Project Uses Patch Distribution to Fix Servers in Minutes, Achieving Up to 98% Success
Scala carried out a major project at Saque Pague, a technology platform that owns a self-service network, to manage and audit security items on servers, distributed across its two own data centers, one in Brazil and one in Mexico, in an agile and centralized manner. The platform, called BigFix, distributes patches, programs to correct security vulnerabilities, and generates reports in compliance with various audits.
In 2017, Saque Pague began its international expansion with operations in Mexico. With the Mexican environment stabilized, the company needed agility to meet all financial regulations in Brazil, Mexico, and the new countries targeted in its internationalization process. The following year, they began searching for a centralized solution that would enable the distribution of updates, especially for operating systems, and the generation of audit reports, such as PCI (Payment Card Industry). Today, the company controls the distribution of patches on more than 200 servers in Brazil, 50 in Mexico, and 250 desktops.
Saque Pague now corrects all servers in minutes – a process that previously took several hours – with a 98% success rate on the first attempt. In addition, they have increased efficiency and reduced costs, boosting ROI across the company, with simplified configuration management and software distribution on servers, and automated remediation for operating systems and third-party applications, providing offline remediation capabilities with high first-attempt success rates.
Numerous Benefits
“After the negotiation and a proof of concept (POC), we finalized the project to implement the server environment for Brazil and Mexico, with a centralized management console for the security team in Brazil. In May 2019, with the server environment fully in production, we expanded the scope to include an additional 250 desktops,” explains Filipe Cotait, Director of Technology at Scala.
“Today, the environment is 100% activated and is essential for securely automating activities and quickly generating a consolidated and detailed view, depending on the needs of each audit,” emphasizes Antônio Elcir Fonini, Head of Information Security at Saque Pague.
The project has delivered numerous benefits, such as unified management of patch application on Microsoft Windows and Red Hat Linux desktops; visibility into how patches need to be applied to specific devices; reduced patch management cycles, allowing the IT team to schedule remediations at their convenience while monitoring deployment results; accurate and up-to-date indication of the continuous application of the solution on servers; and reduced administrative effort through automation actions.
“The crucial point of the implementation was the integration between BigFix and the Red Hat patch bases in the cloud and the Red Hat Satellite servers. With the platform, it was possible to leverage native integration features that accelerated the implementation,” concludes the Director of Technology at Scala.
