Author Archives: Megan Carnes

CHALLENGE

The college had less than two weeks to prevent mission-critical systems from going dark during a planned 48-hour power outage due to campus construction. If the web servers went down, summer-session students would not be able to do their online coursework, register for classes, check grades, update financial information or request transcripts, and faculty email and online recruiting would stop. The current disaster recovery service was too slow for requirements, and the college needed to upgrade to a faster recovery time to limit as much downtime as possible.

SOLUTION

The college worked with Thrive to implement a new disaster recovery service in just 12 days, with no loss of service. Thrive deployed Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS), which would provide virtually no data loss, and cost less than increasing the recovery speed of the college’s current provider. Using technology from VMware, the Thrive team helped the college IT team virtualize their physical web servers and set up shadow servers in a Virtual Private Cloud.

RESULT

The college switched to the new DR system without interruption of service on a Friday night and then switched back to primary servers on the following Monday morning, again without interruption. In the future, if the college’s main servers ever go down, it can switch to shadow servers in just a few minutes via a single button. The college now has the proper protections in place for any event, including power outages, loss of internet connectivity, fire and weather events.

How can Thrive help your business?

Thrive is a leading provider of outsourced IT Infrastructure designed to drive business outcomes by helping you get the most out of your IT.

To learn more about our services, CONTACT US

Welcome back to another installment of our “Thrive Spotlight” blog series.

Our featured Thrive employee is Chris Moore, VP of Solutions Architecture.

Chris works with the sales team and prospective customers to determine how Thrive can bring our managed services to fill gaps or solve challenges technically or within their business. This support can span from traditional IT to Cybersecurity or Disaster Recovery. In addition to bringing new logos and customers to Thrive, he manages a growing team of five staff members.

He spent 20 years living in Boston, but now calls Sarasota, Florida, home. In his spare time, you’ll find him on the water, enjoying boating, fishing and the beach life.

Hi Chris! Can you tell us about your background and how you came to Thrive?

I’ve actually worked for Thrive twice. Fun fact – I was employee number 36 when I was at Thrive. From 2004 to 2008, I started with Thrive as a field engineer and moved up to managing other engineers and then running the consulting practice. I left after Staples acquired Thrive and held a number of IT operations leadership positions at a few different companies. Then, seven years ago, CEO Rob Stephenson wooed me back to Thrive. I jumped at the chance to return to this great company which has grown tremendously from when I was here before.

Where did you go to school or get training?

I earned a restaurant resort management degree from Colorado State University, but I only dabbled in the hospitality industry right after college. My true passion is in the technology and security industry.

What do you most enjoy about working for Thrive?

The people, the people, the people. We’re a big company but we still feel small because everyone is dedicated to doing the best job possible and working together as a team.

Any recent exciting projects at Thrive that you can tell us about?

It’s exciting that we can offer customers both MSP and MSSP services under one roof. Most customers go to multiple vendors to access both services, but with Thrive you can use one amazing team to get the job done.

The geographic expansion that’s happening is also game changing. We can provide services locally to a much larger set of customers. Even though we offer 24/7 remote support, customers enjoy working with our team that’s more regional to where they are physically sitting.

We service companies with multiple geographic locations and Thrive service are delivered globally.

Are you interested in learning more about Thrive? Click here!

And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for the latest news, and continue checking our blog for more in our “Thrive Employee Spotlight” series. Until next time…

Thrive is committed to helping its partners leverage our technical expertise with our NextGen managed services. Our best-in-class channel partners are invited to access our evolving Education Platform featuring a technical curriculum that enables our team to expand the application of business-critical knowledge and experience across Thrive’s NextGen IT offerings. The curriculum is specifically focused on Cybersecurity, Cloud and Microsoft Collaboration.

Our comprehensive Partner Certification Program was developed by Thrive’s Consulting, Solutions Architecture and sales teams to help partners grow their business and achieve innovation goals by building competence and confidence in their technical abilities.

What do Thrive’s Partner Certifications Cover?

Thrive’s Partner Certifications are filled with high-level and technical training while guiding meaningful sales conversations with your customers that position each product/service.

