Kustomer Replaces its Hardware VPN with Cloud-Based Remote Access

Kustomer checks all their network security boxes by replacing their outdated VPN with a more scalable secure network access solution with Perimeter 81.

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Since we have a small IT team, Perimeter 81 is really the most valuable solution for me and the entire company. Knowing that every employee is securely accessing our system and resources while using Perimeter 81 makes my job a whole lot easier.

Maks Suski

IT Manager of Kustomer

The Company

Kustomer is the customer service CRM platform helping contact centers and businesses reimagine service and support in today’s customer-first world. Kustomer enables personalized, efficient and effortless customer and agent experiences by delivering unprecedented views of a customer’s history, facilitating continuous omnichannel conversations and using intelligence to automate repetitive tasks and surface knowledge.

Headquartered in New York City with an additional office branch in Durham North Carolina, Kustomer has approximately 200 employees based across the U.S. and Spain.

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Industry:

Computer Software

Location:

New York, NY

Employe5055es:

50-200

Customer since:

2020

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Solution Highlights

Saved hours of time previously spent on VPN requests and configurations

Deployed secure gateways worldwide in just a few minutes

Quickly achieved HIPAA, SOC 2 and GDPR compliance requirements

The Challenge

When COVID-19 forced everyone to work from home, Kustomer saw its entire workforce move away from their usual offices to working remotely. COVID-19 presented a unique situation for Kustomer. For the majority of the employees, it was the first time they worked remotely and enabling secure remote access became a top priority. “At the time, we were using a hardware VPN which was extremely slow and presented more cons than pros,” shared Maks Suski, Kustomer’s IT Manager. “Furthermore, the VPN limited how much we could support my colleagues as it wasn’t cloud-based and it was physically located at our headquarters.”

This new situation of working from anywhere required Kustomer to rethink its secure remote access solution. Its hardware-based, site-centric VPN was difficult to scale, configure and manage off-site. Furthermore, it did not provide essential network visibility. “There was a lot of manual work involved and lack of network visibility. I had to do one-on-one Zoom calls where I would manually set up the VPN for our employees. Additionally, I couldn’t track who connected and from where. The VPN didn’t provide concrete information on who was logged in, it just provided an IP address.”

These challenges and issues were the catalysts for Kustomer to look elsewhere for a different secure remote access solution for their workforce.

Why Perimeter 81

After dealing with different hardware VPNs over the years, Kustomer started their search for an alternative solution. The key components for making the decision were pricing, flexibility and accessibility.

Kustomer decided to go with Perimeter 81 for its flexible pricing and instant gateway deployment. “With Perimeter 81 the pricing was upfront and it was very easy to get my company on board. From the pricing to demoing the product, the entire process was very easy and enjoyable for me. The Perimeter 81 team was very straightforward and basically got rid of all of my roadblocks right away.”

As Kustomer works with different types of customers with its software, they were seeking a solution that would offer the opportunity for compliance. “We are HIPAA, SOC 2 and GDPR compliant, we were looking for a secure access solution that offered compliance. After looking around, we felt Perimeter 81 had the best all-in-one package for our compliance requirements. There’s nothing more that I like than checking a box and saying we’re compliant and no need to worry about it.”

The Results:

Quicker Gateway Deployment

One of the key selling points for Kustomer when deciding to implement the Perimeter 81 solution was the opportunity of quick gateway deployment.
“The best feature so far has been the ability to deploy gateways, we were able to roll out a gateway relatively close to our employees in just a few minutes. Having the ability to roll out an entire office with access to internal resources in just minutes is the best thing I can ask for.”

Every company loves to see a quick deployment timeframe when implementing a new solution to its environment. This was especially true with Kustomer’s experience when delivering the Perimeter 81 solution to its workforce.
“Initially we tested out Perimeter 81 with 10 users over a two-week period,” once the testing period was completed we deployed the solution to the entire company on the same day.

Time and Cost Savings

When IT managers are looking for an ideal network solution, they factor in how much time will this solution save them. In Kustomer’s case, they have been extremely happy with the amount of time and money saved since implementing the Perimeter 81 solution in place of their previous hardware VPN.

“Before implementing the Perimeter 81 solution, I would have to do video calls with each employee on how to configure the VPN on their device. With Perimeter 81, I don’t have to deal with those calls anymore or hours of VPN requests, and now I have more time to do other things in my workday.”

So far Perimeter 81 has been the right solution for Kustomer’s secure network access needs. “For the price we are paying, we feel Perimeter 81 is doing a great job to provide Kustomer’s employees secure network access while working remotely. Overall, Perimeter 81 checked all the boxes I was looking for when replacing our VPN and we are thrilled to be using the solution.”