>> Live from Las Vegas it's theCUBE covering Fortinet Acclerate 18. Brought to you by Fortinet. (upbeat techno music) >> Welcome back to theCUBE's continuing coverage of Fortinet's Accelerate 2018. I'm Lisa Martin joined by my cohost, Peter Burris. And we're excited to be joined by a Fortinet customer, Troy Miller the Director of Technical Resources from Clark County School District. Troy welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you. >> Lisa: So, you're local. You're in the Vegas area. Tell us a little bit about Clark County, I noticed some impressive numbers of size, and about your role. >> Clark County School District we service about 320,000 students a day, 41,000 employees. It's the entire county which, last I heard, was about the size of Rhode Island. So, basically, that's geographically large as well. My role in the district as Director of Technical Resources. We bring in 80 gigs of internet each day for all those people to consume. And we're responsible for the Edge security. So, we don't get down to the desktop yet but we just make sure they have a successful and reliable internet. >> So, 320,000 students and 41,000 employees. How many devices is that connecting to the network? Or do you have any idea? >> Even ones that were just district-owned might be closer to 420,000 probably, if you count all the labs. And then another everyone brings in their own one or two or three devices with them. Their phone, their iPad, their laptop. So, there's not an exact count but I'm guessing well over 450,000 probably. >> And you've been with Clark Country for awhile and you've been in education for awhile. Talk to us about the technology evolution that you've seen take place. The opportunities that that gives educators and students we well as the opportunities that it provides on the security side that you have to combat. >> Yeah, a long time ago, I've taught for four years from, I think it was '93 to '97, and I got into the department I'm in now. But back then it was one computer that a teacher didn't know how to use and rarely turned on to now they're using, whether it be smart boards, giving out iPads, Chromebooks, and so on. Every kid's connected and it's important. We're now a Google school district. So, Google Classroom using Google sites and so on. And so, it's important. And the evolution of that is just that when you have a reliable internet, and so Fortinet has definitely increased our stature in that. Day to day instruction can take place, not interrupt them. Cause if they lose their internet for two minutes we've deprived these students for all kinds of education. It's important and now everything is reliant upon it. Even our student management system, our ERP. All that stuff is now, some hosted internationally some hosted externally. So, security is a very important part of that. >> And when you think about the role that you play, you have a specific role within the school district. How does the ability to use a Fortinet-like product inside your role impact your ability to collaborate and coordinate with others in the school district to make sure that everything is running seamlessly? >> Yeah, that's important is that for us using the Fortinets that we have, it was important to be able to get better insight. I'm excited about the stuff in the conference this year to really improve upon that. But to be able to properly secure those say VPN connections going out to outside services or to better serve the students in the schools or other business transactions that take place. So, it's important on that. And then we can see if something's starting to break down somewhat where to go. And again, our district's pretty separated. It's siloed a bit. And so, it's important we know which department to go to if we're seeing issues with certain things. >> Now, local government's are notoriously difficult to work with for some technology vendors. How has it been for Clark County working with members of the Fortinet ecosystem. Because security is obviously an increasingly important feature of, well, virtually everything, but including local municipalities. >> Right. And Fortinet's been awesome. We worked with them through our managed service proprietor, Mosaic451. So, when we moved towards Fortinet just a year and a half ago, that made it a very seamless move because they had the expertise that we didn't at the time. We were brand new to the Fortinet platform. They brought in people from all over to help out with that to either install it, to set up the policies and so on. So, yeah, working with municipalities is difficult. Working for one's even more difficult. But Fortinet has made that very easy. >> What was the catalyst for bringing on Fortinet in terms of some of the challenges that you guys have with your firewalls? Was their any sort of one event or type of events that really catalyzed, hey, we're got to transform here? >> Yeah, there was a series of events actually. About a year and a half ago, we were undergoing about daily one hour, two hour DDoS attacks, fragmented UDP attacks. And our previous firewall vendors they couldn't, one they couldn't diagnose it. And two even once they did, it couldn't handle it. We were basically firewalling our firewall with our EdgeRouter. And so, that was when I said something has got to change. And that's when I contacted Mosaic451 and said, I need help. I can't be doing this every day cause the staff, obviously, were upset. And so was I. And so, Fortinet actually back then, our first involvement with Fortinet, they sent out two chassis and said, "Here. Try them out. See if this will stop the attack. We think it will." And we got them going within a few days and sure enough, it did. And so that told me I needed to make a move. It took, obviously, some budget trapeze acts to get that done. But within six months we were then on Fortinet. And again, once we got the equipment back everyone was able to help out and get us set up. We're unique in what we had and moving our policies and so on. So, they've been integral in that. >> So, impact perspective. It sounds like you went from these daily DDoS attacks to zero? >> Troy: Yeah. >> In how short of a time period? >> They stopped on their own beginning of January of that year. But we haven't had one at all since then. Or we've had small ones but the Fortinets handled them without a problem. They barely bumped them, you know. >> So, pretty big impact there that you've been able to make? >> Yeah, we went from-- >> Lisa: Pretty quickly. >> Yeah, yeah it was six months before we finally made the Fortinet decision. And we were fortunate we didn't have to go through an RFP process on that. Because that would have taken forever, and I didn't want to do that. And so, I already said we did our RFP. This one doesn't work. We know this other one doesn't work. So, guess what's left? So, that's the way we ended up with Fortinet. And I said we're very happy with them so far. >> In terms of some of the announcements that they have made today, around utilizing AI technology. They've also talked about their Fabric-Ready Partner Program. You've talked about a