Social Services Agency

About the Client

Based out of Lafayette, Louisiana, a nonprofit organization provides services for low-income communities. Their programs help individuals and families by providing skill training, emergency assistance, counseling, transportation, home weatherization, utility payment assistance, and Medicaid application assistance. 

Pain Points

The company’s current IT vendor was overcharging them nearly $900 to install each new computer and to maintain the rest of their systems. The organization also planned on using new netbooks instead of PCs for its employees. Therefore, the company needed a solution that enabled mobile devices and included automatic updates with easy maintenance and setup. Additionally, the CEO was concerned about malicious email hacks, since the business received funding from a larger organization that could be targeted for impersonation attacks. The final IT pain point was that the CFO did not want to spend the capital for new servers that would need to be replaced in a few years.

Solution

The company received CloudDesktop (DaaS), which allowed employees to access their desktop environment from their new netbooks more efficiently. RapidScale’s CloudServer (IaaS) solution virtualized its entire infrastructure, where the company benefited from automatic updates, enhanced security, improved infrastructure tools, and on-demand capacity.

RapidScale also provided a robust email solution and collaboration tools with Microsoft 365, which helped increase their productivity and communication. Along with this cloud-based solution, they received Mimecast email security for threat prevention against impersonation attacks, viruses, and other malware. RapidScale’s CloudBackup solution offered server-side encryption and replication for their file systems and business applications.

Lastly, RapidScale provided a VeloCloud SD-WAN solution that helped power their Microsoft 365 and virtual desktops. This solution centralized network management and created visibility into its network activity and bandwidth.

While the comprehensive solution added more to their annual IT budget, the company was confident that they were receiving better technology and improved support. RapidScale’s professional services saved the organization approximately 10 to 20 hours a month in migration, implementation, and management. In addition, the company did not have to worry about configuration and setup, so they could focus on taking care of their core business instead.

Why They Chose RapidScale

A differentiator in this deal was the legacy relationship between the client and their technology advisor who worked closely with RapidScale. Their personal relationship built the company’s confidence that RapidScale was also trustworthy and reliable. RapidScale’s capabilities to provide the most innovative cloud solutions also made the technology advisor more than just a services provider. Now, the company can turn to its technology advisor and RapidScale for all their IT needs.

Another significant differentiator was the team’s ability to scale the company’s business. Before RapidScale, the organization was paying their IT vendors expensive fees for simple break-fixes, which did not solve many of the company’s IT frustrations or help expand their network. With RapidScale’s managed cloud services, the company was able to pay and use IT resources based on consumption and benefit from RapidScale’s dedicated team of cloud experts. These professional services made it easier for the company to set up new employees and offload many of the large IT tasks to RapidScale.

Lastly, a major differentiator in the deal was the team’s ability to provide better network visibility. The company was excited about the SD-WAN circuit monitoring feature from SolarWinds, which saved them from having to call support for a simple internet issue. Along with this feature, the organization received full control and access to their cloud services through RapidScale’s customer portal. The agency could manage all their RapidScale services from one central platform.