Navigating to a secure future
TomTom’s global team of software developers work nonstop across 23 countries to innovate tomorrow’s location technology – from rich, real-time maps (TomTom Orbis Maps) and software-defined vehicles to autonomous driving and electric vehicle routing.
However, many of these developers and other staff, often working remotely, were connecting to the corporate network and cloud resources via a legacy virtual private network (VPN). This created the following challenges:
- Old-school connectivity: Traffic was backhauled to the data centre with inherent performance and reliability issues downstream.
- Fragmented security protection: The legacy VPN architecture created defensive gaps, leaving cloud and internet-facing applications exposed to modern threats. Without real-time, automated protection and rapid patching, critical data remained vulnerable to sophisticated exploits.
- Poor performance: Backhauling traffic diminished performance and user experience, reducing productivity. For example, users in India might be inefficiently routed via the London data centre.
- Complex management: The complex VPN environment required two people’s time be dedicated to managing connections and service quality. Complexity also led to a high volume of help desk tickets.
“Globally collaborative mapping innovation is the bedrock to TomTom’s growth. However, security, performance, and user experience were all at risk from our previous connectivity platform. We needed a modern platform to seize the opportunities that lie ahead in location technology.”
- Ramune Saltyte-Creanga
Engineering Manager, TomTom
Cybersecurity is the flywheel powering business growth
TomTom deployed Prisma Access from Palo Alto Networks to protect its 3,000 developers and other staff – and apps, data, and devices – worldwide. The modern, agile technology takes TomTom into a new dimension in terms of security, user experience, and simplified operations.
“We use AI every day in our mapping platforms, and we want to leverage it in our security too. Prisma Access is the fast-track to this adaptive, AI-powered security and development-led growth,” says Ramune Saltyte-Creanga, Engineering Manager, TomTom.
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Keeps proprietary data proprietary
This forward-thinking strategy safeguards sensitive customer data and proprietary information, providing the development team and other staff with comprehensive protection against accidental or malicious data exposure to sophisticated cyberthreats.
“There’s no limit to where our developers can work. Secure data speeds map development, whether it’s helping to bring fully autonomous driving to reality or saving precious seconds in emergencies,” says Onur Yirmibesoglu, Cloud Network and Security Architect, TomTom.
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Increases business agility
It’s not just the developers who can work faster and smarter now. The security team is more agile too. Security alerts have reduced by 70% with Prisma Access, and TomTom has reduced the number of people involved in security connectivity administration by half, enabling employees to focus on strategic value-add security tasks.
Users can now connect to the network twice as fast as with the previous VPN tool. Users from new business acquisitions – and business partners – can also be integrated into the network 100% faster.
“Everything was manual before. Now, almost all the day-to-day security admin is automated. That makes a huge difference to our productivity,” says Onur.
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Reduces operational costs
Prisma Access is also lowering overheads. For example, the volume of user tickets associated with connectivity has dropped by 95%. Previously, there were approximately 20 helpdesk calls each week associated with the VPN, and now there might be only one or two.
“Prisma Access handles our security monitoring, alerts, upgrades, and more. It’s like having a self-driving car,” says Onur.
In time, TomTom plans to use Autonomous Digital Experience Management to monitor the entire digital experience.
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Live in just two months
TomTom went live globally on Prisma Access in just two months – partly because of the close collaboration with Palo Alto Networks Professional Services and Customer Success.
“We don’t pretend to know everything about security, but the Palo Alto Networks people do. The Professional Services and Customer Success teams brought huge value to this deployment, adding features, extra security, and user experience enhancements at every step,” says Onur.
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