Progress® Flowmon® Protects update texware from Cyberattacks

The update texware company has been serving hundreds of partners for 45 years and is well respected when it comes to software in the textile industry.

The company’s ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system, texware/CS, is the foundation for their entire textile value chain – from the yarn production phase to the wholesale phase (Sheep to Shop). Thousands of users work with update texware’s ERP system every day to monitor and manage (among other things), the weaving, knitting and finishing of their textile products. In addition, update texware’s software is used broadly by clothing wholesalers and retailers.

Progress OpenEdge, an enterprise application development platform, serves as the foundation for texware/CS, and over the course of several years, Progress and update texware have built a trusting partnership.

Constantly working to improve its software and increase customer usability, update texware often collaborates with IT experts from other companies on topics such as cybersecurity. Based on the rapidly growing number of Hacker attacks worldwide, update texware sought to conduct a thorough evaluation of its own Cybersecurity strategy.

“We were – and are – very confident in our overall security infrastructure. There’s nothing to complain about,” sums up Dr. Michael Schiffmann, CEO of update texware. “However, we desired higher levels of network visibility.”

Protective measures have been in operation for years: In addition to the mandatory firewall, update texware has also deployed server- and client-side security platforms to provide the highest levels of security. Building on that commitment to security, update texware sought to up-level its security posture even further by bringing on a Network Detection and Response (NDR) platform.

As update texware evaluated NDR options, the mid-sized company had limited budget and IT resources, requiring the need to offer automated monitoring, with low maintenance requirements. Further, the solution needed to ingest and monitor data from a variety of resources, such as Microsoft Exchange servers and cloud-based solutions from other manufacturers.

Thanks to the years of collaboration with Progress and the positive experience with OpenEdge, update texware decided to deploy Flowmon’s network detection and response solution. With Flowmon, update texware is able to pinpoint the root cause of network problems, benefit from complete network visibility and spot security threats with ease, based on its sophisticated AI engine.

The practical implementation ultimately took place in two phases: a test phase and the live system rollout phase.

The aim of the Flowmon test phase, which was intensively supported by Progress, was to provide update texware visibility into important features and functions of the NDR solution and use them correctly to configure, with engineers from both companies collaborating on the implementation.

“The test phase and commissioning of Flowmon were unproblematic,” says Thomas Reinhardt, software developer and system administrator at update texware. “That worked since we clearly defined one use case. The more clearly the business case is outlined, the better resources you can use plan and the easier it is to implement it in practice.”