“The Alert Logic WAF team is a rare mix of highly technical skills and real enthusiasm to help. It’s that support from the WAF team that is the massive differentiator.”
A technology advisory firm who was an early adopter of the cloud realized they needed a cybersecurity solution to protect their websites from compromise, beyond the native web application firewall (WAF) capabilities available in their cloud platform. After a period of managing web security internally, they began their search for a WAF and overall security partner. They were looking for a combination of strong technology, an ability to detect and block web-based attacks, managed expertise, and flexibility – Fortra’s Alert Logic Managed WAF delivered the solution needed alongside an unmatched level of support and service.
Challenge
The customer hosts hundreds of customer-facing websites on Azure’s app service in order to provide their clients with specialized data, research, and business advice. They needed to meet regulatory compliance, protect sensitive data, and maintain user trust by keeping each web app secure. After taking a DIY approach to web app security, the customer realized their outcomes could be better achieved with a managed service. “We came to the realization that we probably could do a somewhat bad job of managing something that was highly specialized using what was available through our cloud solution or hopefully there was a better way where we could get hold of some real experts who could manage security for us” said the customer.
The customer was looking for a solution that was customizable, configurable, and flexible. Other available WAF solutions in the market required all their internet traffic to flow through a filter whereas the customer wanted to route only certain sites through it. Having struggled with the management and granularity of other WAF products, they needed a solution that didn’t sacrifice security in favor of smooth operations. “With our websites, there are a lot of fields that can’t just be turned on and off because you’d be making big holes in the security. So, we were after a solution that was customizable and also had experts who were willing to work with us to configure it properly, come up with suggestions, and help us minimize exposure. That’s exactly what we found with the Alert Logic WAF team,” said the customer.
“Alert Logic’s WAF is very configurable to what traffic you route through it and what you don’t. The support and flexibility we have with Alert Logic immediately allowed us to close off a lot of the holes that were created when we were running our cloud platform’s app gateway. Alert Logic’s WAF let us create policies specific to each website, which tightened up security a lot.”
Solution
Proven platform, customizable solution, unrivaled security expertise — all of these were key elements the customer needed from a security provider. And they achieved that and more with Fortra’s Alert Logic WAF.
From the start, they experienced numerous benefits in working with the Alert Logic team. “Alert Logic’s WAF is very configurable to what traffic you route through it and what you don’t. The support and flexibility we have with Alert Logic immediately allowed us to close off a lot of the holes that were created when we were running our cloud platform’s app gateway. Alert Logic’s WAF let us create policies specific to each website, which tightened up security a lot.”
Another welcome benefit of Alert Logic has been the trust their team has in the WAF. “People really trust the Alert Logic WAF, that it’s doing its job properly and not just blocking stuff for the sake of it, which is what we got with previous solutions,” said the customer. “There’s a lot on there that we don’t need to deal with because the Alert Logic WAF team will deal with it.” With a high performing and trusted WAF, the web developers are able to be more efficient.
Collaborating with the Alert Logic WAF team has been a refreshing experience and positively affected their whole team. “Let’s say the developers have brought on a new website and something’s not working because it’s being blocked by the WAF, I’ll put the ticket in and what surprises me is that many times, the Alert Logic WAF team is not coming back with, ‘well, this is why it’s happening, do you want us to open it?’ Instead, they’re telling me, ‘this is why this is happening, but you could actually rewrite your website a little bit by changing this code or this field.’ I think it’s great because then I go back to the developers with how we can do something differently to make it work.”
In addition to WAF, the customer is also experiencing benefits to its overall security from Fortra’s Alert Logic Managed Detection and Response (MDR), praising its flexibility for monitoring cloud and PaaS environments. “We get very good alerting from the MDR solution,” said the customer. “It picks up on stuff that you just would not be aware of without it and that gives us a chance to actually respond before it blows up into a big issue and we’ve had a number of those actually because of the MDR monitoring.”
Summary
In choosing Alert Logic MDR and Managed WAF to protect their IT architecture, the customer felt confident in the platform, the team’s expertise, and the 24/7 security coverage. What has been a welcome plus in choosing Alert Logic is the supporting team. “With Alert Logic, they’ve always helped me quickly and with good grace,” said the customer. “The Alert Logic WAF team is a rare mix of highly technical skills and real enthusiasm to help. It’s that support from the WAF team that is the massive differentiator. I’m sure we’re going to keep adding websites and we’ll be working with Alert Logic to protect them.”