clarks case study.pdf

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY

CHECK POINT QUANTUM SECURITY GATEWAYS ENABLE CLARKS TO ELEVATE SECURITY PROTECTION AND MANAGEMENT SIMPLICITY TO NEW LEVELS

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Company Overview

Clarks is a global shoe company that was founded in 1825.

Challenge

Solution

"With Check Point Quantum Network Security, we gained industry-leading protection, better visibility, and we can manage much more of our security services ourselves. We were looking to simplify security—and we've done that while gaining so many additional benefits."
— Dan Fletcher, Network Service Manager

Benefits

Company Background

Founded by two brothers in 1825, Clarks has £1.5 billion in sales and 1,400 stores worldwide. Clarks invented the world's first foot-shaped shoe and continues to innovate with 3D printing, rapid prototyping, and a digital foot gauge. With 46 million pairs later, Clarks appeals to customers' sense of style and comfort in 75 countries.

Headquartered in the UK, Clarks supports manufacturing, distribution, and retail sales in the US, UK, Europe, and Asia. Until recently, security management had been primarily outsourced. Protection was limited, often due to contractual complexities or resource constraints, making it difficult to realise the full benefit of products in use. There was little visibility into the organization's overall security posture, making security policy changes burdensome for the Clarks IT team.

Business Challenge

Seeking a Better Fit

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"In addition to adding more robust security functionality, we wanted to simplify management, bring it in-house, and have better visibility into security measures. We already had a great relationship with Check Point, and that made our decision easy."
— Dan Fletcher, Network Service Manager

Solution

Powerful Protection Automatically

Clarks based its security refresh on Check Point Quantum Security Gateways, which provide ultra-scalable protection against Gen V cyber attacks across the enterprise. With powerful firewall, IPS, Anti-Bot, Antivirus, Application Control, and URL Filtering, Clarks' infrastructure immediately gained the industry's best protection against known cyber-attacks and threats. Seven Quantum gateway clusters defend the company's global footprint.

"We use every capability," said Paul Davey, Infrastructure Service Specialist for Clarks. "The URL filtering has been especially useful. It detects and prevents web access security events, and SSL inspection technology scans and secures SSL/TLS encrypted traffic. We were able to eliminate seven internet proxies around the world as a result."

ID awareness capabilities have reduced overhead while simultaneously improving security. Previously, the team had to create rules to give access to specific resources with little control. Now, they can grant access based on identity, without opening access to everyone on the VPN.

"We originally planned to use 30 days of professional services for deploying the gateways and revising policies," said Fletcher. "We migrated systems region by region according to our predefined testing plan and even completed the last migration remotely. We only used seven days, which was quite a saving."

Gateway logs feed into Clarks' SIEM, giving the security operations team deep visibility. Check Point Compliance continuously examines the gateways, software modules, policies, and configuration settings in real-time, ensuring that security measures align with best practices.

Benefits

Capacity Just in Time

Clarks deployed its new security solutions right before the pandemic unfolded. Quantum remote access VPN features made it easy for the team to deliver secure, scalable, and seamless remote access to the corporate networks.

"Prior to the pandemic, our configuration allowed 200 users to access their applications over a VPN," said Davey. "When everyone began working from home, we were able to quickly increase capacity and connect up to 600 concurrent users."

Confidence in Protection

"When we migrated, one of our main policies included 550 security rules. We've reduced this by around 60% with the same level of service, but the simplified policies make future changes easier and clearer. The only impact on the business is having much better protection."
— Dan Fletcher, Network Service Manager

The team has high confidence in the company's protection. Check Point Quantum Security Gateways automatically detect and block port scans, preventing malicious DNS requests before they leave the network.

CloudGuard keeps data in public cloud networks safe from sophisticated attacks. The Clarks team used CloudGuard Network Security to establish a virtual hub in Azure, providing secure connectivity between the data center and cloud.

"Check Point CloudGuard Network secured a new, business-critical cloud solution and simultaneously simplified our infrastructure. Because of that, we could retire a £500,000/year application."
— Dan Fletcher, Network Service Manager

The Clarks team can now secure new cloud-based solutions in minutes, with advanced threat protection and single-pane-of-glass management ensuring consistent security.

The team also expects savings in endpoint security by using Check Point Harmony Endpoint for complete protective measures and automated attack detection, improving user performance and reducing complaints.