Youth hostel organisation relies on Securepoint products

Since January 2010, the German Youth Hostel Association - Landesverband Nordmark e.V. - has been using Securepoint UTM solutions as its central security solution at its headquarters in Hamburg and in all youth hostels. The previous Collax solution has been completely replaced.

The company Computex EDV Systemhaus with its owner Wolfgang Bertram, who had developed the concept together with the IT manager of the DJH Landesverband Nordmark, Mr Peter Wortmann, was available as a certified Securepoint partner to provide advice.

This envisaged the use of a larger UTM firewall in the head office and the use of almost 50 small UTM devices for the youth hostels of the regional association. Remote maintenance tasks, software deployments and, of course, data transfers in both directions could now be exchanged securely and conveniently between the head office and the youth hostels via secure VPN connections.

The availability of the solution was a particular requirement of Mr Wortmann from the outset. In order to guarantee this, a number of reserve devices were kept in Hamburg from the outset, which are already preconfigured and ready for immediate use and can be brought to the affected youth hostel on the same day if necessary.

As the entire roll-out, i.e. the configuration of the almost 50 UTM firewalls including the configuration of the access data and the respective VPN connections, would have exceeded the time frame of the planned distribution in terms of personnel for both Computex and the Landesverband Nordmark e.V., the manufacturer Securepoint GmbH was able to successfully contribute its project experience and, in close coordination with Mr Wortmann, took over the complete roll-out including just-in-time delivery to the individual locations. This task was successfully completed within 4-5 weeks. Adjustments to the configurations were subsequently implemented quickly and easily with the companies involved, so that trouble-free operation was achieved within a very short time.

All devices were delivered in 2010 with a three-year licence term. In 2013, after three successful years, all licences were extended for a further three years, so that the German Youth Hostel Association - Landesverband Nordmark e.V. - in the person of Peter Wortmann can now look back on more than five years of successful cooperation with Securepoint and its security solutions and over thirteen years of successful business relations with COMPUTEX.