Executive Summary: “We have the capability to build anything within our AWS environment, but managing VPNs isn’t our core business. NordLayer’s streamlined approach aligned perfectly with our operational goals—far better than native AWS tools.”
ID-Pal is an industry-leading, AI-driven identity verification platform utilized by regulated individuals and businesses in over 190 countries. Delivering comprehensive anti-money laundering (AML) screening, the 80-person enterprise embraces a hybrid and remote work model, with hubs in Dublin, London, New York, Columbus, and Lisbon.
Security is the foundation of ID-Pal’s operations and a primary driver behind their partnership with NordLayer. Achieving ISO 27001 certification was an early milestone for the company, supporting their unique competitive advantage: they are the only identity verification provider that maintains zero access to customer data.
Seeking to protect its global, distributed workforce without getting bogged down by tedious manual administration, ID-Pal transitioned to NordLayer. We sat down with Robert O’Farrell, ID-Pal’s CTO and co-founder, to discuss the operational hurdles NordLayer eliminated and the transformative results they achieved.
The Challenge: High DevOps Overhead and Manual Security Roadblocks
Prior to adopting NordLayer, ID-Pal managed access to its AWS infrastructure through highly manual processes. The DevOps team was tasked with maintaining allowlists containing over 50 distinct IP addresses scattered across dozens of infrastructure components.
Because every environment required separate management, a simple change—like an IP address update or a staff onboarding/offboarding—meant duplicating access rules across multiple systems. Eventually, ID-Pal hit the AWS security group limit, forcing them to spin up additional groups and maintain even more lists.
This decentralized, fragmented approach became a massive time sink for the DevOps team. It also elevated the risk of inconsistent access rules, overlooked updates, and active access lingering after an employee’s departure.
As O’Farrell points out, this manual strategy was never intended to be permanent. It was initially deployed as a stopgap to thwart automated cyberattacks targeting their non-production environments.
“Threat actors were actively probing for vulnerabilities that might exist in our production or non-production environments. We spotted the activity and locked it down the same day, but managing it manually became a massive operational bottleneck.”
ID-Pal quickly realized they needed a purpose-built security solution to centralize access, eliminate repetitive IP updates, and unburden their DevOps engineers. NordLayer proved to be the perfect fit.
The Solution: Why ID-Pal Chose NordLayer
While O’Farrell was personally familiar with Nord Security through his long-term use of NordVPN, he ensured his team conducted an objective evaluation of various B2B security vendors.
“We evaluated AWS’s native VPN solution as well. But when it came down to ease of deployment and ongoing maintenance, NordLayer was the obvious winner. It was clear it would save us a tremendous amount of time.”
Rigorous security due diligence was another non-negotiable factor. Because of their ISO 27001 status, ID-Pal adheres to strict vendor assessments. NordLayer passed with flying colors:
“NordLayer excelled during our due diligence. It demanded very little manual configuration, integrated seamlessly with our existing infrastructure, and was incredibly easy to roll out to the staff. Today, our entire technology department relies on it.”
The Impact: Transformative Benefits for ID-Pal
Benefit 1: Saving 40 Hours a Month Through Centralized IP Management
As a heavy AWS user, ID-Pal’s DevOps team previously juggled over 50 individual IPs across the AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF) and various security groups—accommodating both internal staff and integrated third-party platforms.
Maintaining duplicated rules across multiple environments was costing the company 40 hours of IT administration per month—roughly 25% of a full-time DevOps engineer’s capacity. By implementing NordLayer’s virtual private gateways and dedicated IP addresses, ID-Pal retired their manual IP tracking, slashed their administrative workload, and drastically minimized the risk of human error during provisioning.
Benefit 2: Intuitive Functionality and Consolidated Security
While their previous manual controls were secure, they were incredibly tedious to maintain. NordLayer’s centralized Control Panel changed the game, giving the DevOps team a single pane of glass to monitor user access across the organization.
“NordLayer’s configuration is beautifully intuitive. I don’t need to be an expert on the underlying mechanics. If I need two IP addresses for redundancy, I just specify that—and it’s done. With other platforms, you have to navigate dozens of convoluted settings, making it easy to miss critical security configurations.”
Benefit 3: Lightning-Fast Deployment and User Onboarding
ID-Pal kicked off with a 12-user pilot program involving QA developers, DevOps engineers, and the CTO. Following a flawless trial, they scaled the deployment to 36 active users across the entire technology team.
The rollout was incredibly swift. O’Farrell noted that the DevOps team configured AWS access within a week, and the complete rollout across all pre-production and non-production environments was finished in under two weeks—the exact length of a single agile sprint.
By the Numbers: ID-Pal’s Results
- ~40 hours saved per month: Reclaimed a quarter of a full-time DevOps engineer’s workload by automating IP updates.
- Streamlined Infrastructure: Consolidated 50+ scattered IPs into just 2 virtual private gateways using 4 dedicated IPs.
- Rapid Deployment: Achieved a complete NordLayer rollout in under two weeks.
- Frictionless Provisioning: Enabled instant onboarding and offboarding for staff.
- Smooth Scaling: Effortlessly expanded from 12 to 36 users within the tech department while reducing human error.
Pro Tips: Cybersecurity Advice from ID-Pal’s CTO
Robert O’Farrell offers actionable advice for leaders looking to fortify their business security:
- Start now, perfect later: “Implement your baseline controls immediately and iterate over time. You won’t anticipate every edge case, so don’t leave your business vulnerable while waiting for an illusion of perfection.”
- Adapt security to your workflow: “We operate on a collaborative model where everyone contributes to our management system. Instead of blindly enforcing rigid policies, we consult our team and mold security controls to fit their actual daily workflows.”
- Democratize the security process: “Rules dictated from an isolated IT silo are rarely followed. You can’t expect 100 employees to read a dense policy document and seamlessly apply it to their roles. You must involve them in the creation process.”
Conclusion
In less than two weeks, ID-Pal transformed a fragile, manual IP management process into a streamlined, highly secure infrastructure using NordLayer’s dedicated IPs. This transition allowed them to reclaim 40 hours of valuable engineering time every month, eliminate human error, and stay entirely focused on their mission: delivering top-tier identity verification with zero data access.
If managing VPNs and tracking IP addresses is distracting your team from driving your business forward, it’s time to upgrade. NordLayer is designed to remove that burden entirely.
About Nord Security
The web has become a chaotic space where safety and trust have been compromised by cybercrime and data protection issues. Therefore, our team has a global mission to shape a more trusted and peaceful online future for people everywhere.
About NordLayer
NordLayer is an adaptive network access security solution for modern businesses – from the world’s most trusted cybersecurity brand, Nord Security.
The web has become a chaotic space where safety and trust have been compromised by cybercrime and data protection issues. Therefore, our team has a global mission to shape a more trusted and peaceful online future for people everywhere.
About Version 2 Limited
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