Author Archives: Sydney Pujadas

A strong cybersecurity posture is not optional for mid-sized businesses. Cyber threats continue to evolve, with attacks becoming more sophisticated, targeted, and costly year after year — and increasingly likely to target midsized companies. For companies that want to protect their data, maintain customer trust, and comply with regulatory requirements, building a strong cybersecurity posture is critical.

Ransomware Remains a Top Threat

Ransomware attacks are becoming more frequent and complex. Mid-sized organizations are often targeted because they typically lack the advanced defenses of larger enterprises. Implementing robust backup strategies, endpoint protection, and continuous monitoring is essential to minimize risk and ensure business continuity.

Zero Trust Security Models Are Essential

Traditional perimeter-based security is no longer enough for businesses. Adopting zero trust architectures, which verify every user and device before granting access to sensitive data, is trending. This approach reduces the risk of breaches and limits the potential impact of insider threats.

Cloud Security Must Be a Priority

As more companies adopt cloud and multi-cloud environments, cloud security is critical. Securing data in the cloud requires a combination of access management, encryption, continuous monitoring, and compliance controls. Businesses that ignore cloud security risk exposure to both cyberattacks and regulatory penalties.

Employee Training Reduces Human Risk

Humans are often the weakest link in cybersecurity. Mid-sized businesses can significantly reduce risk through ongoing employee awareness programs and simulated phishing tests. Educated teams are less likely to fall for scams or inadvertently expose sensitive information.

Automation and AI Strengthen Defenses

Automation and AI-driven tools are transforming cybersecurity. From threat detection to automated incident response, AI helps mid-market businesses respond faster and more effectively. Leveraging these tools allows IT teams to focus on strategic initiatives while maintaining strong defenses against evolving threats.

Compliance and Cyber Insurance Are Interconnected

Regulatory compliance and cyber insurance are increasingly linked. Meeting standards like HIPAA, CMMC, and GDPR not only protects sensitive data but also impacts insurance eligibility and premiums. Mid-market businesses that prioritize compliance will be better positioned to reduce risk and secure coverage.

How Thrive Helps

Cybersecurity can feel overwhelming, especially for mid-sized organizations with limited IT resources. Thrive provides outsourced cybersecurity services, monitoring, and managed security operations, helping businesses protect their data, maintain compliance, and respond to threats effectively. Contact Thrive today to learn more about how we combine expert guidance with advanced technology.

Cloud computing continues to transform how mid-sized businesses operate, innovate, and compete. Looking ahead to 2026, several trends are going beyond traditional cloud adoption and optimization. These changes reflect deeper integration of AI, governance, security, and data strategy into cloud environments, areas that technology leaders must prioritize to stay agile and resilient.

1. Cloud Platforms Become AI-Driven and Autonomous

In 2026, cloud platforms will increasingly embed agentic AI, which refers to autonomous systems that not only process data but also perform tasks, optimize workflows, and orchestrate services with minimal human intervention. Cloud environments are evolving from infrastructure into intelligent platforms that actively manage operations. To succeed, organizations must ensure these systems operate within clear guardrails aligned to business intent.

2. Governance and Guardrails Move to the Forefront

As AI and automation expand inside the cloud, governance becomes critical. Mid-market businesses will place greater emphasis on providing visibility, accountability, and control across cloud workloads and AI-driven processes. Governance frameworks will help organizations manage risk, enforce compliance requirements, and maintain confidence as cloud environments grow more complex.

3. Data Management and Trust Become Strategic Differentiators

Data quality, lineage, and access controls will determine how effectively organizations can leverage analytics and AI. Cloud-native tools that automate data governance and monitoring will help mid-market businesses reduce operational friction while ensuring insights are accurate, timely, and secure.

4. Cloud Security Must Evolve With AI-Driven Threats

As cloud environments become more intelligent, cybersecurity threats will do the same. Mid-sized businesses must adopt cloud-native security models that account for AI-augmented attacks and automated exploitation techniques. Continuous monitoring, identity protection, and security controls embedded directly into cloud platforms will be essential to maintaining resilience and trust.

5. Identity Becomes the Foundation of Cloud Security

Identity and access management will play an increasingly central role in cloud security. As applications, users, APIs, and AI-driven systems interact at scale, organizations must treat identity as the primary security layer. Strong authentication, authorization, and access practices will reduce exposure and help limit the blast radius of security incidents.

