MphasiS is an EDS company that supports the Global 1,000 companies around the world to improve their business processes. MphasiS brings to its clients a credible and experienced global leadership team, driving service delivery through the next generation global delivery model.

The strength of the company lies in its ability to provide integrated solutions involving infrastructure technology, application development, and business process outsourcing capabilities. The convergence of technologies such as Web services, workflow software, and business performance monitoring, along with business intelligence and customer focus, drive MphasiS' services delivery offerings.

Facing Challenges
Ever-evolving IT services businesses cannot meet the expense of network failure or security infringement. In today's environment, as customer and service portfolios increase, threats also increase. This is a big challenge for MphasiS, which services customers in financial services, healthcare, communications, transportation, consumer and retail, and governments across the globe.

For the all-inclusive protection of information and assets, MphasiS wanted to endow with perfect threat detection and response for the assets deployed in centers that cater to their key clients.

Besides threat management, MphasiS also wanted to eliminate manual log examinations, which were troublesome and time consuming for the security staff. “The protection of information and assets is crucial to our business, and we need to ensure threat protection. We also want to offer manageable access options for our clients to access the networks,” says Surajit Sarkhel, associate leader, Global Information Security, MphasiS.

Network Solution
Lastly, MphasiS has finely tuned internal compliance standards as well as strict adherence to external audits, which have to be met. After a series of in-depth discussions and evaluations with the MphasiS team, Cisco recommended a solution that included the deployment of the Cisco IPS, Cisco ASA, Cisco Security Manager products, and Cisco Security Monitoring Analysis, and Response System (MARS).

Cisco Security MARS appliances aggregate and synthesize massive amounts of network and security data and use intricate event correlation and validation intelligence to help administrators more effectively identify and respond to threats.

The company's IPS provides threat detection and improved response with signature and network anomaly detection, assuring greater detection of known and unknown threats. The company's Security Manager was recommended to provide the solution for configuring firewall, VPN, and IPS policies of Cisco Security appliances etc.

Business Outcome
This solution proved to be very beneficial for MphasiS. Commenting on the business results, Sarkhel says, “With our assets and information protected now, we have noticed an increase in workforce productivity and efficiency as less manual intervention is required.”

“With increased security and availability in the network, we believe there will be significant reduction in downtime due to the comprehensive threat detection and response. This, in turn, will impact employee efficiency and customer service engagements, all leading to a competitive advantage in the market,” says Mahesh Gupta, business development manager for Security, Cisco, India & SAARC, while commenting on the engagement with MphasiS.

Today, MphasiS, its global delivery centers, customers, and partners are all benefiting from its state-of-the-art business network and network defenses. Not only does this simplify threat management by reducing the need for manual intervention, it also automatically labels false alarms by improving visibility and response to threats.

Arpita Prem
arpitap@cybermedia.co.in