Consumer Goods
Fiskars Group Boosts Business Agility and Security with Cato SASE
Fiskars Group Needed a Network Overhaul
Moving at the speed of 21st century business requires a fast, agile, secure WAN that is easy to deploy and manage. Unfortunately, before the Fiskars Group adopted Cato SASE, its WAN had none of those qualities.
โOur network was an old-fashioned mess,โ says Jesper Hjรธrland, Service Manager for Network and Connectivity at the Fiskars Group. โWe had both MPLS and Internet connections with multiple security solutions from different providers in different locations. We often had three or four different devices on each site. Deployment and management of all those solutions was very challenging and time consuming.โ
The time it took just to open a new location was far too slow for the companyโs business needs. โOur leadership felt it was critical to be fast and agile to meet the rapidly changing needs of our customers,โ says Hjรธrland. โBefore Cato, that simply was not possible,โ.
Once Fiskars Group had to move a warehouse in Sydney to another location. โIt took us four months just to get a new MPLS connection, delaying the move and worrying our management quite a bit,โ says Hjรธrland.
After that stressful move, Hjรธrland knew it was time to find a better, more simple, flexible WAN solution. โWe knew we needed the same WAN and security solution in every location, whether it was a small shop or a large factory,โ says Hjรธrland.
Fiskars Group Evaluates SD-WAN and SASE, Chooses Cato
Hjรธrlandโs needs naturally took him in the direction of SD-WAN and SASE. โWe looked at a lot of SD-WAN and SASE solutions, but Catoโs was the only one that allowed us to use the same solution everywhere,โ says Hjรธrland. โIt was also the simplest to deploy and manage and much more flexible than the other SD-WAN solutions we evaluated.โ
Catoโs management interface looked so simple at first that many of Fiskars Groupโs network staff thought it wasnโt capable. โThey were really nervous,โ says Hjรธrland. โโItโs too simple,โ they said. โIt probably canโt do much.โ It turned out we could do much, much more with the Cato interface than ever before, including things that a lot of network people donโt even understand completely. Yet the interface is so easy even the less experienced network staff can work with it.โ
Cato SASE Cloud optimally connects all enterprise network resources, including branch locations, the hybrid workforce, and physical and cloud datacenters, into a secure global, cloud-native service. Connecting a location to Cato is just a matter of installing a simple Cato Socket appliance that links automatically to one of Catoโs 75+ Points of Presence (PoPs) and its fast, global private backbone. The Cato Socket, Catoโs edge SD-WAN device, extends the Cato SASE Cloud to locations, providing prioritized and resilient connectivity over multiple last-mile links. At the same time, the Cato Client and Clientless access enable secure and optimized application access for users everywhere, including at home and on the road.
Catoโs cloud-native security edge, Cato SSE 360, converges a Secure Web Gateway (SWG), Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), and Firewall as a Service (FWaaS) with Advanced Threat Protection. It fully enforces granular corporate access policies on all applications on-premises and in the cloud, protecting users against threats and preventing sensitive data loss.
Aside from the management interface and Catoโs security features, Hjรธrland liked Cato support. โCatoโs people were always helpful, going over and above to ease our implementation,โ says Hjรธrland. โThey had great suggestions to help us use the solution to its full potential for our business and gladly answered all our questions, no matter how stupid, to ensure we understood exactly what we needed to do.โ
Fiskars Group Gets the Speed and Agility it Needs
Deployment of the Cato solution to the Fiskars Groups locations has been very quick and easy. โWe changed our supplier in the middle of the implementation and, though they had never heard of nor had any experience with Cato, they were able to do their first deployment in under two hours with minimal Cato support.โ
Cato SASE has sped up the deployment of moves and new locations dramatically. โWe roll out new shops very quickly now,โ says Hjรธrland. โWe can just send them a Cato box and explain to store personnel with no network experience how to plug it in and get the service up and running.โ
Aside from fast deployment, Hjรธrland likes that every location large and small has the same robust layer of security. โThat consistency was something we sorely lacked in the past.โ
However, agility and simplicity are the main business benefits. โWith Cato weโre removing three to four different devices on a site and replacing them with a simple Cato box.โ Fiskars Group has started using the Cato mobile VPN in Europe and will soon roll it out in Asia as well.
As for cost, Hjรธrland finds Cato to be very competitive. โThe Cato solution has saved us money compared to our previous WAN infrastructure, and thatโs not even counting all the additional time and money we spent on consulting services before just to keep everything up and running. Thereโs definitely a huge cost savings there.โ
Hjรธrland most appreciates that Cato has made his job easier. โThanks to Cato, I can stand by my promises and feel comfortable we can deliver on the companyโs business needs quickly, efficiently, and securely.โ