EarthLink, a global provider of IP access and network security products, recently announced that it has partnered with global fitness chain Gold's Gym to provide Gold's with Wi-Fi and network security for its 147 corporate locations. The agreement should, according to the report, allow the company to save more than 30 percent when compared with the cost of its previous network provider.
Bill Floyd, the CIO of Gold's Gym, is on record as saying that the new network has come to pass because of the flood of data security breaches that bombard the media. Indeed, breaches that have affected global enterprises have made their ways into headlines within TMC, and the exact value of a breach is reportedly difficult to determine because of the sliding cost of legal fees, lost opportunity costs, and everything else associated with such events.
At the least, Gold's Gym said the switch to EarthLink should provide its corporate centers with full PCI compliance that will help to protect the brand and its customers.
“With all of the data breaches in the media, our executive team is focused on protecting our members' security,” Floyd commented in the company announcement. “With EarthLink, we can provide a secure network for our company and secure Wi-Fi connectivity for our members in addition to addressing PCI compliance, further protecting the Gold's Gym brand and member experience. Once fully implemented, EarthLink's solution will save Gold's Gym approximately 30 percent over our previous providers, even though it includes more robust functionality and protection.”
The partnership will result in more than Wi-Fi provision to club members and staff. After the installation is complete, Gold's Gym will rely on EarthLink MPLS to route communications between applications that handle points of sale and management and corporate applications. Furthermore, as part of the PCI compliance mentioned above, the EarthLink suite of PCI Compliance Solutions services will handle the security of employee training applications, will handle security policies that determine file access permissions, and will consistently monitor the Gold's network for possible breaches. An EarthLink firewall will manage reports and analytics that will inform the reliability and uptime of the network as a whole.
The centralized infrastructure that EarthLink will provide could do more than save Gold's money on its network services. By managing the above network-based services from a single platform, EarthLink can also help Gold's to scale its network for future expansion and alleviate the hassle of dealing with multiple service providers that may not be able to communicate with each other to, for instance, complete network upgrades or solve network issues.
Edited by
Alisen Downey
