Enablis offers a secure environment with SASE for Afford

Afford has partnered with Enablis to significantly enhance its IT infrastructure, ensuring robust security, efficiency, and future readiness through a comprehensive SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) framework. This partnership marks a transformative leap for Afford, one of Australia's most established disability service providers, which has over 70 years of experience working with clients, their families, and carers.

Paul Berryman, Director of IT at Afford, emphasized the importance of having a state-of-the-art network to work effectively in a secure environment from any location. Afford, a registered National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) provider and a Not-for-Profit organization, operates across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. Its mission is to provide innovative, flexible, and high-quality support to enhance lifestyle, learning, and vocational opportunities for people with disabilities and their families and carers.

Berryman noted that it was a chief priority for Afford to lift and futureproof its data, digital, and IT systems and security. The organization's strategic business objectives include meeting increased regulatory requirements for Right Fit for Risk Certifications (RFFR) and future ISO27001 frameworks, building a scalable and high-performance network infrastructure to support future growth and transformation initiatives, and ensuring a consistent and high level of security across the entire user estate to mitigate cyber risks. Additionally, Afford aims to provide an excellent user experience, improve network capacity for future digitization initiatives, and manage remote equipment effectively in a geographically dispersed organization.

“Our systems, information technology, and digital infrastructure are vitally important to Afford as we build towards our future,” Berryman stated. “These systems underpin the services we deliver to clients, as they are a key business priority. Much like our practice in ‘Disability Supports,’ our digital infrastructure and data management must ensure safeguarding, respect, privacy, and integrity are paramount because they are promises we make to our clients and employees."

Enablis worked closely with Afford's IT Director to understand the organization’s requirements and future objectives. Berryman highlighted that the Enablis team went through an iterative process designing the best architecture options based on the new SASE framework designs utilizing Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access and Prisma SD-WAN services. Enablis also reviewed bandwidth needs at each site and provided a total solution to offer managed services across network carriage, Prisma Access, and SD-WAN, addressing all compliance and technical needs.

GlobalProtect, part of the solution, enables protection for mobile workforces by extending the protections of Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access. “GlobalProtect allows myself and the entire team to connect securely no matter where we are. I don’t have to do anything. It’s always on,” Berryman added. Prisma Access uses a common cloud-based infrastructure to deliver all the network security services Afford needs, including Advanced Threat Prevention, URL Filtering, sandboxing, DNS security, credential theft prevention, data loss prevention, and Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFWs).

Following strategic enhancements in its IT infrastructure, Afford has achieved a significant milestone by deploying consistent security to all locations. Key highlights include the implementation of a unified managed SASE solution organization-wide, ensuring robust and consolidated security, maintaining a secure environment for all staff, enhancing capabilities to secure new business and tenders, and improving performance, which enhances end-user experience and satisfaction for all employees.

“With Enablis and Palo Alto Networks, we know we have a highly secure and future-proofed infrastructure that will allow our organization to transform to the needs of our clients without needing to rearchitect or change the foundational services,” Berryman said. Afford now has true flexibility to drive digital initiatives securely with increased user experience. Berryman added, “Our IT teams are now on the front foot and can be much more proactive with support ticket resolution—the number of tickets has reduced significantly. They are also freed up to be much more proactive around our security compliance needs.”

Berryman explained that the network and SASE framework have provided the confidence to build systems and processes to effectively run the organization. In fact, Enablis and the SASE framework have provided a solid foundation for secure growth. “SASE provides a comprehensive framework that integrates networking and security services. A SASE architecture strengthens our security posture and optimizes our network infrastructure for the future,” Berryman added.

“Prisma SASE has provided Afford with robust security coverage and great end-user experience with easy application access from any location in line with our organizational objectives. It has been easy to manage as the network and cloud security are integrated.” Additionally, the Prisma SASE solution has app-defined policies, which simplify network and security operations using machine learning and automation.

“Enablis are outcome-focused and deliver on their promise. Following the implementation by Enablis’ expert security and networking team, Prisma SASE is easy to manage as a result of the SD-WAN and cloud security being integrated,” Berryman concluded.