Liverpool City Council chooses Kaspersky Lab in network security overhaul

A centrally-managed, non-intrusive product was required to secure the Council’s network, which comprises 500 PCs and 35 servers spread across four large sites of 50 or more users and 12 smaller sites of 15 users or less.

Kaspersky Open Space Security was chosen to replace CA’s InocuLAN software after suspicions that the existing software was not meeting Council requirements.

“We were suspicious that our current virus protection software was not performing as it should nor detecting threats adequately, so a review was undertaken,” said Paul Hay, Systems & Network Coordinator, IT Operations, Liverpool City Council.

“It was this review which eventually made us choose Kaspersky Lab,” he said.

Besides CA and Kaspersky Lab, a number of other security options also were trialled in the Liverpool City Council’s review, including products from McAfee and Sophos.

“We were looking for not only a highly recommended product but a product that protected from multiple threats -- virus, spyware, malware etcetera,” Hay told iTnews.

“We also wanted a product that could easily be deployed with limited outage or downtime. Other than Kaspersky Lab, only two other brands were considered as they managed to tick all the boxes,” he said.

The Council eventually chose Kaspersky Lab due to its performance in independent reviews, cost considerations, and the ability for the Council to evaluate the full version of the product for a whole month prior to purchase.

The Council ordered 500 licenses of the Kaspersky Total Space Security suite, which is the most comprehensive solution of the Kaspersky Open Space Security product line.

However, initial in-house implementation efforts of version 5.0 of the software were unable to resolve issues with performance on PCs.

So when version 6.0 was released for the business enterprise market, the Council engaged Kaspersky Lab’s Australian distributor, Microbe, to assist in the upgrade and advise the Council on best practice solutions for maintaining the Kaspersky 6.0 system and protecting the Council's network from threats.

“We virtualised the Kaspersky Lab Administration server when we migrated to versions 6.0 which reduced our reliance on using another physical server without any detriment to performance,” Hay said.

“It really just came down to time to implement and rollout to the organisation.”

Now, more than a year after Kaspersky Open Space Security 6.0 was first implemented, the Council’s IT staff boasts an increase in threat detection, resulting in an overall decrease in the number of infections and security incidents across the Council's network.

“The performance issues we originally had in 5.0 have now since disappeared,” Hay told iTnews.

“Generally Kaspersky 6.0 has maintained itself and has given us peace of mind in ensuring that our network is safe from virus and spyware attacks,” he said.

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