6. Cloud Cost Management Expands to Include AI Workloads

Cloud cost optimization, also known as FinOps, remains a priority, but in 2026 it will extend beyond traditional infrastructure. AI workloads introduce new cost considerations, including compute intensity and unpredictable usage patterns. Mid-market organizations will adopt more disciplined cloud financial management practices to balance innovation with budget control and long-term sustainability.

7. Multi-Cloud Strategies Support Flexibility and Resilience

To maintain flexibility and reduce dependency on a single provider, many mid-market businesses will continue to embrace multi-cloud strategies. Using multiple cloud platforms allows organizations to select the best services for specific workloads while improving resilience and negotiating leverage. Managing these environments effectively will require centralized visibility and expert oversight.

Staying Ahead With Thrive

The cloud landscape in 2026 will be shaped by intelligent automation, stronger governance, and security-first design. Mid-sized organizations that take a strategic approach to cloud adoption will be better positioned to innovate while managing risk. Contact Thrive to learn more about how we help organizations design, secure, and manage modern cloud environments that support growth, compliance, and long-term business objectives.

A new year offers more than a symbolic clean slate. For organizations, it is a critical checkpoint to ensure their cloud strategy still aligns with evolving business goals, regulatory requirements, and security threats. The cloud architecture that worked well several years ago may now create unnecessary expenses, performance challenges, or operational risk as organizations adopt AI, modernize applications, and support distributed workforces.

For many mid-sized organizations, cloud transformation has been ongoing rather than a single milestone. With rapid changes in cloud services and rising cyber insurance expectations, the start of a new year is the perfect time to reassess the environment and identify opportunities to optimize.

Evaluate What’s Working and What Isn’t

Cloud environments change quickly as new technology and temporary fixes accumulate. What once operated efficiently may be fragmented or oversized. An internal annual review can help identify whether workloads are properly sized, if performance has degraded, and whether or not security controls still match today’s standards.

Over-provisioned resources and aging architectures often create unnecessary costs and vulnerabilities for organizations. By stepping back and examining utilization, performance, and operations holistically, business leaders can gain the insights needed to streamline their cloud environment and eliminate hidden risk.

Revisit Cloud Spend and Optimizations

Cloud costs can rise gradually without notice, especially when unused services remain active or workloads use larger tiers than required. Reviewing usage patterns can uncover opportunities to better align resources with demand, shift workloads to more efficient tiers, or take advantage of reserved instances and long-term pricing models.

Organizations should also reevaluate their data storage practices. High-cost tiers are often used to store data that rarely changes or is no longer needed in the database. A clear data lifecycle approach helps reduce waste while preserving compliance and accessibility.

Strengthen Cloud Security and Compliance

Security and compliance expectations continue to expand, especially as cyber insurers require stronger controls across identity, access, and monitoring. An annual New Year assessment should examine how well current architectures align with zero trust principles, whether backups and recovery plans remain resilient, and whether threat detection covers multi-cloud environments.

Ensuring ongoing compliance with frameworks such as Cyber Essentials, CMMC, HIPAA, or other industry mandates is equally important. Revisiting these controls annually helps reduce the likelihood of data breaches and operational downtime.

Modernize Legacy Applications

Legacy applications are a major source of inefficiency and technical debt for organizations. They often limit automation, complicate integrations, and increase maintenance costs. A review in the new year creates an opportunity to identify which systems can be refactored, containerized, migrated to managed services, or retired altogether.

Modernizing even a few core applications can significantly improve performance, reduce risk, and support future digital initiatives.

Prepare for AI and Automation

As AI adoption accelerates across the mid-market, organizations must determine whether their cloud environments are ready to support data-intensive workloads. This includes evaluating data quality and governance, scalability, and security. Establishing these foundations early on allows companies to take advantage of AI without disrupting critical operations or exposing themselves to new vulnerabilities.

Improve Efficiency with Managed Services

IT teams are managing increasingly complex environments with the same limited time and resources. Partnering with a managed security service provider (MSSP), like Thrive, can help organizations maintain visibility, performance, and security across their cloud environment. MSSPs can also guide modernization efforts, support compliance requirements, and automate routine tasks so internal teams can focus on strategy.

