North Central Education Service District

Background

North Central Education Service District aims to provide quality service through innovative educational programs for children and communities in central Washington. With goals of communication, advocacy, leadership, and relationship-building as priorities, NCESD touches many lives. The Division of Educational Services provides tools to assist educators in their efforts to provide safe, healthy, and positive educational environments in which students can achieve high levels of academic success using educational technology. The Division of Administrative Services not only provides internal agency management to NCESD but also provides a comprehensive set of services to assist school district management with budgeting, state reporting, accounting, risk management, funding, student information, personnel management and compliance with federal, state and local laws.

The Challenge

With 17 networks and nearly 5,000 users, NCESD's network is vast. Scott James, Network Services Engineer, manages 21 firewalls, 4 IP phone systems, and multiple wireless networks as well as providing some second level support. His job is to make sure that students are protected from harmful content, educators have access to the tools they need, and that the network runs as smoothly as possible.

James required a network security solution that provided granular control while being easy to manage. With several different user groups requiring varying degrees of access to network tools, it was essential that James had the ability to apply specific rules to various users and user groups while maintaining a healthy network posture. Key challenges included effective HTTPS blocking, user control, and bandwidth management.

The WatchGuard® Solution

After struggling for nearly five years with the appliances of one of WatchGuard's chief competitors, James knew that he needed to implement a new network security solution that provided everything he was looking for. At a Northwest Computer Support open house, James was introduced to WatchGuard UTM (unified threat management) products and liked what he saw. NCESD initially purchased Firebox® Core X750e appliances and they've been consistently adding WatchGuard devices to the network infrastructure. Recently, James has installed XTM 520 and 530 devices at main offices and XTM 2 Series appliances at remote sites to handle wireless activity.

NCESD runs the full UTM security suite of additional services, adding robust protection with WebBlocker, spamBlocker, Gateway AntiVirus, and Intrusion Prevention Service. With all of the pieces in place, James saw vast improvement in the way the network runs and is able to provide customization so that efficiency is constantly on the rise. James says, "The granularity of control and ease of management of the WatchGuard devices and the whole feature set is great compared to the previous solution. After going through years of struggle and requests it was time for a different solution."

Benefits

With WatchGuard XTM 5 and 2 Series appliances throughout NCESD's network, Scott James quickly saw that the features missing from the previous solution were there in spades with the WatchGuard devices. Single sign-on, rich reporting features, intuitive network management, and HTTP and HTTPS blocking capabilities allow James to run the network with the granular control that educational infrastructures need.

Keeping Kids Productive and Educators Happy

Within the school districts that NCESD services there is a need to provide different levels of access to the various network users. While some sites, like YouTube, prove to be a distraction to students, educators find it to be an incredibly useful educational tool. Scott James explains, "In the past we would block YouTube for everyone, but the staff wanted access to educational videos. With single sign-on, based on Active Directory credentials we can block students from specific sites while educators have access to the tools they want. Having single sign-on is really nice and something we didn't have with the other products we had in place." Single sign-on with Active Directory also allows James to create rules that apply to single users or specific groups. If a single student abuses his privileges he can be denied access entirely or restricted only to sites that are absolutely necessary.

Rich Reports and Intuitive Management Keep Things Moving

The WatchGuard XTM line features rich reporting and real-time monitoring at no extra cost, allowing administrators greater network insight. James is happy to take advantage of this feature as it was not readily available with the other appliances. He explains, "Being able to pull up different reports based on user or services to see who or what is eating up the bulk of our bandwidth is great. With our previous solution you could get reporting at an additional cost, but it wasn't as in-depth, much harder to configure and the reports just didn't have the granularity that you get with WatchGuard appliances." James notes that the ability to receive reports from a single point makes his job much easier.

Another key feature for James is central management of the devices, which takes a burden off of his shoulders and allows for greater efficiency in keeping the network up to date and healthy. Of the effectiveness of WatchGuard System Manager he says, "With WatchGuard I have better management of the network. The central management available with WSM makes WatchGuard much easier to use than what their competition offers." He's also able to save time scheduling maintenance, "Backups are easier to schedule as well. Being able to schedule a time to back up and upgrade the appliance is really nice."

Keeping Students Honest with HTTPS Blocking

Keeping students from accessing inappropriate or potentially malicious websites is integral in educational network security. Technologically savvy students can find ways around HTTP blocking, but the fact that WatchGuard now blocks HTTPS sites as well makes getting around those barriers nearly impossible. James explains, "With the previous solution we just couldn't block HTTPS very well. The students could get around it with proxies, but the WatchGuard appliance is great and blocks all those proxies so that students are truly blocked."

Faith in the Product and the Future

James is thoroughly impressed with the capabilities and performance of the WatchGuard appliances NCESD have installed and is very optimistic about future releases. Of his feelings about WatchGuard as a leader in the network security world he says, "WatchGuard is constantly looking into and researching ways to make their products better. I've seen improvements in every release that I've dealt with." Together, WatchGuard and NCESD are providing students and educators the tools they need to succeed.

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