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Entreda Introduces Unify for Financial Advisors to Automate it Security and Compliance

Submitted by Technology Tools for Today on October 1st, 2014


Delivers enterprise-class security, peace of mind and the flexibility to work from anywhere

Entreda announced the availability of its Unify for Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) service platform. Developed specifically to meet the needs of financial advisors, Unify for RIAs provides the highest standards of security to protect client information and assets while greatly reducing the time and effort needed to achieve technology compliance.

The platform offers the advantages of the latest technology including the flexibility to work securely from anywhere.  Unify for RIAs analyzes and monitors the servers, computers and tablets investment advisors use in their businesses in order to verify enforcement of security best practices, including compliance with a comprehensive checklist that conforms to FINRA and SEC technology guidelines.

Because of risks of malicious software including theft, fraud, system crashes and identity theft, financial advisors are required to comply with security guidelines from SEC, FINRA and state securities regulatory agencies. In a recent study, 48% of financial advisors indicated that compliance rules and regulations are the most difficult things they have to deal with. This was followed by technology issues (14% of respondents). Meeting compliance obligations can be complicated, but using technology to address the problem can make the job a lot easier.

“Unify is unique in its ability to consolidate and automate security and compliance rule verification for investment advisory firms,” said Daxs Stadjuhar, Managing Director at THE Financial Services NETWORK, an enterprise branch office affiliated with one of the largest independent broker-dealers in the country. “It simplifies the IT interface and reduces the burden for our advisors who would otherwise need to manually check their systems to confirm that they are complying with our firm’s branch office security policy.”

“With Entreda’s Unify platform, financial advisors get a secure technology foundation, essential software applications, and ready access to IT and compliance expertise,” said Sid Yenamandra, CEO and co-founder at Entreda. “Most of all, they gain confidence in their technology and peace of mind knowing that they are doing everything necessary to secure client information and assets.”

Technology Developed Specifically for Small Businesses
The Unify platform is based on a patent pending architecture that enables rule-based analytics, IT workflow management, centralized service policy management, extensible service provisioning, and comprehensive alerts and system log management. The benefits of this architecture are IT service and compliance automation, enterprise-grade security, a plug and play deployment model, anywhere or anytime access, service extensibility, and single-pane-of-glass management for financial advisors or their service partners such as compliance managers and IT auditors serving them.

Services Included as Part of Unify for RIAs
Unify for RIAs adapts to any configuration and office workflow. With the rise of mobile devices, financial advisers increasingly need the ability to work at any time, or from any location. Some routinely travel to meet with clients, others want to work from home, and most would like the ability to securely access client data and files from any location. Unify’s Basic Compliance app runs on each of the RIA’s computers, laptops and tablets, which are in turn monitored by Entreda’s Unify cloud-based service.

Unify for RIAs offers a number of additional applications that protect financial advisors while they work online from on any device, anytime. For example, while WiFi is widely available, it is not always secured to the WPA2 standard that is required for compliance. Unify’s Cloud VPN makes any WiFi secure by creating a virtual private network (VPN) that encrypts all data exchanged between the financial advisor’s device and Entreda’s secure VPN server gateway in the cloud.

When traveling or working outside the office, a financial advisor may need access to computers, files, printers, fax machines or other online resources that are only available in the office. Unify’s Remote Desktop application gives them secure remote access to their office resources from their mobile devices including laptops, tablets and phones.

Perhaps the weakest link in online security is the password. Since most financial advisors have dozens of passwords, it would be nearly impossible to memorized them all and difficult to keep track of them securely. To ease the burden of password security and compliance, Entreda integrated a popular open-source password manager with Unify for RIAs.

In addition to the need to protect data from malicious intent, data must also be protected against accidental loss and equipment failures using the practice of routine data backups. Unify’s Backup application supports full copies of data and incremental updates which can be saved locally to another disk at the financial advisor’s office or to cloud storage, or to multiple locations for additional security. The Unify Cloud Disaster Recovery application allows advisors to quickly and easily recover and restore data.

One of the most frequently requested applications is online file storage and file sharing similar to Dropbox. Unify’s soon to be released Udrive cloud-based disk storage application will provide secure access to client files from any location while meeting regulatory requirements for data retention.

Pricing
The Basic Compliance plan starts at $30 per device per month, non-inclusive of any group discounts. Benefits accrue as additional services are added. With every new service added, advisors get the added advantage of remote analysis and monitoring service for better serviceability and maintainability.

About Entreda
Entreda provides secure, affordable and easy to use enterprise-grade infrastructure technology, applications and services to small businesses and branch offices—streamlining and future-proofing their operations while giving them a competitive edge. Unlike solutions cobbled together from insecure and non-compliant consumer-grade technologies, Entreda’s Unify service platform consolidates a broad spectrum of must-have applications —from networking to security to failsafe backup/recovery and more— in a single cloud-managed, monitored and supported service. Entreda was founded in 2011 and is led by experienced executives with a team of seasoned networking, storage and security experts. The company is funded by Crestlight Ventures and several successful Silicon Valley angel investors and is headquartered in San Mateo, California. For more information, visit www.entreda.com.

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