Stageco builds redundant network for its branch offices with

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Stageco case study
Stageco builds redundant network for its branch
offices with aXsGUARD Gatekeeper
Stageco is an international staging company that builds and designs standardized and custom made stages and structures for
some of the most famous artists. The group has employees in nine offices worldwide that need to keep track of the logistical
process for every event. Plagued by unstable VPN-connections and outages, the company decided to build a redundant network
by creating e-tunnels with VASCO’s aXsGUARD Gatekeeper.
Through more than 25 years
of experience, Stageco
has become the worldwide
pioneer and trendsetter
in designing and building
custom-made as well as
standardized concert stages and temporary structures for all kind of events.
During recent years Stageco has been best known for supplying stunning
stages for international tours including The Rolling Stones, U2, Bon Jovi and
Bruce Springsteen; and festival stages including V Festivals (UK and USA),
Rock Am Ring (Germany), Pinkpop (The Netherlands) and Werchter Festival (in
Stageco’s hometown).
Stageco has built a solid reputation for achieving the highest levels of
engineering excellence. The company’s track record proves unrivalled logistical
effectiveness combined with efficiency in staging construction of its proprietary
(patented) staging systems. Thanks to its expertise, the number of days for
building and dismantling temporary structures can be substantially reduced
entailing considerable economic savings in comparison to alternative systems.
CENTRALIZED STOCK MANAGEMENT
When building stages and temporary structures, Stageco’s crew needs
to take important aspects such as construction height, public access, the
site’s infrastructure and available build-up time into account. This requires a
meticulous and tight organization as all stage and structural elements need
to be transported worldwide and in time. The company therefore works with
a database in which all supplies and every piece of equipment is recorded,
enabling them to follow-up precisely for each project which piece of equipment
is located where, which parts are available, need to be shipped and assembled.
This database however, was initially not centralized which required a lot of
workaround procedures as the group has nine offices worldwide. In order to
optimize the stock management and logistical process, the company decided
to centralize its database enabling real-time access for its different offices and
on location. Naturally, access to the database needed to be secured.
UNSTABLE VPN CONNECTIONS AND OUTAGES
Stageco sought council with its standing IT Partner
Accel. Accel manages the group’s server park
and provides second line support. Previously, they
helped deploy VASCO’s aXsGUARD Unified Threat
Management solution in its Belgian headquarters
to secure the company’s network and e-mail traffic.
In order to make centralized database access
possible, Stageco installed several SSL/VPN
connections enabling its employees in the branch
offices to manage the stock database. However, a few
problems remained, namely in the group’s German
offices. Employees were required to log-on with their
username and password thrice: once to the Citrix
platform a second time to gain access to the VPN
portal and a third time to access the applications.
“Every time connections were lost, the same
procedure needed to be repeated, compromising
user-friendliness”, says Jan Waegemans, Safety
Advisor at Stageco.” Furthermore, the German
based offices came across several difficulties with
unstable VPN connections and experienced several
outages.
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Stageco case study
E-TUNNEL CONCEPT GUARANTEES REDUNDANCY AND EFFICIENCY
Accel proposed to install a second aXsGUARD Gatekeeper
appliance in the German offices to solve connection
difficulties. To secure the data contained in the stock
database, they deployed aXsGUARD’s SSL/VPN module.
This module allows Stageco to create e-tunnels.
In normal circumstances, a new tunnel needs to
be created between two VPN points for each VPN
connection. When creating multiple VPN tunnels, the
amount of tunnels therefore increases exponentially.
The e-tunnel concept however, allows all traffic to be passed though one
and the same e-tunnel resulting in a low-maintenance and efficient solution.
The remote offices in Germany are now connected by e-tunnels to the main
aXsGUARD Gatekeeper appliance in Stageco’s headquarters and redundancy
is guaranteed.
Additionally, this entails that employees no longer need to log-on multiple times
to access the network, database and other applications. “By implementing
aXsGUARD Gatekeeper, single sign-on functionality was added to Stageco’s
infrastructure, which increased user-friendliness tremendously”, says Jan
Waegemans. “Furthermore, no additional software needed to be installed on
the end-users’ computers. Our employees just navigate to the VPN portal and
log-on with their username and password. It’s as simple as that! Implementation
into our Citrix environment went very smoothly and upgrading our aXsGUARD
infrastructure is extremely straightforward”, Jan Waegemans concludes.
Objective
Install a redundant Internet solution that was compatible with the Citrix network
enabling branch offices to log-on to the corporate network and stock database.
Challenge
The solution needed to guarantee a stable VPN connection between Stageco’s
headquarters and its remote offices. Managing the VPN connections and access
control needed to be straightforward and end-users should not experience any
additional hassles when logging on.
Solution
By installing a second aXsGUARD appliance, Stageco was able to create the
so called e-tunnels, ensuring a fast, stable and redundant connection to the
network and stock database for its remote offices. The solution also enables
single sign-on resulting in far more efficient and user-friendly way of working.
About Stageco
Born out of supplying stages for the renowned Rock Werchter Festival in Belgium in 1985, Stageco is now one of the most
prominent international staging companies in the world. Through more than 25 years of experience, Stageco has become the
worldwide pioneer and trendsetter in designing and building custom-made as well as standardized concert stages and temporary
structures for all kind of events.
The Stageco Group currently spans nine offices worldwide, including its headquarters in Tildonk, Belgium, and its local offices in
Germany, Austria, France, the Netherlands and the USA, employing currently about 170 full-time staff.
About Accel
Accel Computer Service is a Belgian ICT infrastructure service company mainly focused on the local SME market with a strong
emphasis on security. Accel has become a professional, competitive, stable and profitable organization with an annual turnover
of €6.5 million. Accel has a customer base of around 400 SMEs and employs 35 people in its three branch offices.
About VASCO
VASCO is a leading supplier of strong authentication and e-signature solutions and services specializing in Internet Security applications and transactions. VASCO has
positioned itself as a global software company for Internet Security and designs, develops, markets and supports patented DIGIPASS®, DIGIPASS PLUS®, VACMAN®,
IDENTIKEY® and aXsGUARD® authentication products. VASCO’s prime markets are the financial sector, enterprise security, e-commerce and e-government.
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