partner there. What are some of the things that excite you about what you've heard from them today? Does that give you reassurance that not only did we make the right decision but this is something that's going to help us as we evolve and as security threats naturally evolve and grow as well that you feel like you have a good foundation on the security side. >> Yeah, precisely. I'm very excited from what I saw. And you know, there's things, education, especially in this state, is extremely underfunded. So, I'd love to go out and just say, "Oh, I'd like to buy this. I'd like to buy that." We're up and running with the security fabric. And I'm excited about it. But what I'm really excited is the opportunity to grow. We can really assume some progress with that. And so, while I can't take full advantage of it or even go to the FortiOS 6 probably anytime soon. But we will be able to start laying the groundwork, and I can plan out to start filling off those check boxes in that security fabric, and start providing a better more secure internet for what I'm responsible for, what I can consume. >> So, education like everything else is changing. What are the set of options that become more available to you to Clark County School District as a consequence of bringing in a new security fabric that's capable of accommodating a little more complexity, a little bit more automation? >> Well, yes, a little bit of all that. For us, what I'm excited about with the Fortinet is that one, we've got something robust that's going to last us for five to seven years. Those will last even beyond our 80 gigs we're using now if we need to go beyond that before I retire. But the exciting part of that is, like I said, by adding in those different security fabric pieces I think we'll be able to improve bit by bit. And I know while they're going to improve them even more by the time we finally get there. So, that's exciting. >> You talked about ... I'd like you to elaborate a little bit more on your organization. It sounds, I don't want to say fragmented, but there's different centers. How has, I should say, what you guys have been able to achieve by bringing Fortinet in in terms of we talked about this dramatic reduction or elimination of DDoS. Are you able to leverage that as sort of a best practice within the school district. Do you see opportunities that this Fortinet partnership can have for you in that respect? >> It gives us some validity. It shows that it did make a difference. We didn't just spend some money on it no reason. Yeah, because of its being siloed, what the Fortinets will give us now is we can know exactly which department to send certain tickets to. What we see whether it's to be malware or something pinging out that shouldn't. We can better address where it's coming from and what to do with it. And again, Mosaic is our sock. So, working with them, working with Fortinet we've been able to improve our response to minor incidents as they happen. >> Are there other natural issues that the County of Las Vegas deals with that makes Fortinet especially relevant? I mean, obviously, great distances. But you know, you've got large mountains surrounding here. It's a very dry environment. Are you finding that there's just things about the location that makes Fortinet that much better choice? >> I don't really think environmental ... Pretty much what makes this the best choice is not really where we are but just what we do. Like I said, the internet comes to us, and then we kind of spray it out from there. And so, that availability and reliability is what's important. Sort of where we are doesn't quite matter. But it is the ability to be able to service the customers. >> So, we kind of look at the security transformation that you're on. You've talked to us about some of the achievements that you've made so far in the first year. What are some of things throughout the rest of 2018 that your looking forward to enabling your environment with your Fortinet partnership? >> Some of the things I'm excited about there is, like you had mentioned before the AI part of that. That I'm really excited to hopefully implement. That just takes some ... I can use the eyes I have. I only have four security people basically for that organization. Two of them from Mosaic, two of my own people. And so, if I can have those people addressing bigger concerns than malware or stuff like that. And VAI can better handle that, so instead of digging through logs, we can just, there it is, block it or it's already blocked. That would save us. And I could use that talent for more serious items. We already completed our Edge redesign the networks. Now, we're not redundant on that. We're working on our internal network. So, if we can spend more time making those things more robust to then take advantage of the security fabric as we're able to take advantage of it then that's all the better. >> In most enterprises, there's a partnership that has to be established between security architecture, security operations, the business, and especially the employees. Employees have to take an active roll to successfully do security. Kids and schools are not necessarily well known for having consistent behaviors. How has that affected your environment? And what can enterprises learn as they think about having to serve increasingly unruly customers in their markets? >> Yeah, that's one of the things I'm just starting to dip my toe in to plan for next year is more of an education for it but then holding them accountable for that education. Yeah, I don't know which is worse, the teachers or the students. (Peter laughs) I'm guessing the teachers. (Lisa laughs) They'll click on anything they see. So, it's important to educate them first before I start rolling out some efficient testing on them and so on. But we have to start doing that because otherwise it doesn't matter if something comes in or they get it off their tablet. Now, they've infected the internal and it didn't even get to us, right? And so, it's important that education is important. We're going to start trying to hold them accountable for it. But that's a huge challenge where I'm at. That's like climbing Everest there. >> So, is Fortinet going to help? I think it will. Fortinet's going to be able to help for us to be able to have that insight on what's still working, what's not. We're still seeing these things. >> And also recognizing patterns and seeing what people tend to do wrong will probably help you pinpoint what you need to, that partnership. What the user needs to take more responsibility for. >> Right and that's the thing. It better identifies those issues. You see where they've improved or what still needs to be worked on. >> Peter: Great. >> Well, congratulation on what you've achieved so far. >> Oh, thank you. >> And thank you so much for sharing your success story with us. You're on a journey, and we wish you continuing success with that. >> Thank you. >> For my cohost, Peter Burris, I'm Lisa Martin. You've been watching theCUBE's coverage of Fortinet Accelerate 2018. We'll be right back after a short break. (upbeat techno music)