Blue Connections was chosen by The Dempsey Group to provide a Fortinet network security solution to refresh its ageing network infrastructure and improve its security posture.

The Dempsey Group was established in 1960 by Jonathan Dempsey, an organisation that would expand to encompass the Bed Bath N Table brand and the Domestic Textile Corporation.

Its first Bed Bath N Table store opened in Dandenong, Victoria, in 1975 and the brand has grown to more than 180 stores across Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.

During an investigation of its current network, The Dempsey Group discovered that the security predominantly around the store routers was dated and coming up to end-of-life (EOL).

Using EOL technology poses major security threats if left unchecked as vendors stop providing technical support and issuing security patches. Cyber criminals actively target and exploit unpatched vulnerabilities in software and operating systems to gain access to business networks and customer data. This created a potential risk that The Dempsey Group needed to avoid.

Lui Di Sarno, IT Operations Manager of The Dempsey Group, says, “The Dempsey Group needed a solution that was cost-effective and best suited to its business requirements. The Dempsey Group chose Blue Connections because of their long-standing relationship along with Blue Connections reputation as a best-in-class IT solutions provider and its strong partnership with Fortinet, a global leader in broad, integrated, and automated cybersecurity solutions.”

Lui Di Sarno continues, "It took about three months to scope the project given The Dempsey Group's footprint and the number of stores across Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. The Dempsey Group gave the Blue Connections team 12 months to complete the project as that was the hard cut-off date for EOL for the routers. However, Blue Connections surpassed expectations and managed to complete the project within four months.

"With the solution we now have, The Dempsey Group has greater visibility and centralised management, so we can push out updates on the fly, and we have so much more control."

Paul Wilson, Practice Manager Networks, Security and Comms, Blue Connections, says, “Within The Dempsey Group's ageing solution there were legacy problems, including routers providing basic security, that couldn't support the throughput that was required. At the same time, the network was not using the latest firewall security prevention techniques, which could put the company under threat from multiple attacks.

“As a proud Fortinet regional partner, Blue Connections knew that the Fortinet FortiGate Next Generation Firewalls would be an excellent solution for The Dempsey Group as they offered comprehensive enterprise-class network security in a compact desktop form ideal for branch offices and mid-sized businesses using the nbn.”

The Fortinet FortiGates include a built-in digital subscriber line (DSL) modem along with support for 3G/4G connectivity via external thirty-party USB modems.

They protect against cyber threats with system-on-a-chip acceleration and industry-leading secure software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) in a simple solution.

The Dempsey Group is now protected against known exploits, malware, malicious websites, and zero-day attacks with Fortinet's Unified Threat Protection (UTP) bundle subscription, which gives The Dempsey Group the power of FortiGuard Labs directly in its environment, and has self-learning artificial intelligence (AI) to identify, classify, and investigate sophisticated threats in sub-seconds, the company states.

The Dempsey Group also deployed Fortinet's FortiEDR, which uses machine learning to automate endpoint protection against advanced threats with real-time orchestrated incident response capabilities providing greater control over network, user, and host behaviour in The Dempsey Group's environment.

Wilson says, “Blue Connections is proud of the project design and delivery, which was executed in a short time frame for a project of this size and scale. The Dempsey Group has now positioned itself well for the future with a long-standing, proven technology that provides the broad, powerful, and automated protection that it needs across its environment.”

Tim Fitzgerald, Channel Director, Fortinet, says, “Fortinet worked closely with Blue Connections in defining a repeatable and standardised approach to retail store network infrastructure while ensuring the network edge was fully secured and simple to co-manage with Dempseys internal team.

"The rollout was exceptionally managed by Blue Connections. Our shared commitment to ensuring our customers receive the best solutions to meet their needs continues to be our priority now and into the future.”