nOps helps 6Connex achieve ISO-27001 compliance, Reduce AWS cloud cost by 50%

Overview

Founded in 2011, 6Connex is a global software and services provider for enterprise virtual events. Their cloud-based product portfolio includes virtual environments, learning management, and webinars. Designed for marketing, sales, recruitment, training, and HR communications, 6Connex has helped many leading brands increase the effectiveness of their online programs by driving revenue growth, saving money, and increasing employee productivity. To learn more

Customer Challenges / The Opportunity

6Connex knows that when their prospective customers are selecting a virtual event and environment software platform provider, an important factor is compliance with state, federal, and international security and privacy laws. This is critical because the provider will be collecting the personal information of event attendees. 6Connnex’s customers include leading B2B and B2C enterprise brands, so security needs to pass the most stringent enterprise IT review.

Therefore, 6Connex sought to enhance the control and monitoring of their infrastructure security for continuous compliance with best practices of the AWS Well-Architected Framework, in support of the ISO-27001 information security management system standards. This was a bold step in accelerating their sales process.

“We asked for help in meeting the ISO security standard and were delighted that nOps delivered dramatic cost savings as well.”

Marc Goodell, EVP, Environments & Infrastructure, 6Connex

Solution

6Connex was introduced to nOps cloud management for AWS during an AWS Well-Architected Review. nOps provided fast, automated discovery of gaps in their infrastructure’s compliance with Well-Architected guidelines that could be addressed quickly. The Review revealed opportunities for enhanced security, cost optimization, performance efficiency, reliability, and operational excellence.
Based on the actionable recommendations of the Review, 6Connex now uses nOps on an ongoing basis to:
Continuously monitor and provide real-time notifications of security risks and non-compliance with best practices (such as lifecycle, MFA, and password policies).

• Dynamically identify publicly accessible resources, open ports, and protocols (such as resources with unrestricted incoming SSH traffic or inactive keys).
• Notify 6Connex if any unplanned operational events in their workload occur so that they can quickly take action.
• Ensure reliability by monitoring AWS account service limits.
• nOps has helped 6Connex meet ISO requirements by proving how they:
• Build and maintain their AWS infrastructure, consistent with best practices of the AWS Well-Architected Framework.
• Monitor, analyze, and manage AWS security.
• Track users, and review permissions.
• Support risk management.

Plus, nOps’ change reports provide a vital audit trail with visibility into who is making changes, who is using what—and at what cost. It enables 6Connex to right-size their infrastructure to ensure that cloud costs are in control. nOps’ visibility into CPU utilization patterns (Amazon EC2, Amazon RDS) helps them retire or re-engineer the existing servers. By eliminating unused and underutilized resources, 6Connex has reduced their cloud costs by 50%.

“The [ISO] auditors are all about ‘show me.’ It is so powerful having nOps to help us respond instantly.”

Marc Goodell, EVP, Environments & Infrastructure, 6Connex