Industry View

Industry View | How to Connect and Protect Networks during Mergers and Acquisitions

Whether you’re divesting or acquiring, Rob Pfrogner of Virtela has a checklist for you

By Rob Pfrogner

Critical to all M&A network activities is basic network design.  Improper design accounts for the highest-impact errors in creating secure access.  When protections can be bypassed by taking an unforeseen route, the strength of any protection is lost.  After all the point-products have been chosen and the connectivity plan defined, a competent, and hopefully independent, third party should review the pending infrastructure of the merged entity to validate overall design integrity.  Through the combination of connectivity, assessment, protection, and review, all participants gain assurances that not only will their resources remain intact, but also that they themselves will not be unwittingly responsible for an attack on partner resources.  This process also ensures that M&A resources are rapidly made available, so both parties can realize the benefits of their M&A efforts. #

Rob Pfrogner is a CISSP, MSCE, Linux LPI-1 and senior director of managed security services for Virtela, a global network solutions company.

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