macmon secure Implements New Scalability Features with Software Provider AEB

Case Study AEB SE

Stuttgart-based AEB SE develops and distributes software for international trade and logistics to help companies throughout the world optimize their processes, increase their efficiency and effectiveness and open up new potential. Founded 40 years ago in 1979, AEB now has over 500 employees and more than 5,000 customers. With 16 locations in 10 different countries, it supports its customers directly in their own local markets.

 

Key Facts about Case Study AEB SE

Biggest Challenges: 

  • High requirements on network availability, flexibility and performance

Reasons for macmon NAC: 

  • Scalability
  • Authentication according to 802.1X standard
  • Comprehensive REST API
     

Successes with macmon NAC:

  • Noticeable reduction of workload due to central administration console
  • Consolidated overview of all network accesses in the business
  • Optimization and automation of processes and workflows

Making Much Lighter Work of Challenging Administration Tasks

Naturally, the challenges faced by an international software manufacturer are strongly reflected in its own infrastructure. IT staff are probably the most demanding users when it comes to availability, flexibility and performance. For network access control, the internal IT team at AEB has been using the German network access control solution macmon NAC since 2015.
The migration to the completely redeveloped fifth version of the tried and trusted system includes various improvements that make daily work at the company much easier.

 

Scalability Enables Central Administration

The new scalability feature was a particularly interesting factor in the discussions between macmon and AEB at the start of 2019 – up to that point, up to six separate servers were administered individually.
Although its software-savvy administrators had already created their own enhancements for synchronizing certain data between the servers, the new central administration console with one master server and five slave servers distributed around the world takes things to a whole new level.

 

 

“It makes work noticeably easier on the one hand, while opening up new possibilities on the other.“

(Markus Wurdak, Head of IT)

 

It makes work noticeably easier on the one hand, while opening up new possibilities on the other.
For instance, AEB international relies on the standard 802.1X for certificate-based authentication of end devices. 

Working with the macmon NAC scalability concept, all distributed servers now act as standalone RADIUS Servers that have all the data needed to make any decision and take any action required. In turn, the central overview in the master system provides the helpdesk with access from one central location and gives administrators a consolidated overview of all the network access throughout the entire company.   
   

Close Collaboration During Implementation and Optimization

As one of the first users of this option from macmon NAC (and as a software manufacturer, one of the most demanding), the team at AEB managed to identify a variety of potential improvements during the joint implementation phase. Over the course of a few months, the desired adjustments were implemented and additional optimizations for greater oversight were implemented.

 

Another significant aspect of the upgrade to version 5 was the comprehensive REST-API provided with it. AEB aims to optimize and automate processes and workflows not only in its customer projects in logistics and foreign trade, but also in its own daily tasks and procedures. For instance, without additional assistance from macmon secure, it has managed to establish a system where new clients with a valid certificate are automatically moved to the client VLAN endpoint group with the least utilized current capacity.

 

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Conclusion:

By implementing this new scalability and successfully migrating to the latest macmon version, AEB has not only positioned itself well for future developments within its own network, but has also established a central administration console that will take its internal network to the next level.

 

© macmon secure GmbH