Novell Helps Leading Steel Manufacturer Connect Newly Acquired Facilities

Connecting newly acquired facilities to a corporate network can be a daunting task. But the Ellwood Group, Inc., one of the world's largest steel manufacturers, has found a way to streamline that process, thanks to a Novell solution and the expertise of Novell Platinum PartnerSM Viable Solutions, Inc.

Tapping Novell® BorderManager® for a secure virtual private network (VPN) and ZENworks® for Desktops to simplify desktop management, Ellwood has been able to securely connect new facilities to its Pennsylvania headquarters without the slow connection speeds, cost and complexity of dedicated communication lines. To date, the solution has not only helped Ellwood create one Net, but it has also increased the company's available bandwidth 12-fold, while still saving tens of thousands of dollars a year in administration costs.

Novell and Secure Remote Access
The Ellwood Group, which serves leading equipment producers in North America, South America, Europe and Asia, oversees 10 operating locations in the United States and Belgium and is dedicated to producing and marketing high-quality, engineered, heavy metal sections to industries, including oil and gas, mining, metals, power generation, transportation and defense.

Following the acquisition of several facilities in Texas, Michigan and Belgium, the Ellwood Group needed a means for linking the new sites and ensuring employees - whether in the office, at home or traveling abroad - had 24-hour access to the corporate network with the same interface, security and customization. At the same time, the Ellwood Group sought to leverage the Web to reduce the high costs of dedicated communications lines.

An initial effort to connect the Texas operating division to the company's headquarters with a dedicated frame relay network proved ineffective, with high costs, difficult administrative challenges and slower connection speeds. After exploring several options, the Ellwood Group, with the expertise of Viable Solutions, selected the Novell BorderManager site-to-site VPN and local high-speed connections, allowing the company to securely connect its offices in the United States and Belgium while meeting the company's budget goals.

"The Novell solution is exactly what we were looking for," said Richard Owrey, director of Systems at the Ellwood Group. "BorderManager's site-to-site VPN has eliminated the need to maintain a special frame relay network and has increased connection speeds from 128K to full T1 speeds. BorderManager also protects our corporate data from unauthorized access with encrypted links across the Web.

"ZENworks for Desktops has saved the Ellwood Group thousands of dollars in time and travel costs," Owrey said. "The product's remote control functionality saves time and money by eliminating the need for a technician to visit each site in order to manually install, upgrade or repair software."

The Ellwood Group also touts the overall security Novell's solution, citing that its network has never been hacked.

 

Key to the success of the Ellwood Group's deployment was the role of Novell Platinum Partner Viable Solutions. "We recognized quickly that BorderManager and ZENworks were a perfect fit for the solution the Ellwood Group was looking for," said Eliot Lanes, president of Viable Solutions. "They helped us not only meet the customer's expectations but also deliver an improved return on investment, because the entire solution is integrated with and managed through Novell eDirectory™. Needless to say, the customer was thrilled."

 

Dave Stevenson, Novell vice president of Secure Identity Management Solutions, added, "Many industries today are in a cycle of consolidation, and the steel industry is no exception. Faced with integrating a number of new facilities, the Ellwood Group turned to Novell and Viable Solutions to ensure consistent network access - which is not simply a convenience but a business imperative. The deployment at the Ellwood Group is a prime example of Novell's vision of one Net: enabling different networks to work together to securely connect employees across organizational boundaries."