| 4/28/08 - Fortinet announced that Ashland Inc. has deployed FortiWifi wireless multi-threat security appliances for VPN and Web filtering at more than 800 of its Valvoline Instant Oil Change locations throughout the United States. Ashland has also deployed Fortinet's enterprise-class FortiGate-5000 Series, FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer management and reporting appliances at its headquarters.
Valvoline Instant Oil Change (VIOC) is the second largest quick-lube chain in the United States and provides oil changes and preventive maintenance to millions of customers at its 800 U.S. locations each year. To differentiate itself among competitors and enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty, Ashland updated its network so that it could provide a free wireless connection for its guests in each of its oil change locations. Ashland also needed separate secure service set identifiers (SSIDs) on the network for other critical functions such as point of sale (POS) applications, wireless handheld scanners and wireless laptop use for managers. As a result of this wireless security implementation, Ashland employees have become more efficient and its customers more loyal due to the convenience of being able to browse the Internet while their vehicles are being serviced. When considering security providers, one of Ashland's most critical requirements was a mandatory terms and conditions splash page that required guest consent before allowing access to the network. Fortinet's Web filtering solution was the only one that Ashland evaluated that could accomplish this requirement. Located at the company's Lexington, Ky. headquarters, Fortinet's FortiGate-5001 and FortiGate-5020 chassis-based appliances are being used as VPN concentrators for the 800-site Fortinet roll-out to the VIOC stores. A third FortiGate-5020 chassis is located in Columbus, Ohio, for VPN fail-over in the event that the Lexington, Ky. site goes down. Ashland has deployed Fortinet's FortiWifi-60B and FortiWifi-60A appliances at all VIOC locations. The FortiWiFi-60 appliances offer the same network security protection as FortiGate appliances, but for a wireless network infrastructure. The type of Internet connectivity at each location (DSL, cable or 3G wireless) determined which Fortinet appliance was deployed -- the FortiWifi-60B supports 3G. Each FortiWifi appliance delivers four SSIDs for each wireless network: one for POS information, one for traveling managers of Valvoline to wirelessly connect to the network, one for handheld devices such as scanners, and the final for wireless guest access. "Since deploying the FortiWifi appliances, we have enabled our employees to work more efficiently and have also given customers the benefit of working on their laptops in a secure and wireless environment," said Bryan Justice, manager of business technology and computer services at Ashland. "Fortinet has allowed us to dramatically improve customer service with the wireless network. Not only are customers able to be productive while getting a vehicle oil change, but the time to process the information for such service has gone from three to five minutes to three to five seconds." Ashland was also in need of a network security management, reporting and analysis solution so that management and analysis of the stores' networks could be more easily done. As a result, Ashland purchased Fortinet's FortiManager-3000 and FortiAnalyzer-2000 carrier-class appliances for deployment at its datacenters in Kentucky. The FortiManager system will be used as the centralized management platform for the Fortinet security infrastructure. The FortiAnalyzer system will easily aggregate, analyze and report on Internet usage of the 800+ VOIC stores and monitor and analyze attempted network attacks. By deploying FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer, Ashland can provide its individual stores with detailed reports on network usage. All the FortiGate systems at the VIOC locations are centrally managed by Fortinet's FortiManager appliances which minimize the administrative effort required to deploy, configure, monitor and maintain the full range of network protection services provided by Fortinet products. FortiAnalyzer systems are purpose-built appliances that provide valuable intelligence and simplify and centralize the collection and analysis of log and event data from Fortinet's FortiGate security appliances, delivering highly relevant network reports, valuable intelligence on network usage and assistance with meeting regulatory compliance. Fortinet's FortiGate and FortiWifi systems are ASIC-accelerated security appliances that integrate essential security applications such as antivirus, firewall, VPN, intrusion prevention, Web filtering, anti-spam and traffic shaping. All FortiGate systems are kept up to date automatically by Fortinet's FortiGuard Network, which helps ensure protection against the most damaging, content-based threats from email and Web traffic such as viruses, worms, intrusions, other unwanted network traffic and more -- around the clock and around the world. FortiGate systems are centrally managed by Fortinet's FortiManager appliances which minimize the administrative effort required to deploy, configure, monitor and maintain the full range of network protection services provided by Fortinet products. "Fortinet's deployment at Ashland is further proof our strength in a distributed enterprise network," said Karl Soderlund, vice president of Americas sales and business development for Fortinet. "Fortinet's scalable integrated security platform enables enterprises to deploy and centrally manage the security they need for their entire distributed network environment -- from core to end-point -- conveniently, scalably and cost-effectively. Our FortiWifi products are allowing Ashland to maintain the high level of service and quality that its customers have come to expect while also allowing them to see a very high level of customer satisfaction."
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Keywords: broadband wireless, internet access, security, retail networks, VPN, sunnyvale ca, 3G |
