Financial services company Standard Life is rolling out
a virtual private network that will allow 800 staff to access
critical business applications securely from any
location.
The deployment, which is due to be completed in the summer, will
improve productivity and save "tens of thousands of pounds" in
telecoms costs by replacing costly dial-up connections, said Andrew
Gordon, IS operations manager at Standard Life.
A pilot programme for the Citrix remote access server appliance
began last month with two servers at Standard Life's Newcastle
hotdesking centre.
Standard Life is working with consulting firm Centralis to
implement Citrix Presentation Server and Citrix Access Gateway, the
Secure Sockets Layer VPN appliance.
About 50 staff, mainly from the direct sales team, are trialling
the technology, which lets them access Lotus Notes e-mail and
workflow and Microsoft Office applications via a web browser.
Standard Life staff will eventually be able to access a Charles
River dealing system, a portfolio management system, intranet
resources and Reuters news feeds.
The global dealing system needs to adhere to strict regulatory
requirements, said Gordon. Remote access therefore has to satisfy
an internal audit team, a security team, third-party companies and
industry regulators.
Gordon said the Citrix Access Gateway allows Standard Life to
centrally control whether a user can view, download or print data
or documents when away from a Standard Life office, based on the
type of device, its location and how secure it is.
"As a result of the granular control that the Advanced Access
Control option gives us, more users can be given access to the
company network without risk of sensitive management information or
customer data falling into the wrong hands.
"This is increasingly important in the financial services
sector, where security is paramount," said Gordon.