Tesco has standardised its global IT security practices with the deployment of threat management and analysis systems from Fortinet.

Tesco Hindustan Service Center (HSC) is using the system as it hosts and protects Tesco’s corporate data for its worldwide operations, and provides business information services to more than 3,200 Tesco stores in 12 countries.

Previously the HSC was using firewall and antivirus software deployed on numerous servers and desktops, from a range of suppliers, which had grown to present a business risk. Tesco HSC director for IT services Sridhar Rathnam said: “The complexity of managing these multiple point products created a strain on IT resources and a risk to the security of our worldwide corporate data.”

With the help of systems integrator Wipro Infotech, Tesco HSC has deployed systems for firewall, intrusion prevention, anti-virus, anti-spam and web content filtering. In addition, the Bangalore facility has deployed an analysis system which logs and analyses every security event, and a central management system.

Rathnam added: “One particular challenge that we had to address as the hub of Tesco’s network security operations worldwide was that we needed our security, monitoring and management systems to be tightly integrated, so that we could easily configure our security systems remotely and also drill-down for more details about security incidents when they occur.”

He continued: “Integration is important because we must have accurate, timely and detailed feedback, and also possess the capability to rapidly apply changes to the configurations of remote systems to respond to incidents.”