SAE POWER CASE HISTORY
Back to Case Studies Although SAE Power, Inc. is a small, privately owned company, its business is worldwide.
The firm markets power supplies and components for electronic equipment from its corporate headquarters and distribution center in Santa Clara, California. Power supplies are manufactured in Toronto by a
Canadian subsidiary, while magnetic components and filters are manufactured in mainland China by a subsidiary headquartered in Hong Kong. Quick and effective channels to China, Canada and the U.S.
Controller Linda Speer faced the challenge of connecting these far-flung operations using the company's modest resources. "We needed a quick and effective way to exchange information that was often
complex and sensitive. The Canadian subsidiary manufacturing power supplies relied on components produced by the operation in China. And, for efficient inventory control, our distribution center in Santa Clara
needed to monitor closely the production at all facilities." SAE Power also demanded security for its critical data. Information being exchanged included highly proprietary design, production and pricing
data. "The goal was to create an inexpensive and easy-to-manage infrastructure that would provide secure email channels within the company," Speer said. SAE Power selected FreeGate's Internet Edge
Server after FreeGate approached the firm about becoming an early customer for the product. In a single, compact package, the FreeGate system provided a complete Internet email solution with firewall, routing,
remote access and Web services for less than half the cost of a solution assembled from separate components. The system's price, functionality and ease of installation as an email server were superior to
alternative solutions, even though the FreeGate system was designed from scratch to be much more than an email Internet gateway. Secure email and Web connectivity at the cost of email alone "The
solution we found to our original problem turned out to be the key to opening a customer Web site as well. We not only linked our offices with secure corporate email, we opened a new channel of information where
our customers can get product and pricing information at any time on-line." At first, SAE Power got by with email services from AT&T and CompuServe, but maintaining constant email connectivity involved
heavy charges, and there was uneasiness about relying on outside organizations to administer the company's critical communication channels. For these reasons, there was strong motivation to create an internal
system under SAE Power's direct control. "On the other hand," Speer said, "we weren't eager to burden the single information services manager at each site with an additional system. When we
considered building an email system with a secure gateway to the Internet, the task seemed daunting as well as expensive," Speer said. "We anticipated that the cost could be as much as $15,000 per
site for the equipment and the integration services needed to install a system that included protective firewall software. We were also deeply concerned about the administrative burden associated with managing
and maintaining a system made up of modems, servers, routers and firewall software assembled from separate vendors." These concerns were compounded, of course, because the systems would be in widely
separated locations and time zones. SAE Power needed round-the-clock email, and a problem at any site could bring down the company's main communication channel. To date, SAE Power has installed FreeGate units
in Santa Clara and Toronto with plans to add Hong Kong by the end of the year. Each system connects, at one end, to the site's network server and, at the other, to the Internet service provider's servers. The
company's service providers are Internet Mainstream in Santa Clara and UUNet in Canada. Amazing: installed and operating in half a day Speer said, "It has been a tremendous advantage for us to
provide our employees a complete email system in a very low maintenance environment. Our IS manager in Canada was amazed when the FreeGate system was fully installed and operating in half a day. "In
addition to solving our email problem, the FreeGate system has opened new horizons for us. After we have installed a system at our Hong Kong facility, we expect to interconnect the FreeGate systems in a wide area
network enabling each location to access databases at any facility." Because the FreeGate system can be managed and configured remotely, FreeGate can update systems by simply downloading a new version of
system software. Two features are particularly appealing to Speer. First is the remote access capability that will provide a secure way for employees traveling with laptops to access the company email system from
the road. The second is a virtual private network (VPN) feature. Virtual private networks in SAE Power's future "The VPN capability will allow us to organize our employees in virtual networks,
each with specific access and authorization policies. The VPNs can significantly simplify management because a change in job assignment or location is simply an administrative matter of shifting a name to a
different virtual network as appropriate. We don't have to change the physical network in any way to reassign a user who is transferred to a different group or promoted to a new position requiring a different set
of policies." Any hesitation that a small company may have to plunge into these new services on its own is mitigated by the fact that the FreeGate system, although easy to install and manage, is built to
'carrier-class' standards. That means the system can sustain a permanent connection to the Internet without risk to critical corporate data. The FreeGate system includes built-in redundancy and back-up for power
supply and disk storage. In the event of the failure of one component, the connection to the Internet will be retained and data will remain intact. Because it is a high-powered networking device, not simply a
configured personal computer, users and functions can be expanded routinely by installing new or additional software, or connecting additional boxes. Unlike competitors' systems, there's no need to add, manage
and maintain another desktop computer to accommodate new users. |
