Author Archives: Tori Pazda

THRIVE JUMPSTARTS INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION WITH ACQUISITION OF UK-BASED ONI

Thrive, a premier provider of NextGen Managed Services, has acquired ONI, a UK Cloud, hybrid managed IT, Cisco Gold Partner and data center services provider based in Luton, Bedfordshire, England.

Thrive Acquires Cisco Partner ONI; MSP Expands From US to UK

Thrive, backed by private equity firm Court Square Capital Partners, acquires Cisco Gold partner ONI. MSP vows more U.S. & U.K. expansion.

Thrive Acquires Cisco Partner ONI; MSP Expands from US to UK

Thrive, a fast-growing MSP backed by private equity firm Court Square Capital Partners, has acquired Cisco Gold partner ONI. The deal extends Thrive from the United States into the United Kingdom, and gives Thrive a data center footprint in Europe. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Thrive Jumpstarts International Expansion with Acquisition of U.K.-Based ONI

With the completion of this transaction, ONI will mark Thrive’s eleventh acquisition since 2016. Recently, Thrive scaled its Mid-Atlantic region presence in the U.S. with the acquisitions of Howard Tech Advisors and Apex IT Group.

Thrive Jumpstarts International Expansion with Acquisition of UK-Based ONI Thrive Jumpstarts International Expansion with Acquisition of U.K.-Based ONI

Deal will expand Thrive’s NextGen portfolio and infrastructure in the U.K., marking its first foray into the international market. 

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – June 3, 2021 Thrive, a premier provider of NextGen Managed Services, has acquired ONI, a leading U.K. Cloud, hybrid managed IT, Cisco Gold Partner and data center services provider based in Luton, Bedfordshire, England. Thrive has accelerated growth with its recent investment from Court Square Capital Partners, and the ONI acquisition marks the company’s initial steps to significantly increase its geographic footprint, both domestically and internationally.

“ONI is a tremendous IT managed services company with deep Cisco WAN, Unified Communication and Cloud expertise,” said Rob Stephenson, CEO of Thrive. “We were attracted to ONI due to their strong management team, led by CEO Kevin Kivlochan, attractive customer base, and desirable geographic location, just north of London. Thrive plans to add our robust Microsoft and cyber security capabilities to assist the ONI clientele, and we’re very excited to utilize their expert WAN engineering team to drive additional value to Thrive’s client base.”

ONI has been providing transformative digital technologies for more than 25 years and is a highly reputable center of excellence for digital transformation. The company is a leading provider of IT solutions and services to both the public sector and commercial markets. ONI’s specific expertise includes core network infrastructure, unified communications and collaboration, contact center solutions, data center services, connectivity, and cyber security. ONI Cloud services are delivered from its Tier 3+ data center, located in the South East of England.

“ONI has been committed to providing our customers with the availability, performance, and agility required to transform their business,” said Kevin Kivlochan, CEO of ONI. “We are ecstatic to join the Thrive family to complement and grow its extensive NextGen portfolio of solutions with our critical and business assured infrastructure objectives, delivering performance, high availability, flexibility, and redundancy. This will enable us to further advance our support to our existing clients in the U.K. with a wider range of service and support offerings.”

Mr. Kivlochan will become the Chief Executive for Thrive’s European Operations, reporting directly to Rob Stephenson, and all ONI personnel will remain onboard working directly for him.

With the completion of this transaction, ONI will mark Thrive’s eleventh acquisition since 2016. Recently, Thrive scaled its Mid-Atlantic region presence in the U.S. with the acquisitions of Howard Tech Advisors and Apex IT Group.

For more information about Thrive, click here.

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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 takes advantage of technology that enables peak performance, scale, and the highest level of security. For more information, thrivenextgen.com.

Thrive: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram 

MEDIA CONTACT:

Stephanie Farrell

Director of Corporate Marketing

617-952-0289 | sfarrell@thrivenextgen.com

About ONI

Established in 1992, ONI Ltd is a leading provider of IT solutions and services to both public sector and commercial markets. Privately owned, ONI offers a comprehensive range of on-site, cloud and hybrid technology solutions.

ONI is an established, go-to center of excellence for digital transformation and has built a strong reputation based on innovation. ONI delivers cloud services from their Tier 3+ Data Center, located in the South East of England, which includes infrastructure, disaster recovery, UC, collaboration and contact center solutions as-a-service.

