ArcLight Group is a longstanding MSP primarily working with healthcare clients, rural hospitals and private practices that provides Managed IT services in Tulsa. Many of which put a very high value on security and fast response rates. They support approximately 1,300 Windows based devices across their client base.
Founder Brian Largent explains, what started out as a “ fully managed service company” installing advanced firewalls like Cisco Meraki for stationary computers, transitioned into an MSP, focused on security protection that was more mobile for the majority of his clients who are traveling.
“We'd tried the Cisco Umbrella way and they just were not overly friendly to the MSP market at the time. They had some really bad or unwieldy requirements on limits and so on, and we were just trying to get started. So, we shopped around, we tried them for a while and then we landed on DNSFilter.”
Largent continued, “So I went and checked you guys out. I was like, ‘wow, this is very MSP friendly, very powerful,’ we did a trial of it and we're just really impressed. It works well. It's intuitive, easy interface, easy to manage.”
Thankfully, Largent also explained they have not seen an active security incident in over five years. ArcLight Group has such a highly layered stack, that they do not get very many tickets for security incidents. Any incidents that were to try and come through, would be blocked or automatically resolved by their toolset, which includes DNSFilter.
It’s not just about perimeter defenses, but endpoint protections, as these devices are taken anywhere and everywhere. While traveling, places like hotels can be targeted to get people to connect to malicious access points. Bad actors will try to access your data and try to serve fake links. “With DNSFilter, it's going to identify those things. It's going to be able to keep people from being able to go to websites they shouldn't go to,” Largent said.
The shift in viewing content filtering as a productivity tool to a security tool is something that is built into Largent’s philosophy around MSP Security.
“We didn't want people going to social media sites and so on, so they would be more productive. Well, everyone has high speed internet now, and everyone has a cell phone,” Largent said.
He continued, “Your content filtering, your DNS filtering solutions are here to protect you from malicious actors and accidents. It's not just content filtering. People have to shift their thinking about that.”
Time is of the essence in cybersecurity. MSP Providers need to be able to roll out security protections and IT support services quickly to protect their clients. Largent explained the process should be seamless, and that as an MSP he shouldn’t have to get special pricing to perform the job. That’s why Largent said the biggest benefit is that DNSFilter not only makes a product that is easy to use, but a company to work with.
“You guys are very MSP friendly. I can't say that enough times,” Largent said. “I buy your product. I deploy your product and we're in business in a very short amount of time.”