Case studies: ADP

Secure remote acces to payroll services.

The customer

ADP (Automatic Data Processing, Inc) offers a broad spectrum of technology-based outsourcing solutions. With over $7 billion in revenues and 500,000 clients, ADP is one of the largest global providers of computerized transaction processing, data communications and information services.

 

The challenge

Among their Employer Services solutions they include managed payroll services. ADP had a requirement to allow their clients to remotely access their payroll information on ADP's servers.

Security and cost-efficiency were the overriding concerns for this project. Remote access such as this would ordinarily be supplied by private leased lines between the client offices and ADP's servers. Prohibitively expensive, this way of solving the problem is also difficult to scale. Should a new client need to be added, a new leased line would have to be installed to their offices.

 

The solution

The obvious answer, both in terms of cost and scalability, is a Virtual Private Network connection over the Internet. This obviates the need to add any new cabling to either offices, and provides for easy scalability.

For ADP's particular requirements, Cisilion recommended a Cisco VPN 3015 Concentrator. This solution initially provides up to 100 concurrent VPN sessions and is scalable to provide up to 10,000 VPN sessions.

Cisilion also provided and implemented two network based IDS systems to monitor and report any suspicious activity coming through ADP's Internet links. Host IDS solutions were also installed on ADP's business critical servers.

 

The benefits

Cisco's VPN technology is a perfect match for this type of requirement, and is often used to secure lines of communication across the Internet. Commonly integrated with broadband connectivity, VPN's can save thousands on the cost of remote access compared to leased lines.