Accend Networks San Francisco Bay Area Full Service IT Consulting Company

Author: secureaccend

https://t.me/pump_upp

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Case Studies

Ruckus Wired and Wireless Solution for 100K Square Footage Warehouse Facility

Ruckus Wired and Wireless Solution for 100K Square Footage Warehouse Facility

The Challenge

Pitcofoods, a $300M wholesale distributor Costco-like company for retailers, moved its 100K square footage warehouse to a new location in Sacramento, and wireless networks were unstable and never really worked after it moved in for two weeks.

Our Solution

Pitcofoods’ CEO and Verizon Wireless engaged Accend Networks’ team during a crisis in the midst of their move and we jumped on it right away. It was all hands on deck. The CEO of the company was getting ready to throw out all recently purchased Ruckus switches (ICX-7150 24 and 12 ports switches), and 16 Access Points (a mixture of indoor R510 and T310D models).

Accend's team of two network consultants packed our stuff, arrived on site, and worked tirelessly all night and weekends, up to 6 am the next day, for almost two weeks to re-architect their networks to support their growing warehouse. They had subnets that couldn’t support the number of devices and was causing constant and intermittent outages and inability for endpoints to be able to connect to their networks, primary wireless devices because of the warehouse facility that they were in.

Their warehouse picking Motorola and other picking handheld devices also weren’t connecting in certain areas and connections were getting dropped.

The CEO was getting ready to get rid of all equipment and start from scratch as he was losing at least half a million dollars a day.

The Results

  • Achieved a stable networking environment
  • Handheld picking devices were able to join, connect with no issues, and workers were able to start taking inventory
  • Connectivity to their HQ office in San Jose was stable
  • Saved at least half a million dollars a day

Other services provided to Pitcofoods included:

  • Acted as a Security/Network Subject Matter Expert for theirCisco ASA FirePOWER Module
  • Assisted with providing Network Infrastructure support of their Networks and Systems environment

Technologies supported

  • Supported their Cisco Core and Access switches
  • Microsoft DNS and DHCP Services
  • Assisted with installation VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) for their Cisco Firepower Manager Center
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Case Studies

Cal State LA Juniper ISG Migration Cutover Project

Cal State LA Juniper ISG Migration Cutover Project

The Challenge

Cal State LA had network performance/latency on their campus networks, which was impacting network availability for the students. The issue was traversing across their Juniper ISG2000 gateway. Cal State LA needed a Senior Security Consultant/Subject Matter Expert (SME) to assist them with the migration to a new pair of Palo Alto Networks Next Generation Firewall PA-5060s over a weekend.

Our Solution

Accend’s Professional Services team provided a Senior Network Security Consultant/Subject Matter Expert, who was a Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Engineer and a CCIE in Security and Routing & Switching, to assist Cal State LA with the immediate need for a weekend cutover. Accend received the notice on a really short notice, and we were able to find a resource to accommodate and assist Cal State LA in less than two weeks.

We had a kick-off and pre-migration meetings to gather all the requirements, including the current configuration of the Juniper firewalls. The firewalls were running in High Availability mode so it was critical that we provided the same functionality with the new pair of PA-5060s.

Cal State LA also required some configuration review and best practices recommendation and documentation of the security policies, groups, LDAP configuration, and DoS settings.

The Results

Accend’s Senior Security Consultant/SME, Paula Wong, provided all consulting services and deliverables to Cal State LA in a short time frame. Paula arrived on-site on a Friday evening and ready for a weekend cut-over. The cut-over was conducted successfully and the new pair of PA-5060s were ready for service by Monday and the campus’ networks had a very good network performance.

Technologies Used

  • Juniper ISG2000 Gateway
  • Palo Alto Networks Next Generation Firewalls PA-5060s in High Availability Mode

Certifications

  • PCNSE 7 (at the time)
  • CCIE in Security & Routing and Switching
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Case Studies

Office 365 Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Specialist

Office 365 Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Specialist

The Challenge

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)’s Student Health & Human Services (SHHS) Division required a Microsoft 365 experienced and certified Subject Matter Expert/Professional Consultant to assist with configuration services for the Information Technology Division.

