Author Archives: Megan Carnes

‘It’s the wild, wild West in terms of managed services and managed security services,’ says CEO Rob Stephenson after his firm’s acquisition of U.K. firm Custard Technical Services.

Thrive, a premier provider of Cybersecurity and Digital Transformation Managed Services, announced today that it has 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 will enable clients of Custard, including manufacturers, charities, and insurance groups, to benefit from Thrive’s next-generation managed cybersecurity, Cloud services, and automation platform.

Thrive, a provider of cybersecurity and digital transformation managed services headquartered in Massachusetts, has purchased Custard Technical Services, an IT support company based in Nottingham, England and focused on managed services.

Thrive, a provider of cybersecurity and digital transformation managed services, has acquired Custard Technical Services, a U.K. IT support company, for an undisclosed sum.

Thrive, number 50 on the Channel Futures MSP 501 list, has acquired U.K.-based Custard Technical Services. Custard specializes in managed services in the East Midlands and surrounding areas. The acquisition is designed to allow clients of Custard to benefit from Thrive’s managed cybersecurity, cloud services, and automation platform.

The acquisition of the U.K. IT support services company will expand Thrive’s NextGen award-winning portfolio and operations in the international market

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – November 11, 2022 – Thrive, a premier provider of Cybersecurity and Digital Transformation Managed Services, announced today that it has 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 will enable clients of Custard, including manufacturers, charities, and insurance groups, to benefit from Thrive’s next-generation managed cybersecurity, Cloud services, and automation platform.

Founded in 1996, Custard Technical Services is comprised of a skilled technical team of specially trained experts to accomplish IT goals for organizations of various scopes and sectors. Known for their client dedication to service, Custard provides a comprehensive range of IT solutions including consultation, managed services, disaster recovery planning, IT security backup solutions, and ongoing software and hardware support and maintenance. Since its inception, Custard has helped clients become more dynamic and secure through innovative flexible IT solutions that elevate businesses to surpass IT goals.

“Custard is a customer-centric, no-nonsense IT support and security company that has an excellent track record of providing a superb IT experience to clients of all sizes for over two decades,” said Rob Stephenson, CEO of Thrive. “We’re excited to add Custard to our ever-expanding U.K. operations due to their incredible management team, dedicated employees and customers, as well as their attractive geographic location in Nottingham, which will open up the Birmingham, Manchester and Leicester markets for Thrive’s Managed Services & Cybersecurity offerings.”

“Custard has always been committed to delivering reliable and flexible high standards of IT services to go above and beyond the needs of the customer,” said Chris Pass, CEO and Co-Founder of Custard Technical Services. “We are excited to join Thrive’s global roster and believe that our proven track record and our top-tier talented professionals will be an excellent complement to expand Thrive’s extensive NextGen portfolio of solutions.”

Custard Technical Services is now the fifth acquisition by Thrive in 2022 and the second acquisition based outside of the U.S. since 2021, further strengthening Thrive’s global position as a leading technology provider delivering end-to-end managed services to drive secure digital transformation for small to mid-sized enterprises across multiple industries. For more information on Thrive, visit thrivenextgen.com.

About Thrive

Thrive is a leading provider of NextGen managed services designed to drive business outcomes through application enablement and optimization. The company’s Thrive5 Methodology utilizes a unique combination of its Application Performance Platform and strategic services to ensure each business application achieves peak performance, scale, uptime, and the highest level of security. For more information, thrivenextgen.com.

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About Custard Technical Services

Custard Technical Services is an award-winning IT support and security company that offers market-leading solutions to UK and international partners. The organisation is headquartered in Nottingham and London and has been assisting businesses with everything from IT infrastructure to disaster recovery planning for over two decades.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Patrick Reilly

Zer0 to 5ive for Thrive

patrick@0to5.com

732-687-4683

CHALLENGE

A medical device and IT company serving healthcare providers and OEMs did not
meet security standards and was at risk due to its unmanaged security tools and
a lack of investing in IT security. The organization was recently acquired and the
new owners required an immediate resolution to step up security operations and
adhere to CIS18 standards. As a result, the company searched for a cybersecurity
partner that was proven, trusted and recommended.

SOLUTION

The medical device and IT company selected Thrive for its healthcare industry
managed IT success, compliance expertise and deep portfolio of cybersecurity
solutions. The Thrive team performed a Cybersecurity Risk Assessment to identify
potential security risks. Next, Thrive’s experts quickly implemented Thrive’s
Managed Endpoint Security and Response service, the only endpoint protection
platform that delivers threat protection both pre-and post-infection in real-time.
Thrive also provided several additional cybersecurity solutions, including Managed
SIEM and SOC, Managed Patching and Vulnerability Scanning to ensure the
healthcare company was operating at optimal performance with fortified security
measures in place.

RESULT

As a result of Thrive’s robust suite of managed cybersecurity services and 24×7
technical support, the medical device and IT company rapidly experienced
significant improvements in securing its IT operations and network and protecting
sensitive patient and provider data. The company was pleased with Thrive’s fast
deployment of cybersecurity solutions and is planning to add more Thrive services
in the future.

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

Thrive CTO Michael Gray explains what it really takes to implement a zero-trust cybersecurity model across what has become highly distributed computing environments.

As zero-trust security gains traction, Thrive CTO Michael Gray underlined the importance of implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) as one of the key zero-trust principles for CISOs and recommends starting the journey with asset identification and management.

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

Our featured Thrive employee is Foster Hardie, Executive Vice President of Digital Platform Architecture.

Foster is a hands-on enterprise software veteran and the technical leader for the Thrive Digital Platform, powered by ServiceNow. He manages the architecture, development and administration of ServiceNow to customize it for our clients’ business purposes. Foster has gained industry recognition for his leadership in customizations and rollouts of ServiceNow’s IT Services Management (ITSM), Customer Service Management (CSM), Project Portfolio Management (PPM) and other modules in multi-domain MSP implementation.

Foster spent his early years in California and New England but now lives in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, just outside Charleston. He is always up for an outdoor adventure and enjoys tennis, fishing, boating, hiking, and literally long walks on the beach. Years ago, you might have even spotted him hang-gliding over Massachusetts! When Foster isn’t exploring the Great Outdoors, he’s devouring the latest headlines as a self-described political news junkie.

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

I’ve been in development and IT since the late 90s. In the early 2000s, I worked at a small IT shop where Thrive’s CTO and my boss, Mike Gray, was an intern for us. I moved on to hold several software leadership positions and had a consulting business. Mike and I kept in touch throughout the years, and he reached out to me for a new developer role; the rest is Thrive history! In 2008, I started as the Director of Software Engineering, and in 2020 was promoted to my current position.

Where did you go to school or get training?

You might be surprised to learn that I got a degree in philosophy and music from the University of Massachusetts in Boston. After graduation, I quickly learned that there aren’t many jobs in philosophy and music, so I dove into computers. I did a lot of self-training and went back to school, pursuing a degree from The Citadel in Technical Project Management. However, my learning hasn’t stopped there. I have since gained several industry certifications, including ServiceNow, Scrum Master, Project Management and Microsoft SQL.

What do you most enjoy about working for Thrive?

I enjoy that everybody I work with is committed to Thrive’s mission. Our team spirit is powerful, contagious and exciting as we grow the company by leaps and bounds. The people at Thrive aren’t just here for a job – they’re here for one another.

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…