FrontBlade Systems
Improving Security Posture and Operational Efficiency

Rob White, CEO of FrontBlade Systems feels that most CIOs are not happy with their security posture. Rob is a 3rd generation executive in the IT industry and formerly ran the Security Services group for Fujitsu. “As the 3rd largest IT company globally at over $53B with public and private clouds, large infrastructure platforms, and more, we [Fujitsu] were obligated to operate existing multi-vendor security estates. That said, we found absolutely unique value with the Check Point security architecture specifically due to the sophisticated centralized management with integrated SIEM and GRC, as well as the comprehensive portfolio of security controls across Network and End Point that no other security vendor can match. When given the opportunity, we would help clients rationalize their vendor sprawl to standardize and consolidate their security estate. The outcome that we have delivered to 100’s of clients is to reduce cost (by as much as 65 percent), reduce complexity, and improve security posture at the same time. We could literally meet every global compliance in one architecture and one pane of glass,” says White.

According to White, most environments have a high degree of vendor sprawl with 5-15+ point security technologies that make the operation complex, expensive, and ultimately less effective. More serious is a lack of understanding in the C level of the inherent risk of not having adequate security controls in place to protect your business. White estimates that “80 percent of companies have no DLP and are completely blind to the data leaving their network every day.”

This is where FrontBlade comes in as Fujitsu’s largest Systems Integrator with a strong focus on advanced security solutions. White jokes “It is our version of VBlocks with far superior engineering at half the cost / TCO. Literally; half. Most of the other network/ security VAR’s make more money contributing to the sprawl and sell you the next point control, and few of them do anything in server / virtualization, Storage, DR, and more.

Whereas the myriad of Dell & HP resellers have little security expertise beyond a commodity UTM of Barracuda or SonicWall.” As the world of IT shifts towards cloud based, IaaS offerings, or hyper converged solutions such as Vmware: EVO Rail, White states, “Our solution stack and careful selection of alliances are ahead of the market. We literally have clients that have the exact same security controls both on their premise, as well as some piece of their computing in a 3rd party cloud based service.” White, and FrontBlade enable Fujitsu’s local private cloud that currently has utility security controls from Check Point that can spin controls like DLP or IPS up or down on demand. Incidentally, “Fujitsu has the world’s most secured cloud with this utility architecture, currently at three sites in the US with two more coming online in 2015,” states White.

We simplify infrastructure with turn-key solutions and unified support to achieve unmatched value, to reduce your risk and complexity

FrontBlade also provides security services, which includes on demand security professional services as well as ‘product-ized’ managed security services. “We have created a highly focused niche, built around expertise, speed of execution, intimacy with our partners, and complete transparency and integrity working with clients to deliver world class solutions,” he adds.

Moving forward, FrontBlade believes that it has proven the focused business model demonstrating unique value to clients and aims to expand its sales presence for greater reach to the market. “We are ready to repeat this model with more turn-key appliance solutions of high value purpose ISV’s for industry vertical solutions, and have already begun to export this program globally with Fujitsu’s reach to 110+ countries and 45 languages,” concludes White.