Build a Future-Ready Roadmap

After assessing the current state, organizations should translate insights into a clear roadmap that outlines modernization priorities, security improvements, financial goals, and opportunities to integrate automation and AI. A focused roadmap helps ensure investments align with business objectives and provides a structured path for continuous improvement.

Start the Year with a More Strategic Cloud Approach

A well-tuned cloud strategy allows organizations to grow, innovate, and stay secure in an increasingly challenging digital landscape. Whether the goal is to optimize workloads, modernize legacy systems, or strengthen security posture, an annual reassessment provides the clarity needed to plan confidently for the year ahead. Contact Thrive today to learn more about how your cloud strategy can be taken into the year ahead.

Build the data foundation your AI strategy depends on.

Strong AI strategies fail without strong data foundations. Before organizations can turn AI investments into real business outcomes, they need data that is accurate, governed, secure, and accessible across the organization.

The AI Strategy Playbook: Data Foundations is a practical guide designed to help mid-sized organizations evaluate, strengthen, and operationalize the data capabilities required to support a successful AI strategy. Whether you are early in your AI journey or preparing to scale, this playbook helps ensure your strategy is built on data you can trust.

Financial services firms face unique pressures when choosing a productivity and collaboration platform. Beyond day-to-day usability, your choice must support stringent regulatory expectations, reduce operational risk, streamline compliance workflows, and enable long-term scalability.

Two leading platforms dominate this decision: Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 (M365). Both platforms deliver secure, cloud-native productivity environments, but each offer distinct advantages depending on your organization’s size, operational model, regulatory exposure, and technology strategy.

Business Functionality

Both Google Workspace and M365 offer competitive pricing with entry tiers starting around $6 per user per month, with scaling costs as functionality increases. The best fit depends largely on how your firm collaborates and what tools your workflows rely on.

Google Workspace

• Purpose-built for real-time collaboration.
• Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides are great for team co-authoring and lightweight workflows.
• Clean, intuitive UI; often preferred by teams that value simplicity and speed.
• Google Meet for video conferencing.
• Integrates well with cloud-native tools and lightweight web applications.

Microsoft 365

• Provides a rich, widely adopted productivity suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Strong fit for firms that regularly exchange documents with custodians, fund administrators, clients, or partners who expect Microsoft formats.
• Teams offers unified messaging, conferencing, and optional enterprise-grade telephony.
• Automation capabilities through PowerApps and Power Automate.
• Copilot integrates deeply with Office apps and organizational data.

Takeaway: Both platforms support modern collaboration. Google Workspace excels in simplicity and real-time editing, while Microsoft shines in document-heavy workflows, complex spreadsheets, automation, and communication unification. Thrive helps organizations map these features to their business operating model.
Security

Financial services firms must implement strong encryption, access controls, threat protection, and incident response processes. Both Google and Microsoft provide secure baselines, but they differ in maturity, granularity, and ecosystem depth.

Google Workspace Security Highlights

• Strong encryption at rest and in transit.
• Straightforward administrative interface.
• Effective built-in protections against phishing and malware.
• Enterprise-tier MDM capabilities.
• Ideal for firms favoring simplicity and minimal overhead.

Microsoft 365 Security Highlights

• Encryption standards that match Google’s for both data at rest and in transit.
• More granular identity and access controls through Entra ID and Conditional Access policies.
• Deep integration with Microsoft Defender for EDR and XDR.
• Advanced SIEM capabilities through Sentinel.
• Stronger device management through Intune (MDM + MAM).

Takeaway: Both platforms provide secure environments that can meet financial services expectations. Google prioritizes streamlined, intuitive security management; Microsoft provides more customizable controls for firms that need granular policies or are scaling rapidly. Thrive ensures that either environment is configured to meet compliance expectations, not just vendor defaults.

Compliance

Regulated financial firms must address requirements such as:

• SEC and FINRA books and records
• Regulation S-P data protection and breach notification
• Marketing Rule compliance
• Business continuity and disaster recovery
• Communications archiving
• Access governance and privilege management

Neither platform alone guarantees compliance – controls, configuration, and workflow design matter most. But they offer different strengths.

Google Workspace Compliance Strengths

Supports integrations with leading compliance archiving platforms like Global Relay and Smarsh.

• Offers 17a-4 compliant retention capabilities.
• Provides data protection and DLP features, especially at higher tiers.
• Microsoft 365 Compliance Strengths
• Includes Microsoft Purview for advanced governance, classification, labeling, and auditing.
• Supports third-party archiving solutions with mature connectors.
• Offers complete visibility into data access patterns, which can be helpful for demonstrating compliance during exams.

