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Portland-based Elevate Technology Group was founded in 2010 to insert and maintain IT solutions that help businesses protect and reach their long-term goals. Elevate Technology Group specifically offers managed IT services and 24/7/365 remote support, among other solutions and services.

Many of the companies that Elevate Technology Group help require their services to meet compliance needs. These clients include businesses like law firms, manufacturers, and retailers.

Elevate’s core values focus heavily on building strong relationships with their customers and includes respect for all, empowerment, commitment, maintaining ethics and integrity, and elegance through simplicity. Elevate’s mission is to innovate with new and proven technologies, transforming the way businesses interact with and utilize technology, to better their business and their customer’s experience.

Targeted attacks bypass traditional defenses

A challenge arose for Elevate when the MSP noticed a rise in targeted attacks on their clients. What made these targeted attacks so difficult for Elevate to deal with was that these attacks bypassed the traditional security solutions that Elevate employed. Selling solutions to remedy these targeted attacks also proved to be a challenge for Elevate. Elevate’s CEO Geoff Turner described the MSP’s sales roadblock, “When we first started selling managed services, there were several prospective clients who knew they needed new firewalls, but didn’t have the capital available. Lots of deals stalled in the early days as a result. Now that Barracuda MSP offers Hardware-as-a-Service with its firewall and backup appliances, it’s something MSPs should consider if they’re not in a position to finance the hardware themselves.”

Spam filtering and AI protection lower risk of credentials being stolen

Having originally started running his first IT business at the age of 14, Geoff’s experience helped him quickly recognize that a change was needed. Elevate’s long-standing relationship with Barracuda, dating back to before they were a partner or even an MSP, helped make the transition even smoother. “Barracuda’s service separated them from other vendors. They overnighted a free demo unit to us and they were easy to reach if we had any questions or support issues.”

Just as it has previously, the partnership helped both Elevate and their customers overcome their IT obstacles. As Geoff describes it, “That level of service continues to this day. When they release a new product, they provide free demo hardware and they take the time to train our staff. We’ve never struggled to get Barracuda’s attention for a customer. They’ve always cared about small customers, just as much as the big ones. I wish more of our vendors were like Barracuda.”

Of course, the services and solutions that Barracuda has provided for Elevate also strengthen the partnership. In specifically dealing with the recent targeted attacks, Barracuda Essentials for Email Security and Sentinel allowed for quicker detection and protection for Elevate’s customers from these cyberattacks.

By including Barracuda Essentials and Sentinel with every managed services bundle, Elevate ensures each customer has the added spam filtering and artificial intelligence protection to thwart the latest phishing and credential spoofing threats.

Geoff provided an example of when this Barracuda-powered managed services bundle saved one of his customers. “One of our large law firm clients was the target of an organized cybercrime attack. The way we found out about it was through Barracuda Sentinel, which alerted us that there were suspicious emails sent to a specific partner at the firm. This insight allowed our team to proactively contact the person, make him aware of the situation, change his password and stop the attack.”

Ability to focus on more strategic activities leads to increased profits

By spending less time dealing with ransomware and security breaches, the MSP can focus on more profitable business activities such as delivering comprehensive IT solutions and infrastructure services. Elevate Technology Group experienced 100 percent revenue growth in the first year of deploying Barracuda Essentials and Sentinel, and this year it’s projecting 45 percent growth. The MSP attributes its success to investing in private cloud infrastructure, where it owns the racks, storage gear and other hardware, which it then rents to clients as a subscription. “Over 70 percent of clients use our private cloud services,” says Geoff . “We’ve seen our average monthly deal size grow 4x after deploying Barracuda Essentials and Sentinel.”

To learn more about how to protect your customers with AI, visit our Barracuda Sentinel page.

To learn more about our email security portfolio, visit our Barracuda Essentials page.

To learn how other Partners are improving their businesses, check out Barracuda MSP’s collection of Success Stories.

Want to save this success story for easy reference and sharing? Download the PDF.

Photo:  SFIO CRACHO/Shutterstock.


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Lindsay Faria

Posted by Lindsay Faria

As Director of MSP Marketing, Americas, at Barracuda, Lindsay Faria is dedicated to empowering Barracuda MSP partners to grow their businesses by providing tools and information to make marketing and selling their data protection services as effective, fast and easy as possible.

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