Rapid7 leverages SHI for firewall and cloud technologies

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Video Transcript: Rapid7’s firewall needed to totally transform. They trusted SHI to do it right

When I think of SHI, “partner” is the first thing that comes to mind. So we don't just talk about tactical projects all the time, part of our relationship is that we're always talking about what's next for Rapid7. We focus on strategic thinking and consider disruptive technologies that we should either leverage or be concerned about.

My name is Derek Heintz, and I lead the IT infrastructure and operations team at Rapid7. Our company specializes in cybersecurity, helping customers find and detect threats while providing strategies to mitigate and avoid them. In simple terms, my role involves ensuring that the company derives value from technology. This includes understanding the tools we use, ensuring the company benefits from them, and optimizing our infrastructure for productivity. Additionally, we strive to deliver value to our customers through the tools we provide.

One of the first things I noticed upon joining the company was that our licensing and some of their architecture were a bit in disarray. Having worked with SHI for over 10 years across various companies, I knew they had a core competency in licensing and assisting companies with navigation. That’s why SHI was my first call when I arrived.

Rapid7 was facing growing pains and challenges, prompting us to redesign our entire firewall infrastructure from the ground up. This transformational, impactful project has significant implications, and although it's a year-long endeavor, we're on track to deliver it successfully.

Throughout the whole process, one of the things I really enjoy about working with SHI is their laser focus on the problem. They prioritize understanding what we're trying to achieve. While they remain agnostic about the specific hardware or vendor, their primary concern is ensuring that whatever solution we choose truly solves our problem. At the end of the day, they skillfully negotiate to provide us with a great package, ensuring we feel we've received good value from the project. SHI has been a strong advocate for us throughout this entire process, collaborating closely with stakeholders, the IT team, and everyone involved.

If I had a message to deliver to the people of SHI, it would be to keep doing what they're doing: staying customer-focused and true to their values. Don't stray from the path.

Customer profile

Rapid7 – a cybersecurity provider

Solution

Modernized phone system, rebuilt firewall infrastructure, and improved security posture

Speak with a specialist

Outcomes

Improved operations

with more performance data and improved workflows

Target icon

Delivered

on time and on budget

Greater security

with state-of-the-art hardware and software

Partnership between Rapid7 and SHI leads to successful firewall and cloud app solutions

Challenge:

Providing critical support to over 11,000 customers globally, Rapid7 helps users manage and avoid cyber threats through analytics and automation.

However, Rapid7 was experiencing rapid growth, which created some difficulties. There were licensing issues to unravel, an outdated and unreliable phone system, and a networking firewall infrastructure that needed a complete redesign. Fortunately, they brought in SHI to help.

Solution:

The primary requirement for a new phone system was that it needed to be fully cloud-based with no on-premises infrastructure to maintain. It also needed to offer better integration with other internal systems. Additionally, the network needed a large-scale firewall buildout with both hardware and software solutions.

To make this happen, SHI partnered with key stakeholders at every step of the planning phase and ensured that the teams who relied on these critical systems had a voice in the projects. Once a scope had been built, SHI facilitated meetings with multiple vendors, relaying Rapid7's requirements and use cases, and narrowing the field to a few quality options.

With a platform and partner-agnostic approach, SHI was able to find the right vendors for each project, negotiate the best packages, and develop a plan.

Outcome:

By involving the sales team in every phase of the project, Rapid7 was able to launch a well-integrated cloud-based phone solution that met their needs with minimal stress. Crucially, this new system enables them to gather more performance data to analyze and make improvements to their sales workflows.

Leveraging the breadth of SHI's experience in procuring and deploying effective networking security solutions, Rapid7 has now enhanced its security posture with state-of-the-art hardware and software.

This close collaboration ensured that Rapid7 could complete these projects on budget, on time, and with full buy-in from every level of the organization.

“SHI was really an advocate for us in this whole process because of how they were teaming with our stakeholders, with the IT team, with everyone involved.”
- Derek Heintz, Sr. Director, IT Infrastructure & Operations