CUSTOMER CASE STUDY SAINTGITSSaintgits adds morepower to its
cybersecurity posturewith Sophos
The Saintgits Group of Institutions is one of the leading education brands in Kerala,a southern state in India. Under the Saintgits brand, there are four distinct entities:
Saintgits College of Engineering, Saintgits Institute of Management, Saintgits
Institute of Computer Applications and Saintgits College of Applied Sciences.
Since its inception in 2002, the group has established a reputation for providing
quality education to students. The college consistently ranks high for its
infrastructure, faculty and academics. Affiliated to the APJ Abdul Kalam
Technological University, it has been approved by the All India Council for Technical
Education (AICTE). In 2016, it was accredited by the National Board of Accreditation(NBA).

CUSTOMER-AT-A-GLANCESaintgits
Industry
Education

Websitewww.saintgits.org
Number of Users
3,000

Sophos Solutions
XG 210
XG 550AP55C 30

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY SAINTGITS

Challenges
ÌÌ Inability to track internet usage or generate usage
reports

ÌÌ Difficulty in blocking unproductive websites andestablishing customized usage patterns

ÌÌ Inability to control bandwidth and usage for different
level of users

Can the same firewall becustomized differently for
different users?
“In today’s connected world, good internet speed is abasic prerequisite. In a college or educational set-up
like ours, it becomes the basis for preliminary researchand the pursuit of knowledge. Students need to be able
to access what they want quickly and move on to othertasks. Not being able to do this can slow down the paceof the entire college.”
Apart from connectivity, the college also struggled withvisibility into usage. With different types of devices
being plugged into the network, it was important tounderstand the source of traffic. Generating customized
reports on internet activity and usage was critical.

Saintgits Group of Institutions further needed to be able
to define accessibility. “As an educational institute, wewanted to ensure that students visit only productive
websites and do not misuse internet privileges.
However, our legacy solution made it impossible
to customize access. Often, a number of students
would still be able to access sites that our team had
blacklisted,” says Chacko.
Controlling bandwidth and limiting internet accessduring exams were also important. During online exams,
high bandwidth was required to enable students tofinish their exams within the stipulated time. However,access to search engines and unproductive websites
needed to be restricted. High bandwidth was also
required for online classes to help students stream
lectures without interruption. The college therefore
needed a solution with strong bandwidth management
and web-filter application capabilities.
Since the group had several colleges under the Saintgits
umbrella, they needed to be able to offer each entity
a different set of privileges. This meant that separate
zones needed to be set up within one firewall.

‘Prior to using
Sophos, thecollege faceda series ofchallenges. Oneof the biggest
struggles wasseamlessinternetconnectivity.’
Abraham Cha
System Admin Manager,
Saintgits Group of Institutions.

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY SAINTGITS

What made Sophos the finalchoice?
The college evaluated several leading vendors, including
Sophos. The Sophos solution was the best fit as it
offered several functionalities that would address all ofSaintgits’ problem areas. Based on a Proof Of Concept,
Saintgits finalized Sophos, implementing CR 2500iNG in2014. In 2018, the college upgraded to Sophos XG 550
and now they use the firewall at the university with 30
access points.
Additionally, the college has a small office with 50 to60 users to manage administrative and operational
aspects. This setup uses XG 210.
“The solution was implemented by Sophos’ partner
Comtech Systems,” says Chacko. “They were extremelyprofessional and implemented the solution withminimal downtime. They have also been helping tomaintain the firewall.”How did the Sophos solution
impact the quality ofeducation?
“Taken enforcement and firewall policy to a whole newlevel.” The technology allows user level controls overapplications, bandwidth and other network resources,
regardless of IP-address, location, network or device.

The management can apply different rules andenable different levels of access based on users anddepartments. They have also been able to create,
modify and authenticate user groups as batches, simply
deleting the group when done.
Application and website filtering policies can be easily
set, and these have proved to be successful in blocking
unproductive applications and websites. Customized
reports can also be generated effortlessly, enabling
management to keep a tab on websites visited by each
IP and tracking deviant users based on the time of visit.
Another major advantage, says Chacko, is theactive directory authentication with single sign on.
“This feature allows us to map users and groups
from the active directory to the Sophos firewall forauthentication.”
End users no longer need to manage multiple user IDs
and passwords to access web software applications.
Besides improving convenience and efficiency, it has
also boost access and user adoption. Weekly backups
ensure that even in the case of issues, the system
can get up and running with minimal data loss anddowntime.
In the future, the institute plans to deploy protection
across a larger number of endpoints.

‘Since implementingSophos, Saintgits has
been able to get indepth visibility into
user activity. The useridentity based firewall
has made segregatedusage possible’
Abraham Chacko,
System Admin Manager,
Saintgits Group of Institutions .

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2019-09-26 CS (PS)