With Aruba Wireless Networks, Lapeyre complies with the security recommendations of the Groupe Saint-Gobain
Paris, the 3rd November 2004 - Aruba Wireless Networks announces that the maker of woodwork, the Groupe Lapeyre, part of the Groupe Saint-Gobain, has implemented its wireless solutions in order to facilitate the mobility within their facilities and to comply with the security recommendations prescribed by Saint-Gobain.
With the project to offer wireless access in the meeting rooms of the headquarters of Lapeyre, Patrick Goubin, the networks and communications director for the company, had lead an in-depth assessment of the Wi-Fi solutions from visiting many technological seminars and events to carrying out various evaluation tests.
During Interop 2003 in Paris, Mr. Goubin had the opportunity to meet with Aruba representatives and see demonstrations of their high-performance WLAN switching solutions. This meeting enabled him to assess the functionalities that would be key for his selection process and final decision.
"We had some very detailed decision criteria to guide us in the choice of a Wi-Fi solution. The selected solution needed to be easy to deploy and, above all, to maintain after installation, and it also needed to fulfill all the security recommendations set by Saint-Gobain, especially for the strong encryption," mentions Patrick Goubin. "With Aruba switches and access points, we answer to these requirements with no problem. In addition, the integrated firewall in Aruba systems will enable us to control the communications on the wired network too."
In September 2004, the company ARES, an Aruba's certified reseller, was commissioned for a study and audit in order to evaluate the wireless technologies that could answer to Lapeyre's needs. Then, ARES received the mission to integrate Aruba solutions at Aubervilliers, where the Groupe Lapeyre is headquartered. Several access points were deployed in the meeting rooms and nearby. This deployment offers the complete set of Aruba's functionalities such as RF Lock, RF Director, location tracking, dynamic RF management, and so on. With these powerful features of security, management and reporting, Lapeyre is now able to control the whole wireless network from a single central point and to guarantee its security with all layers from 1 to 7 from a single system. Also, the capacity to visualize the whole radio environment centrally has been a feature particularly praised by Lapeyre because they are now able track any location and intervene on any abnormal situation such as misconfigured clients, detection and prevention against rogue access points, and so on.
"The centralization offered by Aruba systems enables us to manage all the access points in a very simplified way. Lapeyre's IT staff can now administer and control the network efficiently without any additional workload," adds Thierry Pasquier, director of the Network Convergence & Security department at ARES. "From a security point of view, Aruba's centralized encryption and authentication capabilities offer the highest performance available in the market today. In addition, the intrusion prevention and mobility firewalls integrated in a same system guarantee the complete security of both wireless and wired networks."
"With the sharp increase of mobile users and devices, the deployment of a wireless infrastructure has now become a priority for the enterprises, but at the same time it has become their biggest concern because of the many vulnerabilities that the 802.11 technology has unearthed over the existing wired networks," notes Pascal Desaint, General Manager for France and Southern Europe at Aruba Wireless Networks. "It is in this environment that the enterprises have put in place their security policies which have become more strict in order to better control the communication of data, internally and externally, and to prevent any collateral damage that any intrusion or unauthorized use may cause to their organization. Aruba solutions enable them to enforce the strongest security policies and to ensure that both their wireless and wired networks are protected at all layers, from the air, the users, the devices, the ports, the backbone and the remote locations, until layer 7."
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About Lapeyre
Since its merger within Groupe Saint-Gobain in 1996, Groupe Lapeyre has become the specialist of durable home improvements for the consumer and the professional markets. The company is part of the division for Building Distribution and currently employs 9600 people, has 300 retail centers, 11 production sites, and has generated 1.4 billion Euros of revenue in 2003. With the aim to strengthen its expertise and know-how, Groupe Lapeyre has developed innovative capabilities for its marketing, e-commerce and service, while pursuing its dynamic and creative industrial policy.
About ARES
Created in 1986, ARES is uniquely positioned in the IT market thanks to its extensive know-how in the field of infrastructures and its expertise in the area of business processes. The group employs 1750 people, including 1300 engineers and technicians, within two business units, namely technology and trade. Its division for Network Convergence & Security groups all the resources dedicated to research and implementation which counts 150 experts in the new technologies of communication. Since March 1999, ARES has been the first independent network integrator in France. In 2004, ARES became the third network and security integrator in France with 50% business growth in the past two years.
Aruba Wireless Networks is a trademark of Aruba Wireless Networks all trademarks of their respective companies. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.