Author Archives: Tori Pazda

Winners announced for annual Stratus Awards presented by Business Intelligence Group.

Today, the Business Intelligence Group announced the winners of the 2021 Stratus Awards for Cloud Computing by recognizing 60 companies, services, and executives deemed leaders in the cloud. The organization has identified the companies, products and people offering unique solutions that take advantage of Cloud technologies.

Thrive was awarded a 2021 Stratus Award for Cloud Computing with the category of Cloud Security Service.

“We now rely on the cloud for everything from entertainment to productivity, so we are proud to recognize all of our winners,” said Maria Jimenez, Chief Nominations Officer of Business Intelligence Group. “Each and every one is helping in their own way to make our lives richer everyday. We are honored and proud to reward these leaders in business.”

Thrive won the CyberSecurity Breakthrough Award for Next Generation Firewall Solution of the Year! There were several nominations in the Unified Threat Management category, but Thrive took home the top prize for our Managed NextGen Firewall Service.

The spirit of the CyberSecurity Breakthrough Awards is to highlight the BREAK THROUGH products, solutions and companies within the crowded information security market.

The awards were based on one question — “How does your company or product break through the crowded cybersecurity market?”

Thrive’s Managed NextGen Firewall service provides perimeter security and network performance that meets the requirements of any size SMB or enterprise client. The service is delivered on the Fortinet Fortigate™ Next Generation Firewall platform, which offers a robust set of security features with unmatched Unified Threat Management capabilities — all monitored and managed 24x7x365 by Thrive’s Network and Security Operations teams.

Optional Managed NextGen Firewall Services include:

• Intrusion Prevention Service
• Application Control and Web Filtering
• Gateway Antivirus and Antispam Email Security
• Site to Site and Remote Access Virtual Private Networking
• High Availability
• Software-Defined Wide-Area Networking (SD-WAN)

Congratulations to all the 2021 CyberSecurity Breakthrough winners!

For more information on Thrive’s Cyber Security solutions for your business, click here.

CHALLENGE

The records and information management company, which is one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S. serving multiple industries, needed a solution to ensure compliance for its long-term Microsoft 365’s OneDrive, SharePoint and email backup requirements. The company had 1,500 users on Office 365, but did not have a backup plan beyond 60 days. The organization sought out a partner to create a roadmap for immediate backups and compliance that could also scale for growth.

SOLUTION

The company vetted several well-known partners and selected Thrive for its ability to provide expertise and support before, during and after a customized solution was implemented.

Thrive’s engineering team met with the records management company’s internal IT department to develop a highly-detailed plan to ensure the business is meeting regulatory and InfoSec compliance. Thrive put into place a long-term plan for email, OneDrive and SharePoint backup requirements. In addition, Thrive established a protocol for the company’s transition of data from local file servers to SharePoint and OneDrive while meeting regulatory requirements.

RESULT

The company’s newly-deployed Microsoft 365, SharePoint and email backup system allows for regulatory compliance measures to be met. Once deployed, the company began a strategic rollout to end users in phases. If the company ever experiences a catastrophic event, it will be ready with Thrive’s data backup and disaster recovery services to minimize downtime and get up-and-running quickly. When the company’s end users need assistance, Thrive is there via a helpdesk and to provide ongoing Microsoft 365 management, IT support and more, ensuring fast communication, case sharing, and resolution of any IT issues.

How can Thrive help your business?

Thrive is a leading provider of outsourced IT Infrastructure designed to drive successful business outcomes with our talented engineering teams and suite of Cloud-First, NextGen Managed Services.

To learn more about our services, CONTACT US

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

Our featured Thrive Executive is Jason Shirdon. Jason is the EVP and General Manager of the Mid-Atlantic region at Thrive.

Jason is responsible for growing Thrive’s footprint in the Mid-Atlantic while also maintaining its loyal client base. His expertise in strategy and process development allows him to focus on helping businesses evolve by providing custom Cloud solutions for clients of all sizes.

You’ll find Jason attending regular meetings alongside the executive management team to discuss budgets, business operations, downstream communication, and strategies to best engage Thrive’s customers. He ensures that Thrive delivers both quality service and the best NextGen cyber security and managed services for its clients, especially in the Mid-Atlantic region. Jason also oversees employee development, day-to-day operations and the delegation of duties to his team of talented employees.

Jason lives in Pennsylvania with his wife Gabrielle and two teenage sons, Anthony and Alex. While his two boys keep him quite busy, he enjoys golfing with his wife, which they recently picked up. Jason also loves spending time with friends and family and hosting backyard BBQ’s. As a family, the four of them enjoy camping, hiking, boating, and all beach/lake/river time they can get — really anything outdoors!

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

In 2019, Ease Technologies was acquired by Thrive. I ran the managed services business at Ease Technologies for 15 years with a strong focus on Cloud computing. We were driven to have a ‘Cloud-first’ mentality, which I now incorporate into my work here at Thrive. 

Where did you go to school or get training? 