ONI is committed to providing customers with the performance, availability and agility required to optimize their IT investments.  This is referred to as Business Assured and comprises three core pledges: 100% Uptime Guaranteed, On-Premises or Cloud Agnostic and Predictable and Transparent Costs. For more information, please visit https://www.oni.co.uk/.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Debbie Cotterill | deb.cotterill@oni.co.uk 

Acuity advisors acted as the exclusive advisor to ONI for this transaction. 

About Acuity Advisors

Acuity Advisors is a leading technology focused mid-market investment bank headquartered in the UK with international offices in Vienna and Shanghai. Acuity are experts in selling businesses, securing equity investments and raising debt finance. Acuity’s partners are senior players with an international focus, most of their deals are cross-border. The firm has a strong track record in key technology sectors including Semiconductor & Photonics, Deep Tech, Industrial Technology, Telecoms, Cloud & Managed Services, Software and Internet of Things.

Thrive’s Jay Adams Receives Boston Business Journal’s CFO of the Year Award

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – June 2, 2021Thrive, a premier provider of NextGen Managed Services, announces today that Jay Adams, chief financial officer, has been named a CFO of the Year by the Boston Business Journal (BBJ). This annual award recognizes the top CFOs and their teams who deliver the most outstanding performance for their Massachusetts companies.

As a native Bay Stater, Adams has more than three decades of experience in the financial field and has served as CFO of Thrive since its first injection of private equity capital by M/C Partners in 2016.  Jay currently manages Thrive’s finance, human resources, and legal departments, directly supervising sixteen employees.

During his tenure, Mr. Adams has overseen the acquisition of ten separate companies at Thrive, including two acquisitions during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.  Additionally, he handled the due diligence and financial management processes of an early January 2021 recapitalization with Court Square Capital and M/C Partners, resulting in an industry leading valuation.

“Jay’s recognition as one of BBJ’s CFOs of the Year is well deserved and couldn’t happen to a better employee, leader and person,” said Rob Stephenson, CEO of Thrive. “Jay’s expert financial management oversight is a huge component of Thrive’s success. He has successfully helped our company navigate the COVID-19 pandemic landscape with respect to revenue, billing, and collections, without taking a PPP loan or drawing down on a bank line of credit. Also, in just four short years, Jay has overseen Thrive’s more than tripling of revenue and number of employees.”

In its 13th year, the BBJ annual CFO of the Year awards program honors the best in local finance. Adams, alongside nine other individuals in various business sizes and categories, were chosen from a pool of more than 100 nominations of leaders in the Boston business community. A panel of judges, made up of past CFO honorees, BBJ leadership, and others in the financial field, vetted the nominations and determined this year’s honorees.

Coverage of the BBJ CFOs of the Year online at www.bizjournals.com/boston/, and the winners will be honored at a special virtual program hosted by BBJ on Thursday, July 14, 2021.

For more information about Thrive, click here.

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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 takes advantage of technology that enables peak performance, scale, and the highest level of security. For more information, visit thrivenextgen.com.

Thrive: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram

MEDIA CONTACT:

Stephanie Farrell

Director of Corporate Marketing

617-952-0289 | sfarrell@thrivenextgen.com

 

Private Equity Portfolio Engagement Thrive Wins Coveted Global InfoSec Awards

Thrive named ‘Most Innovative in Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP)’ and ‘Hot Company in Security Information Event Management (SIEM)’

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – May 17, 2021 – Thrive a premier provider of NextGen Managed Services, announces it has won the following Cyber Defense Awards from Cyber Defense Magazine (CDM), the industry’s leading electronic information security magazine.

Most Innovative in Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP)

“Hot Company in Security Information Event Management (SIEM)”

“We’re thrilled to receive one of the most prestigious and coveted cyber security awards in the world from Cyber Defense Magazine,” said Rob Stephenson, CEO of Thrive. “We knew the competition would be tough and with top judges who are leading infosec experts from around the globe and we couldn’t be more pleased.”

As an MSSP, Thrive offers a Cyber Security Bundle that leverages its best in-class technologies to educate and ultimately protect end users. Thrive has worked hard to protect businesses and organizations by preparing a multi-layered cyber security plan that mitigates the enormous consequences a data hack can have. Thrive’s Cyber Security Bundle offers protection for end users against malware, social engineering, phishing, and ransomware.

Thrive’s SIEM-as-a-Service (SIEMaaS) solution delivers comprehensive investigation, analysis, and remediation. Since cyber threats are a constant challenge for organizations to predict and securely block, Thrive’s team of experts are able to provide real time, 24×7 monitoring of alerts generated by servers, networks, and cloud-based applications. No matter how regulated the industry, Thrive can cut through noise, detect and respond to threats, and provide customizable reports that offer insight into your business’s compliance performance.

