Case Study: University of Cambridge achieves stronger, centrally managed internet security with Fortinet

University of Cambridge - Customer Case Study

The University of Cambridge, with some 11,000 undergraduates, 5,500 postgraduates and 31 autonomous colleges, faced the challenge of protecting a large, federated IT environment in which responsibility for services is devolved to roughly 180 local departments. High‑profile disruptions such as nationwide DDoS incidents highlighted inconsistent security standards and the need for a centralised, cost‑effective solution that would protect email, intranet and research data while accommodating local autonomy.

Cambridge selected Fortinet’s suite — FortiGate Enterprise Firewall, FortiDDoS, FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer — to provide multi‑layered protection, centralised policy management and consolidated logging and alerts. The deployment improved DDoS detection and overall defenses, made provisioning and support easier, gave better visibility for long‑term planning, and enabled departments to manage their own firewall segments via VDOM; initial roll‑out covers 10 of 180 institutions with ongoing deployment planned.

University of Cambridge

Ashley Culver

Network Services Manager