Aditro wanted to expand its service range and provide customers with the opportunity to have centralized log data management as a supplementary service.
The HR, payroll and financial management applications Aditro provides as private cloud services contain a large amount of confidential information, and companies are keen to improve their control over the use of these applications.
“Some of our customers, including organizations in the public sector as well as global companies, wanted to enhance the management of log data and the traceability of access to information systems. Taking information security seriously is a growing trend, and many companies are eager to invest in this area. The information security requirements and other regulations laid down by the EU will further increase the responsibilities businesses have in relation to log data management and information security,” says Antti Korhonen, Aditro’s Lead Architect responsible for the availability and development of SaaS applications.
Aditro supplies several payroll engines, and its range of HR management software covers the entire employee lifecycle from recruitment to retirement. “We wanted to expand our service range and provide customers with the opportunity to purchase centralized log data management as a supplementary service. Both the need for information security solutions and the regulations related to information security have seen a rapid increase,” Korhonen explains.
Aditro provides companies and organizations with HR, payroll and financial management applications through easy-to-use SaaS solutions. The industry-leading company employs more than 1,300 people in the Nordic countries and has over 12,000 customers. Aditro supplies HR and financial management applications that facilitate the work of its customers and free up resources for developing core business functions.
Aditro’s information management department examined several alternatives for implementing the centralized log data management solution.
“We spotted the Sentinel solution in Gartner’s reports, and the Proof of Concept we implemented using the Sentinel solution was found successful and reliable. Our choice was also influenced by the positive experiences our data security expert had with company and the versatile functionality Sentinel had to offer. The licensing system is clear, and we pay for licenses based on an estimated usage need. In addition to covering centralized log data management, the solution can be expanded to include identity management and control of information security as a whole,” Korhonen says.
Sentinel Enterprise was integrated into the duplicated production platform used for providing Aditro applications. Aditro purchases its data center services from Elisa Appelsiini, a company with high availability data centers located in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area.
The co-operation between Aditro and Spellpoint, an IT services company specializing in Identity and Access Management (IAM), began in fall 2014. “The experts at Spellpoint have technical expertise and a good understanding of business functions. They are flexible and can rapidly find a solution to any challenges that may surface. They also provide us with extensive documentation,” Korhonen explains.
“Today’s customers and end users are increasingly demanding when it comes to information security. Regulations are also tightening, and a Finnish act that came into force in 2015 requires companies to report security breaches. Aditro has understood the situation, and we have developed the environment to meet their requirements one part at a time. Spellpoint provides Aditro with expertise and consultant-level support and maintenance services. Sentinel makes it easy to link events to users, and integrating the product into various systems is simple. Any anomalies can be examined in one view, which facilitates the detection of security related issues,” says business manager Mika Käck from Spellpoint.
Aditro is now able to provide its customers with more comprehensive services than before. “Our customer’s data security policies require effective management and storage of log data, and we can now provide our customers with a more extensive range of services. Organizations must be able to trace who has used specific data systems at a specific point in time and what has been done and how. Without centralized log management, collecting the data we need would mean wading through a jungle of logs,” Korhonen says.
Aditro monitors the usability of the applications its customers utilize and takes action if anything out of the ordinary takes place in the customer’s environment.
Antti Korhonen – LEAD ARCHITECT, CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE
Aditro
“We provide log data management as a service to a couple of significant customers. The number of these customers will definitely grow in the future. The SaaS platform is also used to produce firewall, load balancing and Active Directory log data. We are able to provide our customers with reports and visibility from server device level to application user level. Our own staff is on call 24/7, and Elisa Appelsiini provides us with a 24/7 service level,” Korhonen emphasizes.
According to Korhonen, Aditro has a determined approach to investing in the usability and security of applications produced for customers. “The majority of our customers log into our SaaS applications over a public network. We are also increasingly interested in identity management and providing a clear picture of the overall situation. We are currently taking steps towards security event management and making use of Spellpoint’s expertise to develop our environment.”
