Case Study: State Universities Retirement System of Illinois achieves heightened IBM i security and automated off-hours operations with Fortra

Benefits administrator heightens the security of its IBM i server and the efficiency of its operations with solutions from Bytware

The State Universities Retirement System of Illinois (SURS), which administers nearly $16 billion for 68 public employers, needed to improve operations and protect its IBM i environment. Administrators ran batch jobs overnight without staffing and accepted FTP files from PCs and other non-IBM i systems, creating a risk that viruses or unauthorized access could propagate from the Web partition to production and the wider network.

SURS deployed Bytware MessengerPlus to automate monitoring and notifications for lights‑out job management, StandGuard Anti‑Virus (McAfee engine) in both Web and production partitions to scan and remove threats, and StandGuard Network Security to lock down FTP, control access to objects and commands, and secure the replication port. The solutions were quick to install and easy to manage, eliminated the need for an overnight operator, improved detection and auditing, and delivered greater security and peace of mind.

State Universities Retirement System of Illinois

Tom Cagle

iSeries Administrator