PLDT protects 71 million users with Gigamon


Gigamon, the leading deep observability company, provides the Philippines' largest telecommunications company, PLDT, and its 71 million users, with secure and uninterrupted internet and telecom services.

Deep observability refers to the capability of monitoring and analyzing a network's various layers, protocols, and data sources to gain a comprehensive and detailed understanding of its behavior and performance. It is crucial in protecting networks as it enables security teams to detect and respond to threats more quickly and better understand the root cause of network issues. By having deeper Visibility into network traffic, security teams can identify and isolate malicious activity, mitigate potential data breaches, and reduce the risk of system downtime. Additionally, deep observability can provide valuable insights into network performance, allowing organizations to optimize their infrastructure and improve the user experience.

PLDT recognized the need to gain 100 percent visibility into its large and highly decentralized environment, with 400,000 assets scattered across the Philippines and beyond, including maintaining compliance with multiple regulations requiring uninterrupted and secure services.

Angel Redoble, chief information security officer (CISO) for PLDT Group and its subsidiary SMART, says: "Having deep observability into our infrastructure has always been the foundation of our cybersecurity strategy – we cannot protect something that is not visible.

"While the team considered other solutions, we found Gigamon most suitable to our needs. What we can see, we can secure, enabling us to do a better job of protecting and securing our users and services while achieving sustainable revenue growth."

Other benefits include Visibility into all traffic traversing the network layer, securing and delivering uninterrupted internet and telecom services, and ultimately enabling sustainable revenue growth.

PLDT has multiple regulators, under whose scope the company must continuously secure and protect its infrastructure to prevent service interruptions. Redoble says, "Gigamon has reduced the organization's risks to the lowest level possible, thanks to its ability to provide us with deep observability into our infrastructure."

He added, "Gigamon technology is playing an important role in keeping our community protected. Our customers have my word as the CISO of the biggest telecommunications company in the Philippines. We very much appreciate this valuable partnership."

The Solution

To achieve pervasive Visibility, Redoble and his team deployed network test, terminal, or traffic access point, or TAPs and aggregators across its entire infrastructure, along with GigaVUE H Series and GigaVUE-FM. The network TAP technology provides access to the traffic required to secure, monitor, and manage the network infrastructure continuously and efficiently.

Angel Redoble, chief information security officer (CISO) for PLDT Group and its subsidiary SMART, says: "Having deep observability into our infrastructure has always been the foundation of our cybersecurity strategy – we cannot protect something that is not visible.

GigaVUE-FM fabric manager provides an intuitive web-based centralized interface to configure, manage, and operate the visibility nodes across multiple locations through a single pane of glass. This provides us with comprehensive traffic and security intelligence at scale. GigaVUE H Series provides Visibility for active and passive security as well as network and application monitoring.

"You can't secure what you can't see, and you can't respond if you don't know what's going on across your infrastructure or what could be lurking in your network," affirms Redoble.

The Benefits

"With the Gigamon solution becoming part of our environment, we now have 100 percent visibility across all our assets and infrastructure," says Redoble.

He explains: "Visibility and security are synonymous and are directly tied to our revenue growth. This deep observability allows us to look into all network traffic to assure security and compliance, enabling us to protect better and secure our users and services so that we can focus on the sustainable growth of our revenue."

Another key benefit is the ability to provide continuous service to our customers. This is important from a customer service standpoint and fulfills a critical government regulation with which the organization must comply.

Gigamon's deep observability solutions provide PLDT with the visibility and management capabilities it needs to ensure the security and performance of its network infrastructure while also providing valuable insights into network behavior and performance.