OVERVIEW

Abu Dhabi Sewerage Services Company (ADSSC) was established on June 21st, 2005, in order to carry out environmentally conscious processing and disposal of residential and commercial wastewater in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. In 2007, the organization initiated its 25-year Sewerage Master Plan in order to fulfill the goals laid out by the Sheikh-sponsored Abu Dhabi Vision 2030 Master Plan.

Being an integral part of this initiative has increased ADSSC’s global recognition. Reporting directly to Abu Dhabi Executive Council, the enterprise continues to design and execute projects based on sustainability. ADSSC concentrates on the modernization of legacy infrastructure and the establishment of new treatment plants in strategic locations across the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

As the company aims to enhance community life through world-class sanitation services, technology continues to play an increasingly important role in the fulfilment of this promise.

CHALLENGES

“Some of our infrastructure is in the cloud. Most of it is located in our data center and we have an outsource model regarding services, such as infrastructure application development and application support,” says Warda Al Hamed, IT Specialist for Abu Dhabi Sewerage Services Company.

Technology plays a major role in Vision 2030, with guidelines issued and overseen by Abu Dhabi Digital Authority (ADDA), including stringent regulations covering information security and data management. To support its ambition of global recognition, ADSSC adopted a strategy that would turn it into a knowledge-based entity, powered by the collection and leveraging of data. This digital transformation approach puts cybersecurity front and center, in line with ADDA requirements.

As they began to move forward with their plans, ADSSC recognized that the effectiveness of its security systems’ implementation was not aligned with its enterprise goals. The complexity of these operations made real-time troubleshooting challenging. In addition, they were dealing with the management of multiple vendors. This led to solutions that were costly, both in terms of finance and manpower. System performance was also impacted and the lack of an open ecosystem that was easily visualized, monitored, managed, and extended meant that ADSSC had to reexamine its entire security function in order to make dramatic changes.

“Because of our ambitions to undergo a digital transformation combined with the complexity of our infrastructure, we determined that we needed to look at cybersecurity from the ground up,” says Al Hamed. “It was vital to select a system that aligned with our digital transformation goals, and deliver to our team’s broad and deep visibility of every part of our operations. With our previous cybersecurity vendor, we lost the commitment and support to meet our requirements. This was partly because of a change in their management team. That is when we began to look for other solutions in the market.”

WHY TREND

After evaluating a range of vendors, ADSSC chose Trend Micro for their ability to deliver “more value and cost efficiency”. Procurement stakeholders were drawn to Trend Micro solutions’ single-console view, effectively simplifying ADSSC’s overall security posture.

“Trend Micro was able to enhance our current setup by consolidating technologies to improve troubleshooting and performance, including the provision of sandboxing,” says Al Hamed.

SOLUTION

ADSSC selected Trend Micro Apex One, Trend Micro ScanMail Suite for Microsoft Exchange, and Trend Micro Deep Discovery Analyzer to protect its digital infrastructure.

Through Trend Micro Apex One, the organization is now able to detect, investigate, and respond to threats within a single agent, eliminating the legacy model of multiple vendors and views.

“We took a significant leap forward with the Trend Micro solution. Our visibility of our infrastructure, data, and apps was critical to us. Now we are in control,” says Al Hamed.

ScanMail Suite for Microsoft Exchange uses the latest industry intelligence to stop targeted email attacks and spear phishing and Deep Discovery Analyzer actively hunts for other targeted attacks by implementing cross-generational detection techniques. Custom sandboxing capabilities in Deep Discovery add another layer of protection, making it more difficult for an attacker to gain a foothold.

RESULTS

ADSSC instantly saw changes once Trend Micro solutions were implemented. They saw improved visibility responsible for delivering enhanced abilities across the security team. A consolidated solution from a single trusted partner, paired with tools that allow threat hunters to see the entire infrastructure at a glance, led to effective real-time identification of vulnerabilities and more effective action when countering these threats.

Al Hamed’s team can now focus on dealing with more complex problems while automating mundane tasks, leading to greater resource optimization. In addition, financial costs are also reduced through simplified subscription-style payment options made possible by Trend Micro solutions. System performance has also improved and ADSSC now operates an open ecosystem that can be more easily managed and extended.

“With Trend Micro’s solution, we were even able to scan connected storages, and with a single console that allowed us to manage everything together at a single point— that was key for us. The Trend Micro team really understood our digital ambitions,” says Al Hamed.

Al Hamed also saw value added by the deep analysis capabilities of the solution, including its ability to track multiple URLs simultaneously and easily identify suspicious processes via sandboxing.

“My team tells me that these capabilities are a huge benefit over our legacy system. We also found the implementation process to be very smooth and experienced no challenges before, during, or since. This is because of the great support we got from the Trend Micro team,” says Al Hamed.

WHAT'S NEXT

Abu Dhabi Sewerage Services Company envisions a cloud-only environment for future operations, including supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and operational technology (OT) systems for its industrial-automation needs.

“We have a goal to move completely to the cloud and strengthen our security at the same time. Our recent work with Trend Micro will greatly accelerate our efforts,” says Al Hamed.