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level system on the same screen, for ex- ample. They currently toggle between the environments by using a KVM switch that lets them control multiple comput- ers from one keyboard, video monitor and mouse.
The new technology gives them “a single pane of glass, without the use of the KVM switching device,” Ponn said. On the same monitor, they can work with applications that are hosted on the FBI’s secret network while being able to see the entire virtual desktop of their unclassified network, “interacting with both of them simultaneously in a secure and controlled fashion. It is their desk- top as they view it from the unclassified side displayed in a container on their ex- isting Windows desktop for their secret desktop.”
To collapse the unclassified network into the secret one, Forcepoint is work- ing with Dell to make use of virtual desktop infrastructure and deploying a Forcepoint Trusted Thin Client, devel- oped about a decade ago for the intel- ligence and defense communities. The solution also includes Trusted Print De- livery to route printing jobs to secure, secret-level devices.
“The users are accessing their virtual desktops in the cloud on the unclassi- fied network, and they’re printing to a printer that is closely located to them — same office space, for example — but resides on the FBI secret network,” Ponn said.
The main goal of the consolidation is cost savings, but security and produc- tivity will benefit, too. For instance, the money saved will go toward making the secret-level infrastructure more robust, said Michelle Youngers, director of fed- eral sales at Forcepoint.
“By collapsing that network infra- structure, it allowed them to effectively take the savings from that and increase the network infrastructure on the secret fabric to provide a better service deliv- ery to their end users,” Youngers said. “And at FBI, it’s all about the end-user community and service to the agents
“If they’re working at the secret level, they can monitor what’s going on at the unclassified level at the same time, where they didn’t have the capability before.”
and analysts who are in the field.” Additionally, moving easily between unclassified and secret environments on the same screen will let employees work faster, said George Kamis, CTO for gov-
ernment markets at Forcepoint.
“The capabilities that we give them with accessing the unclassified network and resources from their secret work- station allow them to go between two different security domains quickly to get access to information,” Kamis said. “So not only is it IT efficiencies, it’s work ef- ficiencies. If they’re working at the se- cret level, they can monitor what’s going on at the unclassified level at the same time, where they didn’t have the capa-
bility before.”
The new setup will also benefit the
– GEORGE KAMIS, FORCEPOINT
FBI’s large number of mobile employees. “It allows them to go to different offices without having to be restricted to go to their own desktop machine to access their day-to-day workload,” Youngers said. “That’s a huge game changer in providing value to the field.”
The effort is being released in phases so that the FBI doesn’t have to replace everything at 800 sites at once. Ponn said the process is adhering to the FBI’s internal testing and evaluation pro- gram. As of now, Forcepoint has met all the agency’s critical milestones for the project and has begun deploying the solution to the data center. A pilot proj- ect to bring on more users and monitor performance is scheduled to start in the second quarter of 2016. •
GCN JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016 • GCN.COM 31
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