Our Solution

Accend’s Professional Services team provided a Microsoft Certified 365 Subject Matter Expert (SME)/Professional Consultant to assist LAUSD with configuring Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Advanced Data Governance (ADG), Advanced Information Protection (AIP) and Governance (AIG) in Microsoft 365. Other areas provided were configuring Microsoft Endpoint Manager, Microsoft Intune environment for managing and securing corporate and BYOD devices, working with O365 Security & Compliance Center, Azure Active Directory to authenticate synced SSO user accounts, applying conditional access policies, enforcing device configurations, and managing user groups, including migrating on-premise group policy objects (GPO) to Azure Active Directory, integrating Microsoft InTune with Microsoft Defender ATP to detect and respond to security threats and enforce risk-based compliance policies, configuring O365 information classification and labeling, information barriers and supervision policies, and HIPAA data classification and labeling.

The Results

Accend provided an experienced and certified Microsoft 365 Subject Matter Expert/Professional Consultant with over 11 years of experience to assist LAUSD with their requirements. The Microsoft 365 SME was certified in Microsoft 365 Identity and Services, Mobility and Security, Security Administration, Managing Office 365 Identities and Requirements, and other certifications.

The Microsoft 365 SME also provided training to systems administrators and end users and knowledge transfer to the District support staff.

Technologies Used

  • Data Loss Prevention (DLP) in Microsoft 365
  • Advanced Data Governance (ADG) in Microsoft 365
  • Advanced Information Protection (AIP) and Governance (AIG) in Microsoft 365
  • Microsoft Endpoint Manager, Microsoft Intune environment for managing and securing corporate and BYOD devices
  • O365 Security & Compliance Center
  • Azure Active Directory and integration with SSO users
  • Azure Group Policy Objects (GPO), Access Policies, Device Configurations, and Managing User Groups
  • O365 Information classification and labeling, information barriers and supervision policies
  • HIPAA Data Classification and Labeling
  • Scripting/Coding Languages: PowerShell, .NET

Certifications

  • Microsoft 365 Identity and Services
  • Microsoft 365 Mobility and Security
  • Microsoft 365 Security Administration
  • Managing Office 365 Identities and Requirements
  • Certification in Core Solutions of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013
  • Certification in Advanced Solutions of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013
  • Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): SharePoint 2010 Configuration
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Case Studies

SMCJUHSD Penetration Testing and PAN Firewall Analysis

SMCJUHSD Penetration Testing and PAN Firewall Analysis

The Challenge

South Monterey County Joint Union High School District (SMCJUHSD) required a Penetration Testing on their networks, which comprised three high schools. SMCJUHSD has two Palo Alto Networks Firewall PA-5220s, one at King City High School and one at the Greenfield High School. The Director of IT was concerned about security and wanted Accend to review the two firewalls for best practice configurations and also the security architecture.

Our Solution

Accend provided a senior security consultant who was certified in Palo Alto Networks (PCNSE) and a CCIE in Security and Routing & Switching to assist SMCJUHSD with the Penetration Testing, Firewall Analysis, and Security Architecture Review.

The Results

Accend provided SMCJUHSD security assessment reports of the two environments, which lists all the security vulnerabilities discovered. Outside of the security scans, Accend also manually reviewed the PA-5220s for SMCJUHSD’s two high schools. Security issues were found and recommendations were made accordingly on the security policies, appliance, and security architecture.

SMCJUHSD was very pleased with the security assessment that a re-assessment was done a year after the initial scan.

Technologies Used

  • Two Palo Alto Networks Next Generation Firewalls PA-5060s
  • Visio Diagram

Certifications

  • PCNSE 7 and 10
  • CCIE in Security & Routing and Switching
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Case Studies

STEM Audio and Cameras Mounting for K-12

STEM Audio and Cameras Mounting for K-12

The Challenge

Charles Armstrong School (CAS) needed assistance with mounting and running cabling (Cat 6 and HDMI cables) for their STEM Ceiling microphones and cameras for 17 classrooms so they could continue to teach during COVID-19 via a live video session.

Our Solution

Accend’s team assisted with the mounting of the STEM Ceiling microphones and cameras, which included running all ethernet & HDMI cables and ensuring the ethernet cables were patched in a live port if possible. Cable management was also done to ensure the cable installation was aesthetically pleasing.

The Results

CAS’ team was able to provide their students with an audio and visual equipment to all their 17 classrooms. Accend made sure that the equipment was properly installed and mounted in the proper height, and the cameras were installed in such a way so that unwanted views were not in the way. CAS needed to be able to capture the front of the classrooms during the teaching session, and the STEM ceiling microphone was not too high to not be able to capture the audio of the entire classroom, and not too low for the device to be tampered with.

Accend’s team did all the prep work: mounting of brackets, cable ties management for the ethernet and HDMI cables, and ran suspension wire for the STEM ceiling microphones, and tested the ethernet port to ensure a live port was available.

Technologies Used

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