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Durham County Council and the National Health Service Adopt AEP Networks’ SSL VPN for Secure Application Access

Somerset, NJ – January 23, 2006 – AEP Networks today announced that Durham County Council of the United Kingdom, in partnership with the National Health Service (NHS), adopted AEP Networks’ Netilla Security Platform (NSP) to provide staff with a secure and easy way to access business applications from multiple office locations. Using the NSP, these organisations have greatly enhanced security while making network administration and management easy and less resource intensive.

In an effort to reduce IT procurement, installation and administration costs, Durham County Council and the NHS partnered to share applications and services, hosting them on a common network. It quickly became evident that the existing single server solution delivering a thin client environment was unable to cope with the increased traffic. Additionally, external network access made security a top priority.

“We provide services to organisations that are responsible for the public’s health and safety and we require safeguards be in place should the worst happen,” said Keith Hollins, Infrastructure Support Manager at the Durham County Council.

Hollins chose to minimise security threats by implementing an SSL VPN gateway solution that reduces the number of open ports to the SSL port only, offering significantly enhanced security and easier management. An SSL VPN would also allow Hollins to deliver applications without having to install software on hundreds of PCs located at numerous County Council and NHS office locations.

Durham County Council initially considered using open source products to keep procurement costs low, but the complexity of customising and installing an open source solution, combined with a tight implementation timeline, required a different approach. With the help of AEP’s partner, Enforce Technology, Durham County Council installed two NSPs and now provides secure, remote access to all internal applications.

“Following a demonstration of the Netilla Security Platform we found that it integrated well into our Active Directory network, meaning that time and resources allocated to administration could be significantly reduced. We also found that the AEP solution was extremely cost competitive compared to the proposed open source solution,” said Hollins.

Durham County Council and the NHS’s implementation of the NSP resulted in a seamless migration and instant connectivity, enabling these organisations to meet their IT project deadline. Even with the growing number of remote users, there has been no performance degradation and the NSP has proven both stable and reliable.

About AEP Networks
AEP Networks (www.aepnetworks.com), the specialist in network and application access security, delivers infrastructure security solutions that are easy to use and manage while offering exceptional value and mission-critical reliability. The company provides a full range of solutions, including identity-based application security gateways, highly secure VPNs, SSL VPNs and cryptographic key management products, to meet the most demanding requirements of public-sector and commercial customers around the world. A privately held company backed by leading technology investors, AEP Networks is based in Somerset, NJ, with European headquarters in London and a Government Solutions Group in Rockville, MD.

About Enforce Technology
Enforce Technology is a specialist IT Security Integrator providing security solutions for both government and commercial organisations. Enforce Technology provides network perimeter security, email, policy management, IDS/IPS and virus protection solutions. The company also provides vendor independent consultancy and support. www.enforcetechnology.com

About Durham County Council
Durham County Council is responsible for the provision of a wide range of public services to almost 500,000 people in County Durham , England . The Council works closely with other public and private sector organisations to achieve its mission to “make County Durham the best place in which to live, work and bring up a family.” The Council achieved an ‘excellent’ rating following the last Comprehensive Performance Assessment. www.durham.gov.uk

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