Josh Dinneen, CEO of Blue Mantis – Interview Sequence

Blue Mantis serves mid-market and enterprise organizations by serving to them determine and implement enterprise software program options from corporations like AWS, Arctic Wolf, Acronis, Cisco, Dell, HPE, Microsoft, and plenty of others.  Main prospects embrace Cole Haan, the Jacksonville Jaguars, Liberty Mutual, Woodforest Nationwide Financial institution, and Boston Medical Heart.

Are you able to share the journey of Blue Mantis from its inception to turning into a number one managed providers supplier in cloud, cybersecurity, AI, and digital transformation?

Blue Mantis has a 30+ yr historical past of delivering modern and confirmed know-how options to mid-market and enterprise purchasers. We’ve been an integral a part of their digital transformation journeys and, as your query suggests, now we have additionally been on our personal modernization journey, one marked by a dramatic growth in the kind of options we provide and the way during which we assist purchasers obtain constructive enterprise outcomes.

We now have reworked from our roots as a small, regional reseller of {hardware} and software program merchandise to a nationwide and now a world supplier of next-generation providers in what we name three core enterprise “pillars” – cybersecurity, cloud and managed providers.

As now we have scaled our group, now we have additionally efficiently attracted a number of new blue-chip executives to develop our management staff. In doing so, now we have strengthened our technical acumen, broadened our providers choices, refined our gross sales execution, and sharpened our go-to market methods.  These key leaders embrace Chief Working Officer (and former CISO and CIO) Jay Pasteris; Chief Providers Officer Steven DeMaayer; Chief Income Officer Terry Richardson, and our Chief Advertising Officer, Sarah Foote.

As a supplier of next-generation options, now we have additionally expanded our consulting capabilities and we’re more and more serving as a strategic advisor for our purchasers, surveying the hyper-dynamic know-how panorama and creating the blueprint to assist purchasers harness these applied sciences to help their companies and attain measurable and constructive outcomes. We now have additionally repeatedly broadened our portfolio of product bundles and providers, which embrace cybersecurity and threat administration, cloud, networking, knowledge middle modernization, trendy workspace, provider providers, useful resource administration and the power to supply any of these options as managed providers.

Previously often known as Inexperienced Pages till our new model identification and identify change had been unveiled in July 2023, the identify Blue Mantis signifies our position as a strategic advisor, one able to main our purchasers into the longer term. The truth is, the phrase mantis actually means a “seer, a prophet and one who divines.” This actually captures our mission and our ethos.

What are the important thing elements that contributed to Blue Mantis’ spectacular progress charges in cybersecurity, cloud service practices, and managed providers?

First, was our skill to stay keenly centered available on the market alternatives we noticed proper in entrance of us. Second, was holding our purchasers on the forefront of the whole lot we do was vital. Third, we felt it was vital to undertake the transformation that has moved Blue Mantis from a gross revenue, value of products offered mannequin to a strategic services-led enterprise geared toward driving enterprise outcomes for purchasers. That dramatically modified the expansion trajectory of Blue Mantis. To reinforce our natural progress, we even have made a number of acquisitions and added technical expertise in these three key progress segments.  These investments have paid robust dividends; now we have achieved a five-year progress charge of 405 % for cybersecurity, 119 % for cloud service practices and 495 % for managed service. We now have additionally elevated our headcount by 127 % throughout that point.

Are you able to elaborate on the twin position of AI at Blue Mantis, each internally for operational efficiencies and externally for consumer providers?

We now have gone all-in on GenAI for each inner and exterior makes use of. To achieve success in AI, knowledge administration takes on heightened significance. We’re persevering with to put money into our knowledge enablement capabilities at our basis. As a Microsoft associate, we had early entry to Copilot and are on the forefront of Managed Providers Suppliers harnessing the facility of AI for enterprise prospects. This level has been validated by prospects, companions, and market observers within the IT channel.

For our purchasers, we started providing Managed AI Copilot Options in Q2 2024, a personalized turnkey providing powered by Microsoft. We seamlessly and securely combine AI into purchasers’ present Microsoft Cloud environments with government training, strategic planning, and managed providers. Our GTM relies on an Assess, Modernize, Handle framework. Via our consultative method, now we have helped prospects determine high-value use circumstances for GenAI, determine and remediate safety points related to their knowledge property, and modernize knowledge processing in help of GenAI use circumstances. Internally, we’re leveraging AI throughout many capabilities inside Blue Mantis. Whether or not it’s Microsoft Copilot or one other AI know-how, we’re seeing important productiveness enhancements as extra use circumstances are recognized and other people change into conversant in the know-how.

What are some particular AI-driven initiatives or initiatives which have had a major influence in your purchasers?

