USGS – WAF Research

Executive summary

USGS was interested in performing a study to evaluate AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF) as a centralized, enterprise scale WAF solution to replace more expensive Barracuda WAF and Sophos UTM products.

Our team conducted an in-depth discovery session to analyze the existing and project needs of USGS and provided a feasibility analysis of AWS WAF. Study included current capabilities as well as future roadmap.

Business Challenge / Problem Detail

USGS is currently using Barracuda WAF and Sophos UTM products to provide security to their users. USGS was interested in performing a study to evaluate AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF) as a centralized, enterprise scale WAF solution to replace more expensive Barracuda WAF and Sophos UTM products. Security and currently supported feature sets were of utmost importance even though the study was focused on cost reduction.

Output / Our Solution

Enquizit team conducted an in-depth discovery session to analyze the existing and project needs of USGS. These requirements were traced against AWS WAF’s current and future capabilities through a feasibility study. Our team provided recommendations along with current capabilities as well as future roadmap of AWS WAF

Enquizit Role

Our specific activities for the WAF engagement include:

Analyzed current WAF configurations in Barracuda and Sophos.

Provided a feasibility analysis of AWS WAF. Study included current capabilities as well as future roadmap.

Provided CloudFormation templates for standard WAF rules and CloudFront distributions.

Performed a walk through session to setup WAF for USGS.

Provided guidance for best practices and code samples.

Tooling (Tools and Technologies)

Cloud Formation, CDN, CloudFront, WAF, ELB

Expected Challenges

AWS WAF features in the short term roadmap were critical to USGS’ implementation.

Client:

US. Geological Survey (USGS)

The USGS Cloud Hosting Solutions (CHS) Virtual Data Center (VDC) provides a federally approved secure environment for data hosting, high-performance computer modeling, application research and development, and a testing platform where project owners can leverage centralized services.

Industry:

Government

Problem Statement

Goals and Benefits

To provide the USGS team with a turnkey WAF solution that will enable project owners throughout the USGS the ability to distribute their content in a secure, scalable and low cost manner.

Core Partners:

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

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