WARSAW, Poland - Sept 29, 2009 - Cisco today announced that AmRest Holding SE has deployed an end-to-end security solution based on Cisco IronPort^TM technology. Cisco IronPort e-mail and Web security appliances help protect AmRest Group's network throughout seven Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. AmRest Holding operates several well-known restaurant chains in the CEE region, including Starbucks, Pizza Hut, KFC, Burger King, Freshpoint and Rodeo Drive.

Highlights / Key Facts:

• Cisco IronPort e-mail and Web security appliances help protect the AmRest network against spam and malware, a unique type of threat that in many cases is inadvertently downloaded by users from Web sites. AmRest aims to minimize the exposure to network attacks by securing the most common channels through which threats spread: e-mail and the Web.
• Cisco IronPort e-mail security appliances are easy-to-deploy solutions that defend e-mail systems against spam, viruses, phishing, and a wide variety of other threats. By reducing the downtime associated with e-mail-borne malware, these products simplify the administration of corporate mail systems and reduce the burden on technical staff, while offering insight into mail system operations.
• The solutions implemented by Cisco® Gold Certified Partner Solidex include Cisco IronPort e-mail security appliances (C-Series), Cisco IronPort Web security appliances (S-Series) as well as the Cisco IronPort Security Management Appliances (M-Series). The M-Series appliances provide central management for e-mail and Web security devices.
• Cisco IronPort S-Series appliances support content monitoring and help control and secure user access to Web pages that may contain undesirable or infected content. All appliances are integrated with an Active Directory domain, creating a single shared identity database. On the basis of this decentralized identity database, complex security policies can be deployed efficiently to provide a high degree of flexibility in information technology (IT) security management.
• The Cisco IronPort solutions also help optimize the network administrators' time with automatic rules and filter updates that use Cisco IronPort SenderBase. Cisco IronPort SenderBase is the largest reputation database on the Internet. It is part of Cisco Security Intelligence Operations, which aggregates information and data from multiple Cisco devices and services to continuously assess and correlate threats and vulnerabilities. Sources for Cisco Security Intelligence Operations data include Cisco's worldwide Threat Operations Centers, Cisco Security Remote Management Services, the SensorBase Network, Cisco Security IntelliShield Alert Manager, Cisco Intrusion Prevention System and a variety of other Cisco functions, including Cisco Security Research and Operations, Cisco Security Incident Response, the Corporate Security Programs Office, and Cisco Global Policy and Government Affairs.
• To help ensure optimum traffic routing, AmRest also implemented a server load-balancing engine provided by Cisco Catalyst® 6500 Series Switches.

Supporting Quotes:

• Przemyslaw Poppe, chief information officer, AmRest Holding SE

"As an international business, we are particularly exposed to receiving large quantities of spam. Since the implementation of the Cisco IronPort security solution, we have experienced a significant performance improvement. Cisco classifies mail very precisely and only delivers items that have been scanned for compliance and viruses. With the Cisco IronPort appliances, we can successfully defend ourselves against threats and unauthorized Web site access."

• Mikolaj Grencel, IT infrastructure manager, AmRest Holding SE

"IronPort is a leading supplier of network security appliances and solutions. Our choice of the technology was determined by such factors as productivity, quality of scanning network traffic, and ease of integration with the existing Amrest IT environment."

• Grzegorz Wróbel, business development manager for IT security, Cisco Poland

"The implementation of such a large-scale centralized system is a complex process that requires solutions with high-quality security capabilities. With the expertise of AmRest's IT personnel and the unique operating flexibility of Solidex, it was possible to develop a customized, highly scalable architecture effectively, without using external load balancers, and by relying solely on the advanced functionality of Cisco Catalyst 6500 switches. The combination of Cisco security and switching technologies provides full optimization of traffic routing and hardware load balancing, resulting in a great return on investment for the customer."

• Mariusz Sawczuk, product manager for Cisco IronPort products at Solidex S.A.

"Businesses increasingly understand the evolution and proliferation of IT threats and want to secure their IT infrastructures. In case of most security breaches, the culprits are e-mail and the Web, which - paradoxically - are usually based on unsecured protocols. This is due to the ubiquity of these services and the requirement to ensure their unrestricted operation. For that reason, the use of Cisco IronPort C-Series and S-Series appliances, which provide dedicated e-mail and Web security, made it possible to secure these crucial communications channels, often overlooked in security policies."

Tags, Keywords: Cisco, IronPort, network security, email security, Web security

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Supporting resources:

• Cisco Security Center
• Visit the Cisco Security blog
• See previous press release: Amrest Holding streamlines communication and collaboration with Cisco Unified Communications