Brother benefits from Bloxx's many strengths

“Bloxx’s multi-tiered filtering algorithm is combined with various other filters like AV and file download management to provide a very strong solution.”

Jason Talbot, Head of IT, Brother (Ireland)

Background

Brother as a multinational company has 18 production facilities and 38 sales companies in 31 countries and regions worldwide. Brother Ireland market a diverse and versatile product portfolio including printers, fax machines, multifunction centres, together with Brother original consumables and accessories.

Previous to buying Bloxx, Brother used an open source product for its filtering but found it to be very limited in its applications. The solution did not offer any granular filtering and the reporting tools were non existent. Also, it took lots of IT resources to manually update the URL database on which the solution was based.

The challenge

Easy management
Brother wanted the management of a new solution to be much more simple and less time consuming than its previous solution. Firstly, the new solution had to reduce the amount of IT resources needed to maintain a solution. It also had to fully integrate with Active Directory to simplify account management.

The Brother IT team wanted full control of all Internet based traffic coming into its network and wanted to prevent all non IT staff from downloading files from third party websites. The ability to control access to the Internet on a ‘per user’ or ‘per group’
basis and to generate simple reports on any aspect of Internet usage was a must.

Powerful yet cost effective filter
The solution had to be cost effective to fit Brother’s budget yet be powerful to filter on various levels. Brother wanted instant messaging and peer to peer programs to be blocked on top of fast and powerful website filtering. The filter also had to stop malware
threats before they reached users’ desktops.

The solution

Brother chose a Bloxx CF-100 to filter its network and protect its users from inappropriate web material as it felt the appliance had everything that it wanted and more.

Key features

Some of the reason for the purchase of the Bloxx CF-100 by Brother are detailed below.

All in one solution
Bloxx is an appliance based solution with everything included in the one box. Brother found this very attractive, especially as additional layers of filtering – anti-virus, anti-spyware, IM and Peer to Peer filtering – comes as standard on Bloxx appliances whereas with other solutions Brother looked at, these features were add-ons.

The ‘all in one’ nature of Bloxx also means Brother doesn’t have to worry about the costs of server hardware and the management of an under lining operating system. Management is easy and efficient and does not take up large chunks of IT time.

Flat pricing structure
Brother really like the licensing structure from Bloxx; it doesn’t use a per seat license structure, instead offering one price for the appliance and all the features. Brother looked into other solutions from other suppliers and found them to be far less cost competitive as Bloxx because they used a per seat licensing structure.

User Reporting
Brother really liked the ability to generate simple reports on any aspect of internet usage and also liked the way these reports could be scheduled and sent out to management.

Great Support
Brother found that the technical support from Bloxx was excellent. Bloxx guided us through the installation and initial trial of the appliance, answering any queries we had in a fast and efficient manner. Bloxx also keep their customers constantly informed of new features on their appliances.