On the road again…
A firewall is a device which is essential for any computer network. It sits at the front of a computer network and decides what to do with incoming and outgoing network traffic. It is important for any IT Support company to ensure that a firewall is configured correctly to meet the requirements of the computer network it is sitting on. Once a firewall is in place then in an ideal world it should just work and would not require any further major modifications.
We have a client who has 6 branch offices all with Cisco Pix firewalls which were getting on for being 9 years old. Due to increased internet speeds it was decided that we would replace these devices with newer firewalls that would be able to handle these faster connections. All of the branch offices were also connected by a Virtual Private Network which was created using the firewalls.
And so the project began. Line by line replicating the configuration of the old firewalls onto the new ones, checking and checking again that everything was correct and would work. Planning is essential when undergoing such a project and on the day of the installation we had an engineer at all of the 6 offices ready to swap old for new. The client was informed that at 4:30pm they would lose their internet connection and connectivity with the other branch offices the week before, the day before and then twice on the day so they were well informed.
Given that we started the work at 4:30pm and that there was so much that could have gone wrong it was rather satisfying that by 5:30pm everything was in and working and our engineers were on their way home. This just goes to show that planning, preparation, testing and good technical ability are essential when undertaking any IT related upgrade or project.
Now that the new firewalls are installed, the overall speed and performance of this particular network is greatly improved. Why not contact us if you want to know more about how we can make a difference to your IT systems.
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