“We scoured the globe looking for cybersecurity innovators that could make a huge difference and potentially help turn the tide against the exponential growth in cyber crime.  Thrive is absolutely worthy of these coveted awards and consideration for deployment in your environment,” said Gary S. Miliefsky, Publisher of Cyber Defense Magazine.

For more information about Thrive, please visit www.thrivenextgen.com.

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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 takes advantage of technology that enables peak performance, scale, and the highest level of security. For more information, thrivenextgen.com.

Thrive: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram 

MEDIA CONTACT:

Stephanie Farrell

Director of Corporate Marketing

617-952-0289 | sfarrell@thrivenextgen.com

 

About CDM InfoSec Awards

This is Cyber Defense Magazine’s ninth year of honoring global InfoSec innovators. Our submission requirements are for any startup, early stage, later stage or public companies in the INFORMATION SECURITY (INFOSEC) space who believe they have a unique and compelling value proposition for their product or service. Learn more at www.cyberdefenseawards.com

About the Judging

The judges are CISSP, FMDHS, CEH, certified security professionals who voted based on their independent review of the company submitted materials on the website of each submission including but not limited to data sheets, white papers, product literature and other market variables. CDM has a flexible philosophy to find more innovative players with new and unique technologies, than the one with the most customers or money in the bank. CDM is always asking “What’s Next?” so we are looking for Next Generation InfoSec Solutions.

About Cyber Defense Magazine

With over 5 Million monthly readers and growing, and thousands of pages of searchable online infosec content, Cyber Defense Magazine is the premier source of IT Security information for B2B and B2G with our sister magazine Cyber Security Magazine for B2C. We are managed and published by and for ethical, honest, passionate information security professionals. Our mission is to share cutting-edge knowledge, real-world stories and awards on the best ideas, products and services in the information technology industry.  We deliver electronic magazines every month online for free, and special editions exclusively for the RSA Conferences. CDM is a proud member of the Cyber Defense Media Group. Learn more about us at https://www.cyberdefensemagazine.com

Thrive Employee Spotlight: Kevin Ellis, VP of Sales

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

Our featured Thrive Employee is Kevin Ellis. Kevin is the Vice President of Sales for Thrive.

Kevin currently manages new business development and works with businesses of all sizes to understand their technology challenges and deliver a customized solution. He’s been at Thrive for 15 years and has his finger on the pulse of sales best practices and technical knowledge to share with his top-notch sales team.

Kevin lives in Massachusetts with his wife, three sons, and a dog. In his spare time, you’ll find Kevin shuttling his sons to basketball tournaments, and lacrosse and football games and practices. When he’s not cheering on his sons at their sporting events, he enjoys hitting the green to play a little golf.


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

I graduated from UMASS with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing. After college, I hit the pavement in copier sales because I liked working with people. A short time later, I found the perfect opportunity at Thrive and have been here 15 years and counting!

I spend much of my time working within the Alternative Investment Community, specifically with Private Equity Funds and by extension their portfolio companies. I enjoy the pace of this segment and getting exposure to many different types of companies and growth strategies.

In addition to sharing technical knowledge and sales best practices, I’m often asked to work with and train new, onboarding employees.

What do you most enjoy about working for Thrive?

Historically, it has been how the technology landscape is continuously changing and the industry trends are always shifting. It keeps things fresh. It feels like you’re always learning new technologies, products, and services.

I also enjoy the fast pace of Thrive. Over the last three to five years, we have seen unprecedented growth, both organically and via acquisition. Being an integral part of this growth strategy is incredibly challenging and fulfilling for me.

Most importantly, it’s the people. It doesn’t matter how much you like the products and services that you sell if you can’t enjoy the company of the people you work with. We are fortunate to have phenomenal company camaraderie with so many genuine, talented, and driven technology professionals here at Thrive.

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

Currently, I’m working on a lot of security solutions for our customers. We couple Next-Generation services, like Security Information and Event Management, Endpoint Detection, and Response, and tie those into our Security Operations Center and ServiceNow platform to deliver automation and self-service capabilities.

Our proven methodologies and deep NextGen portfolio of Cloud, Security, Networking, and Business Continuity services continue to make Thrive stand out in a crowded marketplace.

I am excited by a slew of digital transformation projects that are currently underway for businesses of all sizes. Our expert team creates a one-stop-shop solution for businesses to optimize their workflow, streamline reporting, and safeguard data, all while making the most of the investments they have already made in their digital and collaboration tools. I’m motivated by how Thrive enables businesses to remain competitive by adapting to the speed of new business while saving valuable time and resources.

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

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