Case Studies
Florida Southern College Modernizes IT and Achieves Compliance with Thrive
Florida Southern College, a small private institution, overhauled its IT infrastructure and fortified its security by partnering with Thrive. Through Thrive’s Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) and Data Protection as a Service (DPaaS), featuring immutable backups, the college was able to meet regulatory standards, enhance infrastructure reliability, and protect critical data. This partnership has driven continuous IT improvements, successfully attaining the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) and FERPA compliance.
Florida Southern College, facing the unique challenge of modernizing its IT infrastructure and meeting strict regulatory requirements with limited resources, initially relied on DSM for disaster recovery and data protection services. After Thrive acquired DSM, the partnership focused on risk assessments and proactive IT improvements, helping the college enhance security, achieve GLBA and FERPA compliance, and strengthen its digital capabilities.
Why Thrive Was Chosen
Florida Southern initially engaged Thrive to handle specific IT projects, such as migrating student emails to the Cloud, due to the college’s limited internal resources and small internal IT team. As Florida Southern’s needs evolved, Thrive’s expertise and hands-on support made them a key partner in tackling more considerable challenges like network security and compliance.
Florida Southern College Chief Information Officer Francine Neiling recognized the need for continuous risk assessments to identify and remediate IT vulnerabilities. Neiling prioritized Thrive’s risk assessments, which provided detailed insights into potential gaps and risks. These assessments allowed Florida Southern to allocate resources strategically and drive improvements while adhering to their budget constraints.
“Thrive’s assessments were critical in helping us understand our IT gaps and prioritize projects based on risk, all while staying within our budget. While other vendors delivered the basics, Thrive followed up with solutions and guidance to ensure everything worked seamlessly across our systems,” said Neiling.
Strategic Deployment of Advanced Security Measures
Thrive has become Florida Southern College’s primary partner for security and compliance, helping implement key regulations like GLBA and FERPA. They have been instrumental in deploying multi-factor authentication, improving data loss prevention, and securing student information. Thrive also provides regular network assessments and annual penetration tests to maintain compliance and security.
Thrive provided Florida Southern with a fully managed on-premise Cloud infrastructure, delivering scalable DRaaS and DPaaS with immutable backups. This flexible infrastructure met both operational and regulatory needs while continuously improving security and disaster recovery.
“Thrive’s on-premise Cloud infrastructure gave us the flexibility to meet our specific IT needs, while their immutable backups and orchestrated offsite recovery provided peace of mind, knowing our data was secure and recoverable,” said Neiling.
Thrive’s Impact
With Thrive’s continued support, Florida Southern College has significantly improved its network stability and security. By streamlining its network infrastructure, the college resolved issues caused by multiple vendors’ equipment that had previously led to campus-wide outages. Thrive’s guidance has also helped the college maintain regulatory compliance, saving time and money while allowing its small IT team to focus on daily operations.
In its 2024 audit, the college received only two minor findings, demonstrating the enhanced security posture and infrastructure resilience.
“Since partnering with Thrive, our security has improved dramatically. What would have taken us years to accomplish on our own was completed efficiently with their hands-on support. They’ve truly become an extension of our IT team,” said Neiling.
“Thrive has consistently gone above and beyond, offering the kind of hands-on support that makes a real difference. Without their expertise and dedication, we wouldn’t be where we are today.” ~ Francine Neiling, CIO, Florida Southern College
About Thrive
Thrive delivers global technology outsourcing for cybersecurity, Cloud, networking, and other complex IT requirements. Thrive’s NextGen platform enables customers to increase business efficiencies through standardization, scalability, and automation, delivering oversized technology returns on investment (ROI). They accomplish this with advisory services, vCISO, vCIO, consulting, project implementation, solution architects, and a best-in-class subscription-based technology platform. Thrive delivers exceptional high-touch service through its POD approach of subject matter experts and global 24x7x365 SOC, NOC, and centralized services teams. Learn more at www.thrivenextgen.com or follow us on LinkedIn.