Anastasiya Novikava
Copywriter
Anastasiya believes cybersecurity should be easy to understand. She is particularly interested in studying nation-state cyber-attacks. Outside of work, she enjoys history, 1930s screwball comedies, and Eurodance music.
Founded in 1997, Distilled emerged as a pioneering real estate platform designed to simplify the property search for buyers in Ireland. Over the years, the company expanded through acquisitions and partnerships, such as Daft.ie, DoneDeal.ie and Adverts.ie, and became part of the international group, Adevinta. Today, Distilled focuses on managing these major brands within Ireland, offering comprehensive real estate and classified advertisement services.
Being established in the 90s means that the technological stack is based on bespoke applications not fully compatible with all types of modern security platforms. The dedicated team had to manually configure, maintain, and upgrade the company’s physical infrastructure whether it was holidays, weekends, or after-hours. Transitioning to a modern company mindset, Distilled had to change its approach — IT Operations Manager Joe O'Brien shared how it happened.
The challenge
Complex infrastructure support for remote teams
As the global pandemic shifted work from office to home, Distilled faced significant challenges with their legacy applications, which were accessible only through an office IP address.
When COVID hit, employees were scattered across the country. To access our internal systems, we were using our office VPN to provide our users secure IP access —that's what we've been using for the last couple of years.
This setup granted employees access to essential systems, enabling productivity across dispersed locations. However, working with legacy applications required extra labor to support them, expanding the work scope for the IT team.
There's a lot of infrastructure which we have to maintain: local internet, firewalls, access servers and connections between our office to remote locations. Infrastructure was too complex, had too many fail points, and was not designed as a full-time solution for all employees working remotely.
The situation called for a revision of the existing technology stack. It was necessary to exchange complex applications with solutions that are easy to use and don’t require hands-on presence. These changes enabled remote teams to access the company network securely.
The solution
Focus on a simple and secure solution
Distilled turned to NordLayer to address their connectivity and security challenges. By implementing NordLayer's dedicated server option, the company secured a fixed IP address, simplifying remote access without the need for complex and unreliable VPN setups.
We looked into a solution that was simple and guaranteed a fixed IP address for all of our employees. We could then use that IP as one of the security checks on our systems to grant remote workers access. NordLayer checked all the boxes I had in mind.
The integration with Distilled’s Identity and Access Management solution ensured that only company-managed devices could access these systems, enhancing overall security.
Integration with our IAM system allowed us to quickly onboard all staff, utilising 2FA access to NordLayer from company-managed devices, and assign a fixed IP address as a secure configuration.
Distilled has a layered security strategy, one of which is based on fixed IP addresses to confirm and control user access. This way the IT team can coordinate permissions, manage employee accounts, and ensure that the company network is under a sufficient security layer.
Moreover, the company settled for 2 dedicated servers so they can rest assured that if the primary server goes down or is overloaded, the backup server will help maintain service levels unimpacted.
Why choose NordLayer
NordLayer was selected for its simplicity, reliability, and ease of integration. Unlike other solutions that required additional infrastructure, NordLayer offered a straightforward, out-of-the-box solution.
The internal infrastructure team maintains and manages the application systems, while the IT team looks after the access security, ensuring that our employees get into the network with ease. NordLayer takes the complexity away from providing our end users with these services.
It allowed the IT team at Distilled to deploy a secure access system in minutes, significantly reducing the administrative overhead associated with managing traditional VPN solutions.
A hardware-free solution to securely connect to the company network
Distilled was looking for an easy way to give all their end users a single fixed IP address for the whole company. Other systems they looked at required adding additional infrastructure into their offices, which the team had to manage themselves. With NordLayer, it's all included.
The outcome
Removing the complexity for the user and IT team
The adoption of NordLayer has led to a more flexible and secure remote working environment at Distilled. Employees now enjoy seamless access to critical applications without the hassles of a traditional VPN.
The setup from a client perspective was very easy: download the app, click on the SSO login button to and you are in.
The solution has proven reliable, with no significant downtime reported, allowing the IT team to focus on more strategic tasks rather than maintaining complex network infrastructures.
NordLayer saved so much time and it takes so much pressure off our small IT team. VPN support was needed outside of normal working hours. Previously, any time our VPN would drop, someone needed to go to the site to fix the issue. Now that we have NordLayer, it just works all the time.
Moreover, the IT Operations Manager got a lot of positive feedback from users that the app runs in the background, it doesn’t interfere with their work and he himself has nothing to worry about.
Pro cybersecurity tips
In cybersecurity, you have to know the drill. How to practise security, prevent data breaches, and stay out of the bad actors' radar. To achieve it you don’t have to climb mountains, just be cautious and aware. Here are some tips on how Joe O’Brien, Distilled IT Operations Manager, practices security on a daily basis and you are welcome to join these activities.
Through strategic use of technology and a focus on security, Distilled has not only adapted to remote work challenges but has also positioned itself as a leader in using cybersecurity solutions to enhance business operations.
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