The Hindu Business Line : Surf within limits

Thus far, no further. This player says its software can help companies, even schools, regulate use of the Internet. It's responsible use of resources. Alas, no freaking out.

PATHWAYS World School in Gurgaon wanted to insulate its students from pornography and ensure that they did not become nerds despite carrying their personal laptops to class.

Tata Interactive Solutions was worried that its employees should not unwittingly compromise the company's security through file-sharing on Kaaza or use up precious bandwidth to download movies in the night.

The two are among over 250 organisations who found the answer to their concerns in `Cyberoam', an Internet management solution from Ahmedabad-based software developer, Elitecore Technologies Ltd.

"As per our company policy, we do not put any restrictions on Internet usage at user level. But we need to optimally utilise our bandwidth resource. I have heard of cases in other companies where employees set up a download of a hefty file, like a movie, when they finished their day and left their systems on through the night. Cyberoam has helped us prevent such activites," says an official of Tata Interactive Systems.

He says Cyberoam allows him to manage bandwidth more effectively. The software not only helps him to aggregate bandwidth from different gateways but also to allocate it among different users.

That feature comes in handy for the company in order to optimally utilise the scarce resource and allocate it real-time among different users.

The Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, too had this problem of students choking the Internet pipe by setting up a download of a big file before coming to class.

The institute now uses Cyberoam to cut down the bandwidth available to students during class hours and directing the same to the faculty.

In the evenings, the students' quota of the bandwidth is stepped up, says Venu Gopal, Assistant Systems Officer at IIM-B.

While IIM Bangalore does not restrict its students from visiting any Web sites, Pathways World School in Gurgaon is concerned that its students should not access unwanted sites dishing out pornography or any material unsuitable for children.

Pathways uses Cyberoam and its systems administrators are continuously adding to the list of sites that cannot be accessed by the students from their laptops in the school's Wi-Fi environment. (See eWorld dated August 23, 2004 for Pathways' use of Wireless Fidelity technology.)

In fact, the school uses Cyberoam to allow Internet access to its students in a graded manner at different times. So, students cannot access the Net when they are supposed to be sleeping or out in the play-field.

Of course, the senior school students get a comparatively bigger time window, but even their Net connection is yanked off at midnight.

Garware Polyester Ltd and Tata Interactive Solutions use Cyberoam as a proxy server, a facility not available on many other competing products.

Garware Polyester, which uses two gateways to ensure redundancy at its Mumbai office, finds that the software's ability to manage different gateways on a real time basis helps it manage the bandwidth resource more effectively.

"We have been using Cyberoam for two years and find that it is a cost-effective solution that is easier to use and brings different functionalities on a single platform. Plus, we found that the support from the vendor was quite good," says Anil Joshi, Deputy General Manager (Systems) at Garware.

While the users were not able to put a figure to the savings they generated by using Cyberoam, everyone agrees that effective utilisation of bandwidth and the security of their systems are concerns that cannot be over-emphasised.

Elitecore claims that the product has got an enthusiastic response from the market simply because it offers several functions on a single platform. "We combine multiple solutions such as content filtering, bandwidth management, load balancing and cyber security on Cyberoam. None of our rivals brings all these functions on a single software platform," says Harish Chib, Vice-President (Marketing) at Elitecore.

With Cyberoam, companies can manage bandwidth, thereby ensuring faster downloads, control employee surfing habits, manage e-mail and guard their networks against security breaches, says Chib.

Cyberoam has over three million sites grouped into 60 categories that can be blocked and provides dynamic runtime filtering of non-work related surfing such as stock dealing, online shopping, job search, matrimonials, gaming, pornography and instant messaging.

The software also generates more than 45 detailed reports with trends, real-time analysis, risk reports and management summary. This helps the management to monitor Internet activity and formulate a proper Internet policy, he says.

"One of our clients sacked an employee after he was found to be sharing pornographic files, which was against company policy. To help smaller companies, we have also drafted a model `Internet Acceptable Use Policy' that can be included in the appointment letter itself so that the employees are aware of the Internet `dos and don'ts' in the company," Chib says.

Finally, another feature that differentiates Cyberoam from rivals, says Chib, is that it can be integrated with virus scanners such as Trend Micro to provide virus and spam protection. Combined with firewalls, the software helps the organisation insulate itself against cyber security threats.

So many restrictions may upset the employees, or even students, who find that Cyberoam prevents them from freely surfing the Net. "We understand the concerns, but responsible employees would agree that the security of the organisation is more important. We do ask our clients to allow activities such as Internet banking that save the organisation's time. At any rate, even telephones, in every organisation, are monitored and regulated. It has to be the same for Internet access as well," says Chib.

So, as soon as Chib is able to convince your systems boss, your wings in the information space may be clipped. Better find a cyber café for your late night chit-chats with your sweetheart or shopping sprees on the Net.

eworld@thehindu.co.in

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