Professional Services Firm
Achieves strategic growth goals with better cloud security
OVERVIEW
Operating out of Louisiana, this professional services firm provides accounting, insurance, audit, and IT consulting to small and large clients across a broad range of industries. Security is a top priority for the firm as it manages extremely sensitive financial data and personally identifiable information (PII).
Industry
Professional Services
Employees
- 50- 100
Region
United States, North America
IT Environment
Microsoft
Solutions
CHALLENGES
“When I joined the firm, I inherited an uneven distribution of security solutions,” says Mark Ligget, Director of IT Services. “There were multiple platforms, some overlapping. It was a challenge to manage, and untenable with a small staff. We needed to make a systemic change.”
The company recently migrated from on-premises systems to a hybrid cloud environment to enable better agility and allow the firm to innovate faster. That’s important as the company expands its business to offer IT consulting and looks to develop a managed service provider (MSP) offering. “We have an advantage because we don’t have the weight of early development to reengineer. We are in a good spot to innovate faster,” says Liggett.
With a goal to protect “any data, any device, anytime, anywhere,” Liggett searched for a solution that would bolster IT security and ensure compliance with strict and frequently evolving regulations.
WHY TREND
Liggett first considered whether the firm could stick with its three incumbent security solution providers. “That didn’t work because different things were protected. We needed a single security platform that could work in the cloud as well as on servers and endpoints,” Liggett explains.
“Trend Micro covers all the major requirements, including PCI compliance and cloud-based solutions. We really liked the SaaS offerings, which makes deployment and management easy.”
With better visibility I can see what’s out there. BEC, ransomware, and email protection all work extremely well. Cloud App Security pays for itself every time I send a report to management.
Mark Liggett
Director of IT Services,
Professional Services Firm
SOLUTION
The firm purchased Trend Micro Worry-Free Services endpoint protection to block ransomware and other targeted attacks. “Worry-Free Services provides the cloud-based endpoint protection I’m looking for,” Liggett notes.
The firm also uses Trend Micro Cloud App Security advanced threat and data protection for Microsoft 365, OneDrive, Gmail™, and cloud file-sharing services to extend protection beyond the perimeter. That’s particularly important in the wake of unprecedented events like COVID-19.
“Trend Micro Cloud App Security enables our remote workers to access their files securely through cloud applications like OneDrive and provides the IT team with greater confidence that key data is safe, especially during tax filing season. Had COVID-19 occurred before we started working with Trend Micro, I would’ve insisted everyone work via a VPN because I couldn’t guarantee security or compliance,” says Liggett.
“The rollout was simple and non-interruptive for users. Issues are quickly resolved, and I have confidence that my users are protected. I have everything I need to protect them without putting my hands on their keyboards.”
With Trend Micro, we’ve reduced the time spent dealing with phishing, spam and malicious emails by 90%, going from 10 hours to about an hour a week.
Mark Liggett
Director of IT Services,
Professional Services Firm
RESULTS
Better security from the cloud has been a key to helping the firm achieve its strategic growth goals of 5% to 10% per year. With Trend Micro blocking ransomware, targeted attacks, and ensuring that endpoints, inboxes, and client data are fully protected, the firm is focusing on growing the business and expanding its offerings.
“It’s hard to fight what you can’t see. Now, with better visibility I can see what’s out there. Business email compromise (BEC), ransomware, and email protection all work extremely well. Cloud App Security pays for itself every time I send a report to management.”
The most recent monthly report Liggett pulled included scans of over 175,000 emails. Those emails included 20 attempts to compromise business emails, 60 phishing attempts, and multiple malicious files. All of these have escaped Microsoft 365 basic security but none made it past Trend Micro’s detection and protection capabilities.
“Our response time for an end user that’s having issues is reduced to minutes, not hours. We don’t have to hunt around, do scans, or do any heavy lifting to figure out what’s going on. With Trend Micro, we’ve reduced the time spent dealing with phishing, spam and malicious emails by 90%, going from 10 hours to about an hour a week.” says Liggett.
WHAT'S NEXT
“COVID-19 has been a good lesson for us, and we’re fortunate that all our users have laptops and can work from home,” Liggett says. “I’m always looking to improve security coverage and visibility in the field, so Trend Micro™ Deep Security™ will be our next strategic investment to secure our hybrid cloud workloads.”
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