NETWORKS

Juniper Networks today announced that Handelsbanken, Sweden's largest retail banking chain, has chosen Juniper Networks' firewall, virtual private network (VPN) and security management solutions to secure its new internal communications network. The deployment will be managed by Juniper Networks' local partner, NetSecure. As part of its transition from a legacy Frame Relay network to a wholly IP-based MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) environment, Handelsbanken wanted to update its security provision with high-performance, hardware-based firewalls and reliable site-to-site VPN encryption. The bank also required a flexible security management platform that would provide highly granular control of its firewall and VPN solution. Lars Wibeck, head of Datacommunications at Handelsbanken, said: "The move to MPLS was driven by the need for more bandwidth and the ability to operate diverse services, such as voice and data, over a single network. We regard MPLS as a very open protocol, which led us to review the security that would overlay the new network. As a bank, our primary networking concerns are security, reliability and performance. A thorough market assessment indicated that the solution from Juniper Networks would be the most effective at meeting all of these challenges. It also streamlined the security deployment, thanks to the integrated firewall and VPN functionality, and enabled us to upgrade our security provision within the existing network configuration cost-effectively." Handelsbanken's 450 Swedish branch offices are secured by integrated Juniper Networks firewall/VPN devices, linked to core systems from Juniper Networks in the bank's data centre. The security deployment is completed by Juniper Networks NetScreen-Security Manager, a centralized, role-based management platform that enables Handelsbanken to assign firewall and VPN management tasks to separate specialist groups within the organization yet retain a unified overall management overview of the entire security deployment. Gareth Green, vice president of corporate sales for Juniper Networks in EMEA, said: "A high-profile banking organization such as Handelsbanken is a highly-challenging security environment with non-negotiable mission-critical requirements. Juniper Networks relishes the opportunity to create a secure and assured environment within which the company can operate its new network."