DataBank

DataBank provides their data-center customers with enterprise-class co-location, cloud, connectivity, and managed services, specializing in security and compliance enablement. When the company’s recent acquisitions doubled its employee headcount and tripled the number of customer data centers they managed, they needed to quickly make a decision about threat protection across their newly expanded ecosystem. Fortunately, DataBank already had Trend Micro^™ TippingPoint^™ in place to protect their network from attack without impact on performance.

DataBank has acquired several new companies and data-center facilities over the last few years. Most recently they acquired zColo’s data-center assets from Zayo Group Holdings, significantly accelerating the company’s expansion strategy. Since that acquisition, DataBank now provides services in 64 data centers across 28 markets in the U.S., the U.K, and France. As the company expands their global footprint, compliance is a growing challenge.

“DataBank is now subject to strict General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules,” says Mark Houpt, CISO at DataBank. “That means a significant strategy shift in how my compliance team will handle things in the future. We have to adhere to new security and compliance requirements at the same time that we’re adding new complexities and new people.”

DataBank’s acquisitions over the years have also resulted in a diverse IT environment. With a wide range of operating systems and endpoints, the company is subject to a broad array of vulnerabilities. Doubling its employee count due to the zColo acquisition is also a complicating factor—the company is actively working to integrate new personnel and additional IT assets.

Externally, the company experienced a significant increase in distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks, advanced persistent threats (APTs), and ransomware attacks over the last year. DataBank is focused on ensuring that its customer systems are protected from threats while balancing business and customer needs.

“We are constantly doing risk assessments to ensure that our balance is correct and that we protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of DataBank’s customer information systems,” says Houpt.

DataBank has been a TippingPoint customer for more than five years. The company considered other solutions over the years, including the solution zColo leveraged, but Trend Micro continues to be their partner of choice because of the technology and the people.

“The technology is solid,” says Houpt. “We very rarely have problems with the product, and if we do, Trend Micro solves it quickly.”

Trend Micro’s dedication to research and development is another selling point.

“Trend Micro conducts constant threat research,” says Houpt. “Every time I read a new threat report, Trend Micro already has something addressing it, or on its way. The research team is top-notch.”

Regular product updates are another reason that DataBank chooses to stay with Trend Micro.

“Trend Micro is constantly updating TippingPoint so that it always addresses the latest thing coming down the pipe,” says Houpt. “As a service provider, I need to continually assure customers that we are protecting them. With TippingPoint and Trend Micro, I don’t have to rethink it.”

"Trend Micro conducts constant threat research. Every time I read a new threat report, Trend Micro already has something addressing it, or on its way. The research team is top-notch."

Mark Houpt
Chief Information Security Officer, DataBank

DataBank uses TippingPoint to detect and block targeted attacks and malware through preemptive threat protection, threat insight and prioritization, and real-time enforcement and remediation.

"DataBank customers also love TippingPoint’s virtual patching function,” says Houpt. “Sometimes patches aren’t immediately available by the vendor so virtual patching via TippingPoint gives our customers the ability to protect their systems quickly, and gives them time to test the vendor patch before deploying across the organization.”

TippingPoint customers also receive exclusive access to vulnerability information from the Trend Micro™ Zero Day Initiative™ (ZDI).

“This means that zero-day attacks can be detected and blocked almost instantly,” says Houpt. “That gives customers assurance that we are protecting them proactively against the latest threats. TippingPoint is a solid product in helping me convey that message.”

Finally, TippingPoint helps DataBank meet a broad range of compliance needs, including those of the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the GDPR.

Security and compliance are DataBank’s key differentiators, and TippingPoint is part of the company’s default solutions across their offerings. In the spring of 2020, Houpt and his team began seeing a greater number of DDOS attacks, which they traced back to delayed patching on a global level due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Houpt noted people working from home were risk-averse to patch issues since they couldn’t go into the office to fix patches that caused problems. Thankfully, TippingPoint provides virtual patching, a feature Houpt pointed out to customers to curb concerns.

When one of DataBank’s management ports required a reboot last summer, the Trend Micro team was tenacious in verifying that the problem didn’t impact customers, including providing quantifiable data.

“DataBank is all about data,” says Houpt. “The Trend Micro team was able to show us data that proved our customers weren’t impacted. Our history with Trend Micro has been stellar from the beginning. I have a real sense of relationship and trust.”

"Our history with Trend Micro has been stellar from the beginning. I have a real sense of relationship and trust."

Mark Houpt
Chief Information Security Officer, DataBank