West Liberty U Replaces Security Appliance with Cloud -- Campus Technology

Networking and Wireless

West Liberty U Replaces Security Appliance with Cloud

By Dian Schaffhauser
10/22/13

A university in West Virginia has gone public with its use of a cloud-based security gateway from OpenDNS. West Liberty University has adopted OpenDNS' Umbrella to help secure the online activities of the institution's 2,800 students and 430 faculty and staff members.

"Since we deployed OpenDNS, our network administrator responsible for security has spent zero time on malware and botnet remediation," said Chief Technology Officer James Clark. "Instead of disinfecting machines, we are able to implement and manage an array of leading-edge programs, applications, and services that support students, classrooms, and faculty research. OpenDNS Umbrella has paid for itself many times over."

The university chose Umbrella to replace a legacy security appliance after a botnet infection on campus required IT to clean up multiple machines. OpenDNS uses analytics pulled from its customer installations to try to identify threats before they show up on the network. "Umbrella provides a fine-grained data filter between us and the bad guys wanting to take us down. It keeps us protected from the nasty malware and botnets," said Clark.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

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