Case Study - Firewall and Web Content Filtering Upgrade for New Roads School

Two distinct appliances were handling the web filtering and firewall protection for the existing network. Because the internet speed is increasing, we need to check the current network to make sure there are no problems. To further ensure that mission-critical services and traffic were prioritized, traffic shaping policies must be implemented.

An investigation of the network architecture was carried out by Akins IT, with a particular focus on the firewall and the web filtering appliance. During the evaluation, it was determined that the existing web filter appliance would not be able to make optimal use of the increased bandwidth provided by the enhanced internet connection. Additional design aspects were also explored concerning the network's optimization and segmentation.

Consolidating the functions of the firewall and the content filtering appliance into a single unit required the deployment of a FortiGate Next Generation Firewall appliance of the appropriate size. The firewall policies enable UTM functions such as antivirus, intrusion prevention, and application and web filtering. Protection against botnet command and control was activated for DNS resolutions and the WAN interface. In addition, traffic shaping strategies were implemented to ensure sufficient bandwidth was available for all of the services deemed to be mission critical.