About the customer

XCIDR is a consultancy firm specializing in governance, risk and Compliance. Their expertise lies in providing organizations with strategies and tools to address information security challenges. XCIDR's focus on security and data loss prevention makes them vigilant in safeguarding their own data and their clients' sensitive information.

The challenge

XCIDR needed a robust solution for their employees to securely access company and client data from anywhere, at any time. They faced several challenges, including:

Security: XCIDR required a highly secure environment to protect their data from unauthorized access and potential breaches. Adhering to industry-specific regulations and ensuring data privacy compliance were vital for XCIDR's reputation and client trust.

Scalability: With a growing number of employees and clients, they needed a solution that could scale seamlessly to accommodate future expansion.

Performance: Fast and reliable access to data was essential, to enable remote team collaboration.

How we used AWS as part of the Solution

Amazon VPC was leveraged to create a private network environment within AWS, isolating their cloud workspaces from the public internet. Amazon WorkSpaces provided XCIDR's employees with a virtual desktop environment, allowing them to securely access company resources and client data from anywhere using any device with an internet connection. We ensured data security by encrypting the workspace data.

AWS WorkDocs was enabled to create, share, and collaborate on documents, while ensuring document versioning, audit trails, access control and streamlined approval processes.

AWS Managed Microsoft AD was used to centrally house all the employees accounts for the cloud workspaces. AD administration tool was installed on Windows 2019 EC2 instance to perform administrative tasks on the AD . By using EC2 instances, we provided the flexibility to efficiently manage groups, user accounts, groups policy objects (GPOs), and organization units (OUs). Additionally, we manage DNS server properties like caching and forwarding as well as monitor DNS server performance.

CloudWatch to monitor and gain insights into the performance and health of the workspaces. To further enhance the security of their cloud workspaces, we make use of Amazon GuardDuty. Amazon GuardDuty continuously monitors the AWS environment for malicious activity, unauthorized access; it also helps identify and respond to security incidents promptly.

The result

The implementation of AWS services enabled XCIDR to enforce strong security measures, including encryption, access controls, and network isolation, significantly reducing the risk of data breaches. They were also able to meet industry-specific compliance requirements, ensuring they maintained the necessary standards for their clients' data privacy.

AWS's elastic infrastructure allowed XCIDR to easily scale their cloud workspaces, ensuring they could adapt to changing business needs without disruption. XCIDR's employees experienced fast and reliable access to critical resources, enabling efficient collaboration and productivity.