One of the greatest challenges that schools face is making technology accessible to students, teachers and parents. Secure Portal™ can assist schools in ensuring that all students, teachers and parents have access to school learning environments from any location.
Secure Portal™ is a software and hardware system designed to give students and teachers access to their email, files and intranet from any computer with a web browser and internet connection. Users simply login to the system with a username and password to access their resources. From the users perspective it is as if they were working on the school network.
Secure Portal™ provides high level internet security without resorting to additional software. It is a solution that ensures network integrity whilst giving users the freedom to work in a familiar online environment that replicates their experience working within the network.
When users access the portal, data passes through the demilitarised zone to the Process Control Unit. The Process Control Unit requests data from the network on the users behalf, receives it, and then publishes it as HTML. This ensures that data cannot pass directly from the internet to the network, thus maintaining network integrity.
With support for Microsoft® Exchange Server and Microsoft Active Directory®, Secure Portal™ leverages your existing IT investment. The solution is scalable and upgradeable.
Ownership
Unlike other solutions on the market, Secure Portal is owned by the school. There are no recurring fees for hardware or software*.
Local Support
Secure Portal™ is developed in South Australia by Terra Electronics. This means you will be supported directly by the company that developed the Secure Portal™ system.
Cost of Ownership
Compared to VPN solutions, Secure Portal is very cost effective. IPSec VPNs have a high total cost of ownership due to help desk support to troubleshoot issues that students experience with their VPN connections. A recent study completed by a leading analyst firm and paid for by a VPN vendor estimated the support and help desk costs for only 15 tunnels to be over $55,000 per year.
| Ownership Cost Element | IPSEC VPN | Secure Portal | Key Differences |
Initial Capital |
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| Server-side | Firewall/VPN Appliance | Server, Firewall and licences | |
| Client-side | Assume no additional cost | n/a | |
Initial Deployment Expenses |
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| Server-side | Install VPN appliance and Firewall in Network | Install server and firewall | |
| Configure Authentication services | n/a | ||
| Set up authorisation rules | n/a | ||
| Set up user privileges | n/a | Secure Portal uses the MS active directory permissions | |
| Client side | Install Client VPN software | n/a | |
| Configure client VPN software (user and user support) | n/a | ||
Ongoing Support & Security |
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Server Side IT Support |
Install appliance “patches” Upgrade appliance software |
Install appliance “patches” Upgrade appliance software |
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| Client side | Re-install client software when user devices are replaced | n/a | |
| Troubleshoot problems | n/a | ||
Secure Portal™ includes
- Secure Portal™ software licences;
- Hardware from Hewlett-Packard & Watchguard®;
- Configuration for web services and file access for 600 concurrent users (upgradeable to 2000);
- 50 IPSec VPN Licenses - for special access
Optional Components
*Optional Components require regular upgrades to work effectively.