Takeaway: Both platforms can be made fully compliant, but neither is compliant “out of the box.” The difference lies in their governance tooling and the level of insight needed for audits, reporting, and incident response. Thrive helps firms implement the right guardrails, regardless of the selected platform t.

Business Continuity & Global Footprint

Both Google and Microsoft operate on highly resilient cloud infrastructures with strong uptime SLAs.
Google Workspace emphasizes simplicity, fast recovery times, and strong backup ecosystem integrations.
Microsoft 365 offers advanced multi-geo capabilities and active-active configurations suitable for firms operating across regions.

For either platform, Thrive typically recommends off-platform backups to strengthen redundancy and improve recovery scenarios.

How Thrive Helps Financial Services Organizations

1. Strategic Platform Evaluation
We assess your workflows, regulatory obligations, risk profile, collaboration patterns, document management needs, and growth plans to determine whether Google or Microsoft is the better long-term fit.

2. Secure Implementation & Migration
Whether moving to Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, Thrive ensures:

• Identity and access controls are designed to support Zero Trust.
• MFA, Conditional Access (where applicable), and role-based access are enforced.
• Tenant configuration aligns with financial-sector expectations, not out-of-the-box defaults.

3. Compliance-Ready Architecture
We help implement:

• Books and records retention (via native tools or third parties like Smarsh/Global Relay)
• 17a-4 compliant storage setups
• Data governance policies
• Email and messaging archiving
• Backup policies that meet regulatory expectations

4. Security Hardening & Threat Detection
Thrive optimizes native Microsoft or Google security capabilities and integrates them with:

• Security operations
• Threat detection and analytics
• Incident response workflows
• Device management strategies

5. Ongoing Support & Optimization
The platform choice is only the beginning. Thrive supports your team with:

• 24x7x365 monitoring and management
• Continuous compliance alignment
• Regular configuration reviews
• Guidance as regulations evolve

Both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are viable platforms for financial services firms. The “better” choice depends on your organization’s structure, client base, regulatory obligations, preferred workflows, and long-term technology strategy.

The most important differentiator isn’t the platform, it’s how well it’s architected, secured, and governed. Contact Thrive today to learn more about how we can help you choose the right platform for your business needs.

Across industries, technical debt has become one of the most pressing obstacles facing IT and business leaders. It acts as a silent tax on productivity, a barrier to innovation, and a growing risk within legacy systems, outdated processes, and under-maintained infrastructure.

Technical debt isn’t simply a technology challenge, it is a business challenge. Mid-market organizations are especially impacted as cyber threats evolve, compliance pressures increase, and IT teams operate with limited time and resources. When modernization efforts, patching, or strategic updates are postponed, technical debt accumulates until it becomes too complex and costly to ignore.

Understanding Technical Debt: More Than Just Aging Technology

While outdated servers, unsupported applications, and legacy infrastructure contribute to technical debt, the root causes go deeper than old equipment.

Technical debt forms whenever short-term decisions overshadow long-term strategy.

Common contributors include:

• Postponed patches, updates, and upgrades
• End-of-life technologies still deployed in production
• Missing or outdated documentation
• Uncontrolled or poorly governed customizations
• Failure to adopt automation
• Underinvestment in essential cybersecurity controls

These issues compound over time, leading to environments that are fragile, difficult to maintain, and increasingly vulnerable to cyber threats.

The Real Cost of Technical Debt

Although delaying modernization may appear cost-effective initially, technical debt ultimately increases risk and inefficiency across the organization.

1. Heightened Cyber Risk
Unsupported, unpatched, and legacy systems are prime targets for cyberattacks. Many ransomware incidents and major breaches stem from vulnerabilities residing in outdated environments.

2. Increased Operational Costs
Aging or unstable systems require more time, expertise, and manual intervention. IT teams become stuck in a reactive cycle, limiting their capacity to support strategic initiatives.

3. Compliance and Cyber Insurance Challenges
Modern regulatory frameworks and cyber insurance policies demand strong controls and consistent patching practices. Technical debt can put organizations at risk of non-compliance and jeopardize eligibility for insurance coverage.

4. Reduced Ability to Innovate
Modernization initiatives, whether cloud adoption, automation, or AI, require a secure, stable foundation. Technical debt hampers agility and slows progress toward digital transformation goals.

