Al Rajhi Holding, a diversified business in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, improved bandwidth by 75 per cent while also cutting IT costs by 30 per cent using the network security appliance (NSA) series provided by SonicWall.

The Group, with distributed server assets across various locations in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, sought to gain enhanced returns on its technology investments by better controlling the cumbersome and expensive maintenance and upkeep of hardware and network infrastructure.

As malware and phishing attacks were growing in strength and frequency globally, controlling peer-to-peer applications, Instant Messaging (IM) and the sharing of multi-media content and applications became critical.

With ever-growing Internet security threats and increased vulnerabilities due to employee remote access and branch connectivity issues, Al Rajhi's technology team decided to take decisive action. The group sought an integrated solution to manage and secure traffic across their WAN. They consulted their IT solutions provider Networker Strategy, who suggested SonicWall’s Network Security appliance series.

“The benefits achieved through deploying SonicWall had a significant impact on our operations. Al Rajhi now has an integrated network with a centralized data centre in our head office in Riyadh and seamless connectivity to network users in different areas,” explained Dr Marwan Al Siddiqi, group ICT director, Al Rajhi Holding Group.

The solutions deployed combine multi-core hardware with Reassembly-free Deep Packet Inspection (RFDPI) for uncompromising protection and performance, a statement said.

Branch offices, central sites and distributed mid-enterprise networks benefited from the reliability and cost-effectiveness of the NSA series’ advanced routing, high-availability and high-speed IPSec and SSL VPN technology, it added.

“Instead of one appliance per application, security consolidation aggregates multiple interconnected security applications on a single piece of hardware without compromising security and performance,” said Afran Khan, branch manager, Networker Strategy.

Shahnawaz Sheikh, SonicWall’s regional director, Middle East, Africa and Turkey, said: 

“Our partner in Saudi Arabia, Networker Security, worked with the Al Rajhi’s team in Saudi Arabia to roll out SonicWall’s NSA 240, 2400, NSA 3500 and NSA 4500 firewalls over the course of a year.”

“We are pleased with this initiative and hope to continue deploying new and improved solutions to strengthen Al Rajhi’s network,” he added. - TradeArabia News Service