You probably don't like people peeking over your shoulder while you're playing five-card draw in Las Vegas. Likewise, Aristocrat definitely doesn't appreciate anyone peering into the network it uses to develop video gaming software.

That's why Aristocrat, a gaming software vendor based in Sydney, Australia, deployed a virtual private network (VPN) using RadGuard's CryptoWall firewall hardware and dedicated AT&T WorldNet Internet access lines for its six sites.

Security was paramount when putting this network together, says Simon Eggington, Aristocrat's information technology manager. "It's a very high-stakes industry and very competitive," he says. "We wanted something that was a firewall and a VPN in a box."

And the security problem was global in scale - literally. Aristocrat's software is developed in Sydney, tested in the U.S. and then sent back to Australia before final release - all via the Internet.

"We have to worry about industrial espionage when sending our software back and forth," Eggington says.

"Plus we have to be sure our software stays out of the hands of those who may exploit it."

The company is looking to expand the use of its VPN by adding dial-up support, but is waiting for RadGuard's client software, Eggington says. When that's available, he expects to have about 25 remote users dialing in.

Previously, Aristocrat used a remote access server to support dial-up communications among the multiple sites, but the company needed something that would support real-time connectivity, Eggington says. "The RRAS system was very expensive," he says, because of the associated dial-up 800 service costs. Aristocrat was able to reduce costs and drastically increase performance when it switched to direct Internet access.

Now Eggington is angling for more cost savings by shipping all intracompany voice traffic over the Internet VPN. The company is looking at Micom's VIP products primarily because Aristocrat uses Nortel PBX equipment, and Nortel acquired Micom last year. A final decision is pending.

"When we are able to add voice to our VPN, we expect to trim down our telecommunications costs by 50% to 75%," Eggington says.

- Denise Pappalardo