Thomas College Private College Enhances Security, Performance, and Reporting Capability

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1 Microsoft.com Home Site Map Search Microsoft.com for: Go ISA Server Home Site Map Worldwide Free Newsletters Product Information How to Buy Technical Resources Downloads Support Community Partners Windows Server System Thomas College Private College Enhances Security, Performance, and Reporting Capability Posted: November 18, 2004 Thomas College is a small, private, career-oriented college with an enrollment of more than 1,100 undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education students. In 1997, Thomas was one of the first colleges in the United States to deploy a Web-based information systems infrastructure. A few years later, the College deployed Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000 to safeguard its systems from outside threats. Based on its success with ISA Server 2000, the College recently upgraded to ISA Server 2004 to add application-layer filtering, high-performance Web caching, and advanced logging and reporting features. As a result, Thomas is able to provide added protection for its Web-based applications, provide students and employees with high performance and secure Internet access, and more effectively identify and address potential threats. Situation Located on 70 acres overlooking the Kennebec River in Waterville, Maine, Solution Overview Customer Profile Thomas College, a small private college in Maine, has more than 1,100 undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education students and offers degrees in business, technology, education, political science, and psychology. Business Situation As the scope and nature of its Internet use expanded, Thomas College needed additional security features, such as application-layer inspection and advanced logging and Solution Description Thomas College deployed Microsoft Internet and Acceleration Server (ISA) 2004 as a perimeter firewall, Web proxy, Web cache, and Web filter, as well as for secure Web server publishing. Benefits More in-depth inspection of Web traffic Increased performance Comprehensive logging Built-in log querying Customized reporting Software and Services Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004 Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition Vertical Industries Colleges Country/Region United States Page 1 of 5

2 Thomas College is a small, private, career-oriented college with total enrollment of more than 1,100 undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education students. Thomas was one of the first colleges in the United States to build a Web-based information systems infrastructure to enable students, faculty, and administrators to access and run more than 900 of the College's core business and academic applications through a Web browser. To enhance accessibility while safeguarding those systems from external attacks, the College implemented Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server The College chose ISA Server for its: Tight integration with Microsoft Windows -based client workstations. Support for other operating systems. Favorable price/performance ratio. Support for fast Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) proxy, which constitutes the majority of the College's traffic. Because Thomas maintains a health center and also manages financial aid transactions, it has to meet a growing number of healthcare, financial, and academic regulations. In 2004, the College decided to update its firewall protection to gain additional capabilities, such as application-layer inspection, secure Web server publishing, and advanced logging and "We are audited annually in each regulatory area, so it is important that we safeguard the security of our systems and can easily produce reports documenting security," says Christopher Rhoda, Vice President for IT Services, Thomas College. Solution The College decided to upgrade to ISA Server 2004, running on the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating system the foundation of Microsoft Windows Server System integrated server software. By upgrading to ISA Server 2004, the College gained: The ability to view all traffic in and out of its network A new easier-to-use management interface Application-layer filtering "With application-layer filtering we can look inside Internet traffic and see Page 2 of 5

3 exactly what the application is, rather than just whether there's traffic on it or not," says Rhoda. Thomas is using ISA Server 2004 as a perimeter firewall, Web proxy, Web cache, and Web filter, as well as for secure Web server publishing. The system safeguards its internal administrative systems, and controls access to its extranet. On the extranet students and alumni can view private data, such as their own address and phone records and their own grades. Faculty can also view class information, such as the list of students enrolled in their classes. We really push ISA Server 2004, and it performs great for us, I can't imagine our network without it. Christopher Rhoda Vice President for IT Services, Thomas College Benefits By upgrading to ISA Server 2004, the College gained deeper firewall safeguards, higher performance, built-in log querying, and customized More In-depth Inspection of Web Traffic Complete stateful inspection of Web traffic and the application-layer filtering feature in ISA Server 2004 help to provide Thomas with increased security against external attacks. The new unified rule structure makes it easier to identify potential threats so that administrators can take action to avoid them. "The more areas ISA Server can inspect and identify, the more things we can build rules against," says Rhoda. Increased Performance for Internal and External Users The high-performance Web caching in ISA Server 2004 accelerates Web performance for those accessing the Internet from campus and for external users. "ISA Server 2004 supports both forward caching for outgoing requests to the Internet, and reverse caching for incoming requests to our Web servers," says Rhoda. Built-in Log Querying and Customized Reporting "The logging feature in ISA Server 2004 is one of the primary reasons we selected it," Rhoda says. "The ISA Server log identifies every piece of traffic that comes in or goes out of our campus. If we get a notice that someone on our network has illegally used a copyrighted software package, we can query the log based on any field recorded, verify the event, identify the user, and apply the appropriate sanctions." Page 3 of 5

4 ISA Server 2004 reports are customizable, so the College can add more information and meet different needs for each entity to which it reports. "We really push ISA Server 2004, and it performs great for us," says Rhoda. "I can't imagine our network without it." Microsoft Windows Server System Microsoft Windows Server System integrated server infrastructure software is designed to support end-to-end solutions built on Windows Server It creates an infrastructure based on integrated innovation, Microsoft's holistic approach to building products and solutions that are intrinsically designed to work together and interact seamlessly with other data and applications across your IT environment. This helps you reduce the costs of ongoing operations, deliver a more secure and reliable IT infrastructure, and drive valuable new capabilities for the future growth of your business. For more information about Windows Server System, go to: For More Information For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) in the United States or (905) in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: For more information about Thomas College, call (207) or visit the Web site at: Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Server and Windows Server System are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Press contact: rrt@wagged.com Page 4 of 5

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