Bookstore turns to Clavister for secure, cost effective Virtual Private Network
“The Clavister cluster and eight Clavister remote office appliances are controlled via a central management system. We’re no longer dependent on leased lines and this has significantly reduced our costs. We’re extremely grateful to EDVPartner for their support and for recommending Clavister’s technology to us.”
Dr. Konrad M. Wittwer, CEO, Wittwer GmbH
Wittwer GmbH is a chain of bookstores in Baden Würtemberg, Germany. It prides itself on offering its customers a wide range of new titles and books from all over the world. The company has a number of affiliated stores at railway stations and provides books and newspapers to an outlet at Stuttgart Airport.
The company wanted to connect its central headquarters in Stuttgart with its eight affiliated stores and main warehouse and replace its expensive leased lines with a low-cost, highly efficient and secure Virtual Private Network (VPN).
What Clavister did
Flexibility and security
EDV-Partner GmbH, a Clavister systems integrator, recommended a clustered solution based on Clavister Security Gateway for the company’s headquarters and eight Clavister remote office appliances for its stores. Wittwer GmbH recognized that this solution was not only cost effective, but also met its requirements in terms of both flexibility and security. What made the solution even more compelling to Wittwer GmbH was that the Clavister XPansion lines licensing model offered the scalability it needed to grow with the organization.
EDV-Partner installed a Clavister gateway at Wittwer GmbH’s central warehouse. This model can perform up to 500 simultaneous VPN connections. The Clavister remote office appliances guarantee up to 25 concurrent VPN connections and provide a secure and encrypted connection between all the local stores and main office. Now, thanks to the Clavister solution, the company receives all cashier data, book order details and bookings from its stores at its headquarters through the cost effective VPN.
Low cost calls
Clavister’s Security Gateway was compatible with VoIP, but Wittwer GmbH’s DSL line severely limited its performance. By using a Siemens-Hipath-TK it has allowed VoIP calls to be charged at a local rate and interstate connections to be connected over the VPN connection. EDV-Partner rolled out VoIP to the central server, a warehouse and one of its main stores via a standard fixed-line.
Secure data transfer
Now, all book orders, email and web traffic, cashier data and VoIP calls use the VPN connection and the Clavister Security Gateway’s dynamic traffic shaping feature guarantees the prioritization of VoIP data in the VPN tunnel. If there is a problem with the Internet, Wittwer GmbH’s stores have a Deutsche Telekom line as emergency backup for the cashier data transfer as well as for communication with the terminal. The Route Failover feature automatically triggers a route change if an ISP failure occurs.
The data transmitting setup at the central warehouse worked so well that EDV-Partner GmbH will now connect a further 25 smaller stores to the VPN.
Security solution for bookstore chain results in a happy ending
Before the implementation of the Clavister solution, the headquarters and eight affiliates were dependent on expensive leased lines. Wittwer GmbH now has a cost efficient and secured data transfer via VPN.
About Wittwer GmbH
Founded in 1867, Wittwer GmbH is one of the largest bookstores in the region of Baden Würtemberg, Germany and has a large number of affiliated stores throughout the region. www.wittwer.de