In the first two weeks of July, our team handled everything from a firewall renewal down to the wire to a compliance-driven overhaul of email retention. Here’s a look at three real security challenges we tackled… no client names, just the work.

Racing an expiring firewall during a provider switch

The client: A professional services firm mid-transition to a new IT partner

Provider transitions are exactly when security gaps show up. During onboarding, we found out the client’s firewall security subscription expired the same day as our coordination call — and the device was still sitting in the outgoing provider’s tenant. Every hour without a renewal was an hour unprotected.

We traced the fastest path to renewal back through the outgoing provider, since they still held the hardware registration, and coordinated directly with their team to get it done. Along the way we flagged a hardware end-of-life issue that could have derailed a simple renewal entirely.

We didn’t stop there. The same sweep turned up an SSL certificate 30 days from expiry on a critical server, a workstation still running an end-of-life OS, and an email security platform tied to the old provider that needed replacing before cutover.

The result: a prioritized risk list with real timelines, active coordination with the outgoing provider, and a migration that closed every gap before it became a problem.

Turning email retention into a compliance control

The client: A distribution company running multiple shared operational mailboxes

Most businesses treat email like a filing cabinet that never needs cleaning out — until a legal hold or a storage bill forces the issue. A VP of Supply Chain came to us wanting structured retention across four mailboxes: three shared operational accounts and her own.

We built each mailbox a custom archive-and-delete schedule based on how long the data inside it actually needs to live. Order confirmations, with a short shelf life, got a 12-month archive and 24-month deletion cycle. Longer-lived operational data got room to breathe.

Skip this step and old email just piles up — storage bloat, e-discovery risk, compliance exposure, all compounding quietly in the background. Policy-driven retention keeps the data you need and clears out the data you don’t.

The result: four mailboxes now running on retention schedules built around how the business actually works.

Building AI governance before flipping the switch

The client: A managed services client rolling out Microsoft Copilot to leadership

AI tools are powerful, and powerful tools without guardrails find ways to leak sensitive data or clash with company policy before anyone notices. When this client’s leadership team was ready to pilot Copilot, we made sure the foundation was poured before a single license went live.

We drafted a Corporate AI Usage Policy covering acceptable use, data handling, output review, and the use cases that were off the table — and leadership signed off before the pilot started. Then we built training directly into Teams through a connected Learning Management System, so the team learned Copilot in the same app they’d use it in every day.

The result: a pilot that launched with real guardrails, a trained user group, and zero surprises.

The thread running through all three

Racing a firewall deadline. Rebuilding an email retention policy. Standing up AI governance before go-live. Different problems, same posture: proactive protection, not damage control.

Security isn’t something you buy once and forget. It’s something your IT partner helps you maintain, review, and adjust as the business changes around it.

If you’re navigating a provider transition, staring down a compliance review, or just not sure your current protections still hold up — let’s talk before the clock runs out.