As Seen in Oregon Business Magazine: For Multi-Site Businesses All Roads Lead to Managed Services

With home and remote offices as the new normal, businesses increasingly rely on multi-site locations and cloud solutions—unlocking new opportunities and new risks. Over the past five years Comcast Business has steadily grown its managed service products to help organizations of all sizes optimize their networks, boost security and achieve strategic goals.

“Managed services enable businesses to focus more on their core project and strategic initiatives, while allowing experts in networking, communications and cybersecurity to handle the heavy lifting in each of those critical enabling technologies,” says Tom Hoesing, Director, Solutions Engineering at Masergy, now part of Comcast Business.

The rapid pace of cloud innovation brings with it the equally rapid rise of unprecedented challenges. Leveraging external experts lets teams mitigate risk while strengthening their organization; allowing for efficient collaboration, increased productivity, task automation and customer loyalty.

“When you start dealing with cloud applications and the expansive nature of the internet today, you need more targeted skillsets that the generalized IT person doesn’t have,” explains Paul Pogreba, Senior Solutions Architect for the Pacific Northwest. “It’s more complex than five years ago when you could run multiple businesses off of your home internet.”

Large and mid-size companies tend to operate within decentralized locations that use cloud-based or hybrid networks to share data and run programs. Constantly switching between onsite and cloud-based applications can disrupt performance and client services.

Clients regularly grapple with how to evolve using outdated architecture. Through a combination of solutions, Comcast Business enables them to achieve their goals without updating their infrastructure entirely. From there, the team finetunes this hybrid model so that data moves seamlessly across the network.

Their SDWAN-based platform management solutions let clients migrate to the cloud without suffering performance issues or operate within a hybrid environment without interruption.

“Typically, you have to choose which one you want to perform better—onsite applications that are usually in a data center or cloud-based applications,” Pogreba explains. “In this case, with our SDWAN solution running at the edge of the network and local internet breakout, both can perform well.”

After expanding its managed network solutions, Comcast Business added security management to its portfolio in 2020 and was preparing to launch the new service line when Covid-19 hit.

“Covid exponentially grew the need for managed services. The amount of cyberattacks early in the pandemic when people were at home almost doubled,” Pogreba notes. “Companies that didn’t know about security and preventative maintenance became more vulnerable overnight.”

The following year, Comcast Business acquired Masergy, a leader in software-defined networking (SDN) and cloud platforms with over 20 years’ experience servicing large and mid-size companies in roughly 100 countries. Masergy brings a global network, cloud security experience, a mitigation team and an array of new services: end-point detection and response (EDR), management detection and response (MDR) and multiple Security Access Service Edge (SASE) solutions (FWaaS, SWG, ZTNA and CASB).

Clients who reach out for managed services receive multipronged support that kicks off with a consultative design phase supported by solutions architects and design engineers.

“Our approach begins with a focus on each client’s strategic business intent, whether they are seeking to accelerate growth, to enhance customer experience through digital transformation, to improve employee experience, or to optimize business operations with automation or artificial intelligence,” Hoesing explains.

Next comes a customized test plan, integration of the test plan and on-site deployment. In the subsequent 30-day curation period, clients work with a lead project engineer to tweak and enhance the solution. From there, Comcast Business monitors network performance and security, and conducts biannual check-ins. As both the service provider and carrier, the team quickly resolves issues internally.

“By partnering with us to deliver managed security services, organizations can much better mitigate the growing risk of security incidents, which could realistically set them back years or cause irreparable damage,” Hoesing says.

Comcast Business’ security stack intertwines with the network stack, providing a uniquely high level of integration to best fortify edge services. With Masergy on board, the team will continue driving network and security innovation, moving toward platforms in which security is sewn into the fabric of the entire environment.

“For two decades, our technology solutions have enabled clients to interact with customers in larger volume, reduce wait times, expedite order fulfillment, communicate reliably with customers in ways they prefer, and protect customer data privacy, so trust and confidence can grow,” Hoesing concludes. “Because the technologies we offer are so essential, the impact can truly be far-reaching.”