After high school, I attended the California University of PA, but after my first year, I decided to transfer to York Technical Institute, where I formed my base knowledge for electronics, robotics, and programming. After school, I landed a job with a nuclear medicine company in Columbia, Maryland, working with diagnostic imaging machines that required CT scans to be pushed over networks. Hence, my move into the IT world. From there, the rest is history. Back then, we mostly used UNIX and IRIX, but that quickly changed to Windows in the mid-’90s.

What do you most enjoy about working for Thrive?

No question — The people. I have never been a part of an organization with so many talented individuals who are driven to produce a quality product and want to improve daily.

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

About three months before the pandemic hit, Thrive engaged with a 100 person accounting firm that was completely dependent on its physical office and aging IT infrastructure. After many meetings and analysis, we convinced the client to move to an Azure infrastructure, so they would never have to purchase another server again. As you can imagine, this paid for itself 10 fold.

As a result, Thrive saved this client approximately $500,000 within the first year in hardware costs alone. After about six months into the pandemic, during our Technical Business Reviews that we do with strategic clients, the accounting firm told us that if they hadn’t moved to the Cloud with Thrive, they weren’t sure where their business might be today. Knowing that we changed someone’s view of Cloud computing and saved their business is what I love doing most!

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…

CHALLENGE

The major U.S. distillery was lacking information security expertise and compliance controls. Guarding the privacy of company information, user information, and customer data is a top priority for this company. Failure to architect a security strategy around these objectives can have disastrous consequences on the bottom line and company’s reputation.

SOLUTION

The distillery company turned to Thrive to implement a right-sized and easy to manage security framework. The Thrive vCISO team of experts designed, developed, and maintained a customized Information Security program that complemented the company’s business strategy and risk tolerance. Thrive’s vCISO services are scalable and economical, providing information security program development.

At first, the company believed an ISO-27002 would be the solution. However, after reviewing the business objectives, Thrive’s team recommended the Center for Internet Security (CIS) framework as a more appropriate choice for their business and compliance demands. In addition, Thrive focused on providing security protections and resources throughout the company to be secure by default and become security self-sufficient within 12 months.

RESULT

The integration of Thrive’s vCISO services at the distillery has optimized the business’ day-to-day operations to become more secure, productive, and efficient. The company now has the peace of mind that its network is secure with superior technology that provides real-time threat assessment and monitoring. Thrive’s vCISO team future-proofed the company’s security measures with risk assessments, gap remediations, data classifications, information security program development and monitoring (including resource mentoring), incident response and penetration testing (third-party oversight), and ad hoc requests.

How can Thrive help your business?

Thrive is a leading provider of outsourced IT Infrastructure designed to drive successful business outcomes with our talented engineering teams and suite of Cloud-First, NextGen Managed Services.

To learn more about our services, CONTACT US

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

Our featured Thrive Employee is Michael Conte. Michael is a Solutions Architect at Thrive.

Michael is the technical lead for the Thrive sales team out of our New York office. He works lockstep with the sales team on solving business issues for clients and prospects with Thrive’s NextGen technology portfolio.

You’ll usually find Michael talking with our customers, including, CTOs, CIOs, and Director of ITs, to identify areas to improve or enhance their business operations leveraging Thrive’s innovative Cloud, Network Management, Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity technology services.

Michael recently moved from Jersey City to his home state of Rhode Island and is thrilled to be closer to his family and lifelong friends. In his free time, you’ll usually find Michael outdoors or on the river. He enjoys cycling, river rafting and paintball with his buddies. Look out – Michael and his friends have been paintballing for 13 years and you don’t want to get caught in their crosshairs!

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

Before coming to Thrive, I held engineering roles at Atrion, a Rhode Island managed services provider. I started as an Associate Engineer, and then moved up the ranks to Network Engineer and then Security Engineer. Along the way, I completed multiple Cisco certifications and oversaw the deployment of security-related technology and tools. 

Where did you go to school or get training?

I earned an Associate’s degree at New England Tech for computer networking, but made tech headlines in high school with Warwick Area Career and Tech Center. I represented Rhode Island in a national competition called Skills USA, which was related to Cisco internetworking. Recently, I was added to that program’s advisory board to help improve the courses.

What do you most enjoy about working for Thrive?

The opportunities for recognition and growth at Thrive are things I’ve never experienced before. IT is often a thankless job. If it works, nobody complains. When it doesn’t work, it’s not so great. However, the Thrive culture makes you feel valued with an emphasis on teamwork, recognition and positivity. We are a tight-knit group and that has advantages when working together on projects and in high-pressure situations. As a team, we know our strengths, weaknesses, and expectations when working closely together. That is a huge benefit for our company and our customers.

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

ServiceNow has been wildly successful and is having a positive impact on businesses. It’s exciting to see how the platform helps modernize processes within the IT organization for our customers. I’m also working more on automating our sales process internally so I’m able to spend more time with prospects and customers and drive revenue.

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…