Case Study: Force India Formula One Team

Force India operates in an industry in which any technological edge must be fiercely safeguarded. With staff continuously moving between competing teams, and industrial espionage a very real threat, IT security systems and policies have to be watertight. Head of IT, Adrian Collinson, explains "In F1 the only policy one can adopt is to trust no one; that's why we ensure that any route through which data can be extracted is fully covered with the highest level of protection".

However critical security may be, it cannot compromise operations. "Engine and chassis telemetry has to be monitored in real time" explains Collinson, "If the engineers cannot see that the engine is operating within very strict parameters it simply can't race, and that's that. In that sense, the performance of the team is only as good as the performance of the computers on the day".

"Before moving to AVG, we were using one of the major brands. Quite apart from the complexity of setting it up, the overhead it demanded was way beyond what it was delivering in terms of security. We were getting viruses creeping through and paying top dollar for the privilege."