So Energy, a London-based award-winning renewable energy supplier, offers 100% fixed renewable energy plans to households across Great Britain. With employees who work both in the office and remotely, So Energy needed a secure and reliable service that let users remain online and secure whenever and wherever they needed to connect to the network.
The Challenge
When serving as many as 300,000 customers, as So Energy does, an access solution outage can have severe repercussions for customers and staff.
So Energy’s existing remote zero access solution was experiencing frequent outages. They needed a more stable and reliable solution that would allow users to connect to the network easily and reliably while limiting access to critical resources to authorised personnel only.
By approaching Red Helix, the decision to make this change also allowed the So Energy team to find a solution that offered an improved user experience. For maximum efficiency, So Energy opted to outsource the management of this solution.
The Solution
The Red Helix Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) service was the answer. After a one-month proof of value (PoV), So Energy determined that it was the most resilient and stable solution available. With ZTNA, So Energy users can connect from anywhere, with certainty that their connection is secure and consistent, dramatically improving their peace of mind.
Underpinned by our technology partner Appgate, ZTNA embodies the “never trust; always verify” Zero Trust model, ensuring networks can only be accessed by authorised users that meet certain conditions. At each stage of the network, strict checks are in place to authenticate user access based on various attributes like date and time, to determine whether users should be granted access.
ZTNA is leaps and bounds ahead of legacy systems like VPNs and offers businesses more flexibility and precision while strengthening defences against malicious attacks.
The Result
Our Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) Managed Service delivered exactly what So Energy needed:
Enhanced security: Secure Private Access and identity-based micro-segmentation to reduce the attack surface and increase security controls for all users and workloads, regardless of location.
Improved performance and speed: Users connect to the nearest gateway to retain session locality and mitigate latency, rather than routing all traffic back to a data centre.
Consistent end-user experience: Users have a consistent and positive experience regardless of connection type, whether office network, mobile roaming, or Wi-Fi from anywhere.
Accredited encryption: Validated encryption on every connection, regardless of user location.
Resilience: Peace of mind knowing that the solution employs a high-availability environment to ensure access. This has been a step change from the previous solution, allowing the IT team at So Energy to focus on business priorities.
Backup: Access to an experienced managed services provider to ensure the service continues to run smoothly.
Flexibility: The Red Helix Managed Service offers So Energy the ability to flex its license user count up or down as needed. This allows its customer contact centres to cater for increased traffic demands during seasonal periods.
The Outcome
The successful implementation of ZTNA means So Energy now has a reliable, scalable solution that provides enhanced security while delivering a great user experience. As ZTNA is easy to integrate with existing infrastructure and can scale with an organisation’s needs, So Energy has gained a malleable and resilient solution that will ensure all users can access its network wherever they are, whenever they need, securely.
Karl Ford-Lissenden, Head of IT at So Energy commented:
The Red Helix team made the transition to ZTNA remarkably seamless. Their expertise, coupled with a user-friendly approach, made implementation quick and completely hassle-free. Their technical teams provided first-class support throughout the entire activation and beyond. Red Helix really put the work in and now feel like an extension of our own team.
