"OpenDNS allows us to easily block unwanted sites and provide a safer, more productive environment. It has a smart interface that provides granularity of control across multiple connections, and the statistics are easy to use and provide insight into our DNS traffic."
— Terrell Johnson , Network Administrator

The Need for Speed, and Content Filtering

Sunsweet Growers Inc. is the world's largest handler of dried tree fruits including cranberries, apricots and plums. A grower-owned marketing cooperative responsible for producing more than one-third of the dried plum market worldwide, Sunsweet Growers could not afford the interruptive and costly network outages it continually experienced, or the prospect of a successful phishing attempt victimizing one of its employees.  In conjunction with their Internet reliability and safety concerns, IT professionals there sought to create a more secure corporate network where inappropriate and distracting Web sites are not accessible. Evaluating an array of concerns, including the need for Web content filtering and an improved, more reliable network, Sunsweet Growers’ IT decision makers began looking at various solutions ranging in price.

Faster, More Secure Network, Fewer Support Calls

Sunsweet Growers Network Administrator Terrell Johnson spotted OpenDNS, noticing its claims to resolve not just one but all issues his team was addressing. He was especially interested in OpenDNS’ unique approach to adult site blocking – the service is powered by St. Bernard iGuard, the world’s only 100 percent human-reviewed adult site database. Johnson began testing OpenDNS straight away and quickly concluded OpenDNS was superior to other potential solutions he and his team had evaluated.

Sunsweet Growers deployed OpenDNS across its entire network, switching from the DNS service the company previously got from its ISP, and using it as its primary Web content filtering solution. OpenDNS has proven to be the ideal solution for Sunsweet Growers, boosting network reliability, making employees more productive and reducing the number of support calls received by the IT department. Johnson also raves that OpenDNS, requiring no hardware to purchase and nothing to download and install, has given him insight into DNS activity and trends on his network he had never before had.