The Company

Founded in 2002, True North Networks, a Visory company, offers managed IT services, hosting and support to independent RIAs and other organizations of varying sizes across the country. The company partners with leading technology firms to provide information and network security and support, eliminating IT issues before they cause expensive downtime.

The Challenge

Clients mainly using SaaS based applications were considering other alternatives to access these applications instead of hosted virtual desktops (VDIs).  They were concerned about security and employees using their own devices from home and wanted an option to prevent this, yet secure, easy to use and still have solid performance.

Why Perimeter 81

True North began looking at SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) based solutions and found Perimeter 81. They piloted the solution with their internal team, and the feedback from them was outstanding.“The results for us were phenomenal as far as the performance and feedback from our team and far superior to the existing VPN solution we were currently using.” – Steven Ryder

The Results

 True North introduced Perimeter 81 to a number of clients after their internal success as a way for secure access to both applications and private hosted file sharing.  Features such as  device posture check and web filtering and dns filtering for improved security and connectivity along with the other items in the True North security stack were a compelling reason to step off VDI.

The device posture check enhanced security by ensuring only company-owned devices accessed company resources.  In fact while True North was testing it, an employee complained Perimeter 81 was not working, only to find after rebuilding his computer Bitlocker encryption had not finished encrypting the drive and Perimeter 81 denied access with the explicit reason, which also was helpful in troubleshooting.  A frustrated employee became impressed how well it worked and with the clear reason why, which was remedied once the drive finished the encryption process.

Time and Savings

After adopting Perimeter 81’s solution for a number of clients, True North’s ticketing volume is down, saving the company both time and money.

For example, one customer with in excess of 100 employees struggled with running their business in a VDI environment, yet felt it was the safest way to deliver technology to their team.  The client collaborated a great deal using Zoom and other SaaS based applications and found the performance not always that great using virtual desktops.  In addition, they would realize a large decrease in monthly hosting costs by eliminating the VDI’s, while most importantly not forgoing security.

After reviewing the full security stack True North was offering and cost savings, leading with Perimeter 81 as the secure access gateway, the client began to pilot it with several people on their team. 

As True North and the client worked through how they would like the deployment delivered for the rest of the company including auto-sensing when an employee was in the office and Perimeter 81 would not initiate, the pilot team was satisfied and ready for full deployment.  After a couple of months due to the number of offices, Perimeter 81 is fully deployed and we are seeing a great reduction in support tickets overall from the client.  This helped True North make not only a more profitable client, but more importantly a much happier client.