5th Gear Technology Concepts MSP Case Study

"It's easy for people to rest on their laurels, make a product and reap the benefits. DNSFilter is a constantly evolving product."

Glenn Porter

President, 5th Gear Technology Concepts

"Stupid easy" DNS protection for MSPs

Glenn Porter is the president of 5th Gear Technology Concepts, a Managed Service Provider in Nashville, TN that primarily caters to healthcare customers, though they do not work exclusively with the healthcare industry.

The scope of what an MSP provides has changed drastically over the last decade. It’s no longer just about monitoring customer networks, but also about proactively ensuring security.

When it comes to security, Glenn and 5th Gear are always looking to provide more value to their customers by adding extra layers of protection. They sought to mitigate risk and close cybersecurity gaps that are usually left when companies equip the bare minimum just to get by.

There and back again

5th Gear Technology Concepts first signed up with DNSFilter in 2016, less than a year after the company was founded. But at that time, DNSFilter’s feature set was limited and their AI offering was still in its infancy.

Glenn liked the people and the direction of the product, but since the functionality wasn’t quite there yet he switched to OpenDNS for approximately 10 months until he decided to check in on the DNSFilter team to see how they were doing.

In that time, DNSFilter’s AI had improved dramatically and Glenn was blown away by how quickly DNSFilter improved. The rate of false positives had gone down noticeably, which decreased how much time Glenn spent spinning up new deployments.

“It’s easy for people to rest on their laurels, make a product and reap the benefits. DNSFilter is a constantly evolving product,” Glenn said.

Wrapped up in a security blanket

When looking for DNS protection, Glenn was really after peace of mind. He wanted a solution that he could rely on as a failsafe if his other security precautions didn’t work as intended, while simultaneously blocking the content his customers were concerned about.

“It gives me more peace of mind knowing Billy and Susie can’t inadvertently click on a link and have it go to a known malicious website. Even if our other systems fail, I know DNSFilter’s got my back.”

Since DNSFilter added new deployment options and focused on making its AI top tier, Glenn no longer had to worry about constantly updating lengthy allow lists or flagging false positives. He knew DNSFilter would be running in the background, catching malicious threats and leaving essential websites unblocked.

"Even if our other systems fail, I know DNSFilter's got my back."

Glenn Porter

President, 5th Gear Technology Concepts

Getting results

“Wow. What did you do? Everything is running a little bit faster!”

According to Glenn, that’s one common response from his customers after they install DNSFilter for the first time. Thanks to the number of Anycast nodes and the resiliency built into DNSFilter, we have the fastest DNS resolver in North America. And 5th Gear’s customers have taken notice.

Since most of Glenn’s customers are in the same industry, he applies a blanket policy across all environments that blocks ad networks, malicious sites, and other sites that consume major resources. They’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback with this implementation, and no one has ever complained about suddenly finding inappropriate content for work inaccessible.

Now, as Glenn gets new customers onboarded he doesn’t have to worry about a hefty DNS filtering deployment. He can get a new customer setup in under 10 minutes using the MSP Dashboard and Global Policies.

In Glenn's own words

"Just stupid easy."

Glenn isn’t interested in technology solutions that try to do it all while doing nothing particularly well. He sought a DNS filtering solution and wanted one that he could trust as an additional security layer that did its job.

DNSFilter is cost-effective with a simple user interface that gives his team more flexibility; that’s what he loves about this solution.

“There are so many products out there that promise the moon and they don’t deliver. I don’t have days or weeks to dedicate to learning a product inside out.” He needs something easy. When you want to get up and running quickly and move on with your day, the best tools are the ones that give you your time back.

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DNS Filtration that just works

I haven't found anything I don't like about DNSFilter. I've never had issues with it or needed to troubleshoot it. It just works and it listens to me. Customer support is extremely responsive, gives quick and concise answers with little to no time wasted.

Does what the product claims; good value for the price

We use the product for handling business URL filtering. The DNS look ups are fast and the management of allow/deny lists is pretty easy. Reporting is useful. There are some cool features for granular management at an individual machine level. The price is quite reasonable for what it does. It's pretty much set and forget.

Its raining malware but I wont reach for my Umbrella, but DNS Filter instead

The ease of use and overall ability to block applications, limit search engines, block a number of threat types and add good sites to a whitelist or block a known bad site in a blacklist. Reporting is also the BEST I have seen as it is so easy to find good and bad blocks...allowing you to easily and daily to monitor and update lists as needed.

DNSFilter - A Fast, Easy, And Reliable DNS Filtering Solution

Setup and deployment were super easy. Support has been excellent. Overall, the product is a nice addition to our security stack, blocking threats at the DNS level.

DNSFilter Is A No Brainer. It Cost Less Than Its Competitors And Easy To Setup.

DNSFilter is easy to setup and configure. I was up and running in a day. It works on all OS platforms and doesn't interfere with our end users doing their jobs.

Compliance Level DNS Filtering

Provides client level installation for DNS filtering when outside of the building. Complements EndPoint and Firewall web filtering by processing all DNS requests through an active filter to help stop malware distribution. We can distribute the product uniquely using RMM to each customer and management and controls are customer unique.

Great platform, even greater customer support

It is incredibly easy to get started. The interface is very user-friendly. If you have any issues, the customer support chat is handy. You get connected to an actual human, not just a chatbot.

Fast to deploy, protect an entire network in a minute

Good web filtering for all our locations, we also deployed the roaming client to cover our users when they are outside the company network. It is also our first level of defense if there is a threat as the domain might be blocked before our EPP / EDR detect something.

Easy-to-use DNS security solution

I love how DNSFilter is constantly being updated with new features and security updates. This gives me peace of mind knowing that my business is always protected from the latest online threats.

Finally, a DNS filter that actually works!

DNSFilter has proven to be one of the easiest solutions to implement. The intuitive interface makes on-going administration a breeze. We're happy to know our internet security stack is protected and the accurate categorization of traffic has not interfered with approved business functions.

5th Gear Technology Concepts Case Study

Glenn Porter

"Stupid easy" DNS protection for MSPs

There and back again

Wrapped up in a security blanket

Glenn Porter

Getting results

In Glenn's own words

Recommended reading

dnsUNFILTERED: A Candid Conversation with Todd Drunagel

dnsUNFILTERED: A Candid Conversation with Raffaele Mautone

DNSFilter Partner Program

Customers love us, threats hate us

5th Gear Technology Concepts Case Study

Glenn Porter

"Stupid easy" DNS protection for MSPs

There and back again

Wrapped up in a security blanket

Glenn Porter

Getting results

In Glenn's own words

Recommended reading

dnsUNFILTERED: A Candid Conversation with Todd Drunagel

dnsUNFILTERED: A Candid Conversation with Raffaele Mautone

DNSFilter Partner Program

Customers love us, threats hate us

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