UNIVERSITY OF WALES PROTECTS AND ACCELERATES NEW CAMPUS WIRELESS NETWORK WITH BLUE COAT APPLIANCE

Trinity College Carmarthen Blocks Malware and Enforces Appropriate Usage Policy While Speeding Access to Educational Content

Blue Coat Systems, the leader in secure content and application delivery, today announced that its ProxySGT appliance with Blue Coat WebFilter has been chosen by a member institute of the University of Wales for its new on-campus wireless network. The Blue Coat appliance enforces appropriate Internet usage, combats malware and speeds student access to educational resources from their halls of residence.

"We see proxy technology at our Internet gateway as the only way to maintain a malware-free network, enforce sensible usage policies and ensure that students enjoy faster access to Internet learning resources," said Mark Bover, IT Engineer at Trinity College, University of Wales. "Blue Coat's ProxySG appliance enables us to protect our network, create and enforce policy and actually accelerate access to Web content and applications simultaneously,  while giving us tremendous flexibility and ease of use."

Trinity College began to trial a wireless network in 2004, with a view to improving the accessibility of research material and communications to
students and staff. The trial began with public areas on the campus, but proved such a success that the decision was made to roll out wireless access to students in the halls of residence. Trinity College believed that it had to demonstrate a duty of care in rolling out its proposed new network by
using content filtering to manage access to inappropriate categories of Web sites and ensure that student access to Web content was fully supportive of the college's dedication to learning excellence.  The college also wanted to protect its network and students' computers from malware by stopping it at the Internet gateway. Rather than impede Internet access, the college has found that the ProxySG appliance actually accelerates Web access by a factor of ten through advanced caching and pipelining technologies.

"The Blue Coat appliance provides a powerful solution for schools, enterprises and organisations to optimise the value of the Internet while protecting users from malware and offensive content," said Rene Arvin, vice president of EMEA, Blue Coat Systems. "Trinity College has taken our technology to provide a comprehensive solution in managing the Web for productive use by staff and students."