Our certification courses include on-demand and in-depth training on our products, services and topics that impact your customers. Each training module will contain an educational video from a Thrive Subject Matter Expert (SME). When the lessons are completed, partners will answer a series of questions to assess their knowledge of a subject area/topic.

Once you earn your certification, show the world you mean business! Grow your career and your business by adding industry-recognized badges to your LinkedIn profile.

Thrive’s vCISO Partner Certification – Now Available!

We are pleased to offer Thrive’s Virtual Chief Information Security (vCISO) certification that enables partners to strategically help businesses fill the gap between strategy and security operations.

Thrive’s vCISO services are scalable and economical, providing information security program development for small to mid-sized businesses. This value-driven model also offers more traditional, full-service vCISO capabilities for mature organizations with stringent security regulatory or compliance obligations.

Thrive’s vCISO Partner Certification provides details on:

• How Thrive’s vCISO experts design, develop and maintain your customized Information Security Program.
• How Thrive’s vCISO leverages ISACA’s Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) Knowledge Domains (and associated Tasks) to determine what types of activities the vCISO will be responsible for.
• How to position Thrive’s vCISO services and features to provide peace of mind for customers as we meet your regulatory, audit, compliance and security obligations. Some of the competitive advantages covered in the training include:
  • Security Experts: With decades of experience protecting mission-critical infrastructure, Thrive’s Security Operations Centers (SOCs) are staffed by Certified Information Systems Security Professionals (CISSPs).
  • Flexible Solutions: You can create an unbundled managed service tailored to your exact needs, incorporating leading technology from Fortinet, Microsoft, Cisco, Mimecast, Arctic Wolf, Sophos, Tenable, and more.
  • SOC Monitoring: Threats never rest, and neither do we. For businesses around the world, Thrive’s 24×7 SOCs monitor core critical infrastructure and security threats.

About Thrive’s Partner Program

Our mission is to provide our valued customers with Enterprise-class solutions by partnering with leading technology vendors. Thrive tests all vendors to ensure they combine the best attributes of their technology sector with the cost efficiency and performance that our customers expect.

Click https://go.thrivenetworks.com/thrive-certification-program to get your Thrive vCISO Partner Certification today. Sign up to get notified about the next partner training.

Welcome back to another installment of our “Thrive Spotlight” blog series.

In honor of National Engineers Week, which runs through February 25, we want to recognize two of Thrive’s expert engineers who work on opposite ends of the world from one another.

Edward Gries is a Thrive Senior Systems Administrator transitioning to a virtual Chief Information Officer (vCIO) to advise Thrive clients on technology strategy and leadership to optimize their business technology needs and management.

Artur Wasilewski is a Project Engineer specializing in network equipment and deployments with low-level designs (LLD) designed specifically for each Thrive client.

Edward lives in Sarasota, Florida. When he’s not helping Thrive clients, you’ll find him soaking up some fun in the Sunshine State in his spare time. He enjoys running, cycling and visiting National Parks with his family.

Artur lives in Gdansk, Poland. He likes to travel throughout Poland to discover some of the country’s hidden gems. When he’s at home, he enjoys helping his wife in the garden, being outdoors with his four kids, or diving into a fantasy book/audiobook.

Can you tell us about your background and how you came to Thrive?

Edward: I started my career at a help desk supporting people with their computer issues. I was promoted to Engineer, where I solved more advanced computer, software and network problems. Later, I learned how to design and build computer networks, servers and firewalls. After being promoted to Senior Engineer, I worked on more advanced network and server projects, trained junior engineers and assisted clients by solving their business challenges with the right technology tools. I came to Thrive as part of the SouthTech acquisition in 2022 and have enjoyed the new opportunities and experiences in a large company that is an industry leader in Cloud and Cybersecurity.

Artur: I was initially part of the ONI team based in the UK Luton Office. I spent more than six years with the company, where I started as a senior TAC engineer and progressed into the project team, which I always wanted to do. After Brexit, I decided to return to Poland. During the pandemic, remote working opportunities accelerated and I served as a project engineer to support in-demand remote workforce IT initiatives. I joined the Thrive family as part of the ONI acquisition in 2021.