Why Technical Debt Is Difficult to Solve Internally

Even with clear recognition of the risks, most mid-market organizations struggle to overcome technical debt on their own.

Key barriers include:

• Lack of internal capacity to manage modernization efforts
• Skill gaps around cloud, automation, and emerging technologies
• Budget constraints that favor short-term fixes over long-term strategies
• Legacy systems that appear functional but mask underlying vulnerabilities

These challenges underscore the importance of having experienced external support to guide modernization and reduce accumulated debt safely.

How Thrive Helps Organizations Reduce Technical Debt

Thrive supports mid-market organizations in eliminating technical debt through a modernization approach grounded in security, scalability, and operational efficiency.

Strategic Modernization Roadmaps
Thrive evaluates the existing environment, identifies high-risk and high-impact areas, and builds a structured, phased roadmap that supports long-term resilience and growth.

Comprehensive Managed IT & Security Services
From cloud modernization and automation to identity management, endpoint protection, and advanced security controls, Thrive delivers next-generation capabilities that reduce complexity and operational burden.

Security-First Architecture
Every solution is built with security in mind. Managed patching, vulnerability management, and proactive monitoring reduce exposure and help organizations meet compliance and cyber insurance requirements.

Engineered for Mid-Market Needs
Thrive’s model combines deep engineering expertise, automation-driven operations, and 24×7×365 support to help mid-market IT teams shift from reactive maintenance to value-driven strategic work.

Technical Debt Doesn’t Have to Define the Future

While every organization carries some level of technical debt, the differentiator is how effectively and proactively it is addressed. With the right strategy and the right partner, organizations can reduce risk, lower operational costs, improve user experiences, and create a resilient IT foundation capable of supporting future innovation.

Explore additional insights, best practices, and actionable guidance on managing and eliminating technical debt, and download the Thrive Technical Debt eBook today.

While many mid-market organizations are eager to tap into AI, success doesn’t come from simply deploying a new tool, it comes from detail-oriented planning, governance, and execution. A poorly designed AI project can waste an organization’s resources and increase risk, while a well-structured one can deliver measurable ROI and competitive advantage.

The path to a successful project isn’t complex, but it does require a methodical, well-defined process to ensure that the appropriate foundation is in place.

Step 1: Define Business Objectives

Every AI initiative should begin with identifying a clear business problem to solve. Whether your goal is to reduce manual IT workloads, improve customer experiences, or detect cyber threats faster, tie the AI project directly to business outcomes that matter. This ensures leadership buy-in and measurable success.

Step 2: Assess Data Readiness

AI thrives on high-quality data. Before your project begins, ask yourself:

• Data quality: Is it accurate, consistent, and complete?
• Data accessibility: Can teams access it securely when needed?
• Data governance: Are privacy, compliance, and security requirements being met?

If your organization’s data foundation is weak, prioritize improvements there before deploying AI.

Step 3: Build the Right Team

Successful AI projects require cross-functional collaboration. Bring together IT, business leaders, compliance officers, and data specialists to build a cohesive team that can deploy an AI project successfully. Define roles early, such as, who owns governance, who monitors outputs, and who ensures the AI aligns with the organization’s business goals.

Step 4: Start Small with a Pilot

Don’t launch an AI project organization-wide on day one. Begin with a focused pilot project that targets one process or department. This allows you to internally measure ROI, identify challenges, and refine before scaling. A successful pilot also helps build organizational confidence in AI.

Step 5: Monitor and Measure Success

Establish metrics tied to your original business objectives. These might include reduced costs, faster response times, improved accuracy, or enhanced customer satisfaction. Continuous monitoring ensures AI delivers ongoing value and adapts to changing business needs.

Step 6: Scale and Optimize

Once the pilot proves its worth, you can deploy AI across more processes or departments, scaling it appropriately as you go. Keep governance, compliance, and security at the core of every rollout. AI requires ongoing optimization for maximum results.

Partner With an Expert for Support

Launching an AI project internally can be overwhelming. A partner, like Thrive, helps organizations accelerate AI adoption while reducing risk. From assessing readiness to managing pilots, governance, and optimization, Thrive provides the managed AI services needed to ensure AI projects deliver real business outcomes. Contact Thrive today to learn more about how your organization can turn AI into a true driver of growth and resilience.