Secure Digital Communications Platform, Zivver, Boosts Network Security While Reducing TCO

Meeting the Challenges of a Modern Tech Company

Zivver, a fast growing company in the red hot digital security field, is the epitome of the modern work environment. Most of their resources are in the cloud, and their nearly 150 strong workforce is primarily remote and widespread, with a “working from anywhere” policy where employees can work from anywhere around the globe. 

Zivver’s previous network access solution was falling short in two critical areas: security and performance. 

From the security perspective, Zivver was looking for a solution that would further enhance protection against potential breaches. They wanted to put in place stronger user authentication and tighter role-based access controls to sensitive internal assets.

Frank Horenberg, Head of IT at Zivver, explains: “With limited authentication options and role-based access managed capabilities, we were at risk of bad actors exposing internal resources. We needed better segmentation, and better security at the front door.”

From the performance aspect, as Zivver was expanding outside of the Netherlands market, there was a need to speed up connectivity and reduce latency for their global workforce. 

“The solution we were using had one gateway in the Netherlands – which made connectivity for workers outside Europe, or on the edges of it, slow to impossible.” 

Additional challenges Zivver was looking to address were the overhead in manual user provisioning efforts and the cumbersome user authentication process of the previous product they used.

Searching for the Right Solution

Zivver set out to find the best secure network access solution for their dynamic and faced-paced work environment: “As our needs grew, we put together a very clear set of requirements.”

The IT and security team researched some of the leading solutions in the market and realized that most of them were not fully meeting their needs.

“We looked at some of the popular solutions, but the functionalities that the traditional solutions offered weren’t relevant for us.” 

When they researched Perimeter 81’s easy to use cloud-based solution, Frank found that it answered their security and business needs. “We liked the fact that Perimeter 81 was a fast-moving company, on a journey similar to Zivver’s, with a strong product vision and strategy. We were happy to find that Perimeter 81 fit our needs very nicely.”

Closing the Security Gap

When it came to secure network access for their global workforce, automatic account provisioning System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM), and easy integration with Single Sign-On (SSO) were critical. These would allow remote employee authentication without having to use a certificate, which could potentially be exploited if malicious players got their hands on a stolen device.  

It was also extremely important that the secure network connection was stable and continuous. “Having the ability to actually deploy and anticipate growth, especially overseas, and then deploy networks on a global level was important to us.” Frank adds “Uptime is also very very important. 50 minutes of downtime means 50 minutes when no one can work. Our developers are dependent on virtual private cloud (VPC) resources. We needed a solution that always works.”

Automation Reduces Manual Work – and Risk

Perimeter 81 also enables Zivver to automate the onboarding and offboarding of users – processes that were previously manual, cost the company valuable man hours, and were prone to error. Frank can now ensure that new employees have access to the resources they need only, based on their role – per Zero Trust least privileges best practice. Later, when users are offboarded, automated rules ensure access is immediately revoked. “In the case of an incident, access can be cut off immediately, without user intervention. This minimizes risks and saves time.” 

Complete Visibility and Control

Perimeter 81’s single pane of glass dashboard allows Frank to easily produce logs and get insights about all activities on a network level. Frank explains: “If there was a malware infection on a laptop – having the ability to see whether a user was connected at that point to internal resources helps us minimize risk”. He adds: “With Perimeter 81 insights, we can quickly detect suspicious behavior, and revoke access automatically while temporarily deactivating the account.” 

Easy Deployment and Maintenance Reduces Costs

The implementation process of Perimeter 81 went smoothly. As soon as Zivver were happy with the results of their beta testing, implementing across the entire organization was easy. “When we went live, it was simply a matter of expanding the user group from 10 to 150. No additional configuration was needed” 

Frank also has peace of mind knowing that when the company’s growth and priorities change, it will be easy to address those challenges since Perimeter 81 is easy to scale up for additional employees and upgrade to additional capabilities.  

“For me a good secure networking solution, as boring as it seems, is one I don’t have to hear about. As long as I don’t have system administrators or users coming to me with questions, problems, and issues – it works.”

Compliance Builds Trust

Being a cybersecurity company, Zivver’s security requirements are of the highest level.

Perimeter 81 enables Zivver to achieve the level of security they need and which their customers expect. “Using Perimeter 81 not only drives value by supporting staff in creating secure network access to work, but also by adhering to compliance such as SOC 2 Type II and local legislation. Perimeter 81 proves to our stakeholders that not only is our digital communications solution secure, but also that we lead the way in network security, following our own security by design and zero-trust principles.”

Performance Drives Business 

Another important business enabler is the fast and stable connection that Perimeter 81 provides: “It’s a necessity for our organization, allowing us to prevent network security from becoming a blocker both to productivity and commercial business.”

The Complete Network Security Package, Ready for the Future

Perimeter 81 enables Frank to address the many network security challenges that today’s modern enterprise faces. He can ensure the company has a secure, and stable network that workers can rely on, no matter where they connect from–or when.

Frank is now confident that if a malicious attack attempt is made, he will be able to quickly detect and address it. Keeping his users and network safe.

Looking forward, Frank knows that as the company grows, Perimeter 81 will enable him to grow the network and meet any future demands. 

About Perimeter 81 

Perimeter 81 is a robust, yet easy-to-use, converged networking and network security platform that connects all users, in the office or remote, to all resources, located on-prem, or clouds. It is a cloud-native service that includes advanced capabilities such as Zero Trust remote access, Internet access control, malware protection and firewall as a service. It enables any business to build a secure corporate network over a private global backbone, without hardware and within minutes. The entire service is managed from a unified console and is backed by an award-winning global support team that has you covered 24/7.