Where did you go to school or get training?

Edward: I graduated from Miami University with a bachelor’s degree and then completed a certification program in Information Technology from University of South Florida. I have received multiple technical certifications, including MCSE, VCP and CISSP.

Artur: I was born in Warsaw and stayed close to home to further my education. While at Łazarski Univesity, I signed up for Cisco Networking Academy, which made me realize that networking was my destiny instead of commerce. I got my degree in foreign trade and, while doing so, secured an entry-level networking CCNA certificate in 2002.

What do you most enjoy about working for Thrive?

Edward: The best part about Thrive is that the company shows how it values its employees by providing an array of customized career paths and opportunities in a leading large market MSP. At Thrive, every employee can tap into their true potential and design their career in a supportive environment.

Artur: It’s an exciting time at Thrive due to the company’s rapid growth through several acquisitions. Thrive’s accelerated expansion has afforded new and extraordinary opportunities for developing innovative projects involving a growing diverse client base and new technologies. In addition, expanding to a multi-vendor approach has set Thrive apart in the marketplace.

Any recent exciting projects at Thrive that you can tell us about?

Edward: Recently, I helped convert two customers from an on-premise file server environment to a fully Cloud environment utilizing Microsoft SharePoint. It’s rewarding to help companies find solutions that enable competitive advantages through digital transformation with efficiency and security.

Artur: I recently completed an exciting project that debuted in the UK involving Fortinet’s FortiGate firewalls. The complex and cutting-edge design involved a complex migration from a checkpoint firewall setup in several sites, including Microsoft Azure Cloud.

 Are you interested in learning more about Thrive? Click here!

And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for the latest news, and continue checking our blog for more in our “Thrive Employee Spotlight” series. Until next time…

Thrive’s Rapid U.K. Expansion

Over the past two years, there has been a steady drumbeat of Thrive acquiring U.K. companies to expand its NextGen award-winning IT, Cybersecurity, Cloud, Collaboration and Business Continuity portfolio and operations in the international market. Here’s a timeline to demonstrate Thrive’s aggressive acceleration of expansion overseas.

• In June 2021, Thrive started its international expansion by acquiring ONI, a leading U.K. Cloud, hybrid managed IT, Cisco Gold Partner and data center services provider based in Luton, Bedfordshire, England. Thrive deepened its NextGen portfolio and infrastructure in the U.K. by adding its robust Microsoft and Cybersecurity capabilities to the ONI Cisco WAN, Unified Communications and Cloud services.
• In June 2022, Thrive acquired Connecticut-based Edge Technology Group, a leading global technology advisory and fully-managed IT service provider for alternative investment managers. The acquisition added new global offices and data centers across the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines, strengthening Thrive’s international presence for all customers. Edge clients, including hedge funds, private equity firms, family offices, and asset managers worldwide, now benefit from Thrive’s next-generation managed Cybersecurity, collaboration and Cloud services.
• In November 2022, Thrive acquired Custard Technical Services, a leading U.K. IT support company based in Nottingham, England, that specializes in managed services in the East Midlands and surrounding areas. The acquisition enables Custard clients, including manufacturers, charities, and insurance groups, to benefit from Thrive’s next-generation managed cybersecurity, Cloud services and automation platform.

Thrive’s Strong U.K. Footprint Benefits U.S. Businesses

While Thrive has rapidly grown its footprint in the U.K., it is helping other businesses do the same by leveraging its secure and efficient IT technology and proven services.

The U.K. is ranked as one of the best locations for businesses looking to expand internationally. Thrive’s expertise and 200+ seat workforce in the U.K. helps U.S. companies leap across the pond to expand international operations or fully manage their established U.K. locations.

Here are some benefits Thrive offers U.S. businesses looking to expand to the U.K. and Europe.

