of the problem so action can be taken quickly to reduce downtime, Kuhn says. Clover also uses Powertech Antivirus for IBM i to keep its System i and network free of malicious code. The solution’s nightly updates and weekly IFS scans let Kuhn rest assured that Clover’s network is protected.

Fortra portfolio of network security, antivirus, and messaging products has been a “slam dunk,” Kuhn says. Stand Guard Network Security has helped Clover painlessly develop a network security policy personalized to meet the company’s needs, and MessengerPlus and Powertech Antivirus for IBM i continue to help Kuhn and his team protect Clover against malicious code and unexpected downtime.

The implementation of the new policy was absolutely painless, and once the rules were set up, Clover’s team could sit back and let Stand Guard do the heavy lifting.