The challenge
There was no IT foundation. Laptops were bought secondhand online with no licensing, management, or security. Nothing was centrally managed, and nobody could say which devices held organizational data or who had access to what.
What I built
A complete, managed environment designed and built from scratch:
- Identity and access: Microsoft 365 with enforced multi-factor authentication, conditional access, and hardware security keys for administrator accounts
- Emergency access planning: dedicated break-glass accounts so an outage or lockout never takes the organization offline
- Device management for every platform: Windows and iPads through Microsoft Intune, Macs through a dedicated Mac management platform, all held to the same security standards
- Automated threat response: risky sign-ins are blocked, and compromised accounts are disabled, reset, and signed out automatically
- Backups for Microsoft 365 data through a dedicated backup service
Results
- Every device is licensed, managed, and secured across Windows, Mac, and iPad
- Attack attempts are blocked almost daily. In one recent case, a password-spray attack found a staff member's valid password; the sign-in was denied automatically, and the account was disabled, the password reset, and all sessions ended without anyone having to step in.
- About $13,000 a year saved by switching PDF software
- About $7,600 a year saved by moving 90 video conferencing licenses to nonprofit pricing (conservative; ~$9,900 if on the Business plan)