DataBank
Fortifies its fast-growing data center business with TrendAI™ TippingPoint™
Industry
Information Technology
Employees
600
Region
United States
Solutions
IT Environment
Microsoft Windows servers
CentOS
Ubuntu workstation environments
Cisco
Broadcom
Juniper Networks
CHALLENGES
DataBank provides data center customers with enterprise-class co-location, cloud, connectivity, and managed services, specializing in security and compliance enablement. When acquisitions doubled DataBank’s employee headcount and tripled the number of data centers it managed, the company needed to quickly rethink threat protection across its newly expanded ecosystem. Fortunately, it already had TrendAI™ TippingPoint™ in place to protect the network from attack without impact on performance.
DataBank went through a period of intensive acquisition, including zColo’s data center assets from Zayo Group Holdings, significantly accelerating the company’s expansion strategy. Since that acquisition, DataBank now provides services in 64 data centers across 28 markets in the U.S., the U.K, and France. As the company expands its global footprint, compliance is a growing challenge.
“DataBank is now subject to strict General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules,” says Databank CISO, Mark Houpt. “That means a significant strategy shift in how my compliance team will handle things in the future. We have to adhere to new security and compliance requirements at the same time that we’re adding new complexities and new people.”
Managing risk across a moving target
DataBank’s acquisitions over the years have also resulted in a diverse IT environment. With a wide range of operating systems and endpoints, the company is subject to a broad array of vulnerabilities. Doubling its employee count due to the zColo acquisition is also a complicating factor, as the company is actively working to integrate new personnel and additional IT assets.
Externally, the company experienced a significant increase in distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks, advanced persistent threats (APTs), and ransomware attacks over the last year. DataBank is focused on ensuring that its customer systems are protected from threats while balancing business and customer needs. “We are constantly doing risk assessments to ensure that our balance is correct and that we protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of DataBank’s customer information systems,” says Houpt.
SOLUTION
A partnership built on trust and technology
DataBank has been a TippingPoint customer for more than a decade. While it has considered other solutions in that time—including the solution zColo leveraged—TrendAI™
continues to be their partner of choice because of the technology and the people. “The technology is solid,” says Houpt. “We very rarely have problems with the product, and if we do, TrendAI™ solves them quickly.”
Dedication to research and development is another selling point. “TrendAI™ conducts constant threat research,” says Houpt. “Every time I read a new threat report, TrendAI™ already has something addressing it, or on its way. The research team is top-notch.”
Regular product updates are a further reason that DataBank chooses to stay with TrendAI™. “TrendAI™ is constantly updating TippingPoint so that it always addresses the latest thing coming down the pipe,” says Houpt. “As a service provider, I need to continually assure customers that we are protecting them. With TippingPoint and TrendAI™, I don’t have to rethink it.”
“TrendAI™ conducts constant threat research. Every time I read a new threat report, TrendAI™ already has something addressing it, or on its way. The research team is top-notch.”
Mark Houpt
Chief Information Security Officer, DataBank
RESULTS
From zero-day to zero worry
DataBank uses TippingPoint to detect and block targeted attacks and malware through preemptive threat protection, threat insight and prioritization, and real-time enforcement and remediation. “DataBank customers also love TippingPoint’s virtual patching function,” says Houpt. “Sometimes patches aren’t immediately available by the vendor, so virtual patching via TippingPoint gives our customers the ability to protect their systems quickly, and gives them time to test the vendor patch before deploying across the organization.”
TippingPoint customers also receive exclusive access to vulnerability information from the TrendAI™ Zero Day Initiative™ (ZDI). “This means that zero-day attacks can be detected and blocked almost instantly,” says Houpt. “That gives customers assurance that we are protecting them proactively against the latest threats. TippingPoint is a solid product in helping me convey that message.”
Finally, TippingPoint helps DataBank meet a broad range of compliance needs, including those of the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the GDPR.
CUSTOMER SERVICE AS A DIFFERENTIATOR
Steady under pressure
Security and compliance are DataBank’s key differentiators, and TippingPoint is part of the company’s default solutions across its offerings. When one of DataBank’s management ports required a reboot last summer, the TrendAI™ team was tenacious in verifying that the problem didn’t impact customers, including providing quantifiable data.
“DataBank is all about data,” says Houpt. “The TrendAI™ team was able to show us data that proved our customers weren’t impacted. Our history with TrendAI™ has been stellar from the beginning. I have a real sense of relationship and trust.”
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