1. Acquire global talent With more than 200 people working in Thrive’s U.K. locations, U.S. businesses can tap into the global knowledge and expertise in NextGen technology, digital transformation, Cloud and Cybersecurity managed services in abundant international hubs.
2. Reduce costs Global expansion is often more cost-efficient than a local/national expansion. Bypass the extra costs of managing NextGen technology for your business by leveraging Thrive’s innovative technology and infrastructure already successfully operating in the U.K. With Thrive, you can reduce CapEx spending, meet stringent compliance thresholds, and gain the benefits of advanced security threat detection without requiring specialised security staff or costly dedicated hardware.
3. Become more resilient Business operations can suffer negative events localized to the U.S. A downturn in sales for one country can be balanced with an uptick in revenue in another part of the world. Data backup and security are essential, along with a Disaster Recovery Plan. Thrive has you covered to keep your business overseas uninterrupted.
4. Experience advanced Cybersecurity As business systems grow in complexity, there is an increased risk of vulnerabilities, exploits and security breaches. Thrive’s comprehensive Cybersecurity solutions protect your business, uncover and mitigate risks and meet stringent regulatory requirements. Our security-first Cloud approach is flexible and economical, provides specific, actionable information and is backed by a 24x7x365 Security Operations Center.
5. Expand globally for growth opportunities Discover opportunities for your product or service around the world. With comprehensive IT services, organisations can focus more on their business. From moving to the Cloud to ensuring remote employees have access to their applications, Thrive works with a quick turnaround time to deliver value and solutions.
6. Enhanced compliance benefits Some overseas locations may have compliance regulations that are different or more favorable to your company. Thrive’s experts can help your organisation gain agility without sacrificing safety or compromising compliance. Thrive performs a risk assessment and provides strategic IT consulting services to ensure fully-customisable IT, digital transformation, Cybersecurity and Cloud plans are designed, executed and managed.

Contact our team today for more information about expanding your business in the U.K.

We spoke with Chip Gibbons, CISO at managed services firm Thrive, to discover mitigation plans post-outage. Here are the highlights:

• Planning is imperative for companies of all sizes – Many businesses can leverage a comprehensive data backup and recovery plan with relative ease. Larger organizations might require more details to be addressed, specifically how systems are to be recovered, as well as applications and working conditions. However, certain aspects of data recovery always need to be addressed, such as understanding how a backup system works, who is in charge of it, what the responsible recovery point objective (RPO) is, and the amount of data you need to back up. This can dramatically reduce the time it takes to get back in business following a disaster to help you meet your specified recovery time objective (RTO).
• Routine testing of DR strategies – Testing is a must, but it can interfere with your business operations and potentially even cut into productivity. Whenever systems are tested, IT teams will be bound to find something wrong with the DR strategy and would have to adapt it over time as you address these issues. If these issues are appropriately addressed during the testing phase, organizations will have a better chance when they need to truly utilize a DR strategy.
• Remember that IT infrastructure is governed by people – So a DR strategy must take human behavior into account. For example, if a company’s location is compromised by a disaster, organizations need to check if they can get employees to access the data they need to effectively do their jobs.

In this podcast episode, Multimedia Editor at SD Times Jakub Lewkowicz talks about how to track your business’s cybersecurity preparedness and where to get started with improvements.

His guest is Dave Sampson, vice president of consulting services and cybersecurity expert at Thrive, a nextgen, managed MSP and MSSP cyber services provider.

Chip Gibbons, CISO at Thrive, sits down with Dave to talk about how to defend against social engineering attacks in banking. Dave starts us off this week with a story about Amazon opening up its selling market to Pakistani residents, and what consequences that led to for the organization’s business. Joe’s story follows a scam targeting soldiers in the Army. The Army warns against unknown individuals purporting to be noncommissioned officers that are calling said soldiers and asking them for money to fix a “pay problem” and, if questioned, threatening them with a punishment. Our catch of the day comes from listener Manie who writes in about a scam found when trying to download a HDRI (High Dynamic Range Image). The scam involves a fake ad asking for people’s cell phone numbers as soon as they click on a button that reads “download here”. Manie shares how after she clicked the ad, she realized the mistake and immediately researched more before proceeding further.