We’re nonetheless within the preliminary phases of this know-how wave and many consumers are nonetheless formulating their technique referring to utilized GenAI for his or her enterprise. The market is clearly within the training section as purchasers are taking a look at “the artwork of the doable” as they appear to make the most of this rising know-how. Essentially the most important influence we’ve seen is on two fronts. First, as purchasers start to discover their knowledge property, this has revealed the expansive scope and magnitude of their knowledge property and induced them to revisit their knowledge governance processes and expose new risk vectors for knowledge leakage and knowledge loss. Many consumers have been shocked to seek out out simply how a lot knowledge they’ve and who has entry to it. Second, when purchasers make investments the effort and time to coach their employees, time-to-productivity is significantly enhanced. Establishing command and belief of this new know-how is vital to driving the kind of influence that purchasers count on to see from their GenAI investments. Naysayers and detractors have been transformed to champions and advocates when given the correct baseline and this has had a major influence with purchasers as they roll out GenAI options.

How does Blue Mantis keep forward of rising threats and handle threat for its purchasers?

We’re a security-first agency, and we contemplate safety to be the bedrock of the whole lot we architect, construct and help. As a supplier of managed providers, we’re relied upon closely by purchasers to be their eyes and ears and their first line of protection in opposition to their adversaries – whether or not insider or exterior threats.  We keep forward of those threats and assist not solely handle however cut back threat by providing an entire suite of cloud safety, community and techniques safety and governance, threat and compliance options to fulfill all their wants. We put a excessive premium on safety consciousness coaching each internally and with purchasers to make sure we keep updated on the newest vulnerabilities and assault strategies. This entails risk intelligence feeds, safety conferences, and trade greatest apply analysis. We additionally provide complete safety assessments to determine weaknesses in a consumer’s present safety posture. This helps them prioritize potential dangers and implement options tailor-made to their atmosphere, trade and finances. For a lot of purchasers we offer managed safety providers and 24/7 monitoring by means of Managed Detection and Response (MDR) options by means of companions like Arctic Wolf, in addition to steering and implementation providers to help them on their Zero Belief journeys.

By combining these approaches, we offer purchasers with a complete safety technique that adapts to the evolving risk panorama and will increase their vigilance in opposition to cyberattacks.

Are you able to talk about any current cybersecurity developments or challenges that mid-market and enterprise organizations ought to concentrate on?

Whether or not we’re speaking about mid-market or enterprises, the organizations we’re working with face most of the similar challenges. On the prime of the record is the necessity for higher and extra holistic knowledge administration and privateness assurance from a regulatory perspective. The brand new SEC mandate to reveal knowledge breaches extra rapidly and transparently intensifies our consumer’s already complicated environments.

Information resiliency is one other main problem for the midmarket. It’s not ok to be ok. For the easy cause that once more, no matter measurement or vertical trade, our purchasers’ buyer knowledge is beneath steady assault by an more and more refined universe of adversaries. Purchasers’ threat profiles are increasing, and defenses should change into stronger, extra vigilant and extra refined to make sure steady safety.

Lastly, regardless of the elevated threats they face, many organizations are anticipated to “Do extra with much less.” That is the place Blue Mantis has shined. We assist purchasers who’re grappling with these points by delivering steering and route on how greatest to prioritize initiatives within the areas of cloud, cybersecurity and digital transformation. Nevertheless, now we have additionally expanded our capabilities and scale within the space of strategic useful resource administration in cyber safety as all as IT. We now have expanded a complete expertise pool that enables Blue Mantis to seamlessly combine assets into consumer groups, filling particular talent gaps and making certain challenge success.

How does Blue Mantis information purchasers by means of their cloud journey, and what are the important thing elements of a profitable cloud technique?

Blue Mantis helps information prospects by means of their cloud journey with a realistic method. We work intently with prospects to know the true drivers behind their cloud transformations and work collectively collaboratively to construct a roadmap.

As with most transformation initiatives, transferring to the cloud doesn’t imply prospects may have parity with their present operations and this creates challenges inside their corporations. Whether or not it’s a skillset hole, experience wanted, coaching, or capability for work, we assist our prospects envision their future state and guarantee they’re supported in any method wanted to achieve success.

We now have recognized 4 main insights about leveraging the cloud:

First, is alignment to the enterprise.  Any cloud transformation must have clearly outlined goals. And not using a clear demarcation for ‘what beauty like’ and the enterprise outcomes outlined, it’s simple to get misplaced in your cloud journey.

Second, is knowing workloads and assessing their fit-for-use in cloud. .  We excel at framing the choice factors for our prospects and offering insights into what we’ve seen work and never work.  It is rather frequent for us to see a hybrid method to cloud, particularly for legacy purposes.  Many purposes weren’t constructed for the cloud and they don’t seem to be cloud prepared. Deciding how a lot to speculate with a purpose to make them slot in a cloud atmosphere could be very difficult (and doubtlessly not well worth the funding).

Third, prioritizing migration is vital.  As with every transformation initiative, it is very important see some early wins.  For business-critical purposes and infrastructure, nothing will kill your cloud transformation quicker than massive, lengthy operating, initiatives that don’t return some worth again to the enterprise.  We search to keep away from this case and work along with purchasers to seek out steadiness.

Lastly, as purchasers migrate to the cloud they might want to put some kind of governance course of in place.  This may be very difficult for any group that’s experimenting with new know-how, whereas making an attempt to run their enterprise.  Prospects might want to handle their prices (as that’s one thing that may get uncontrolled rapidly, if you’re not ready), make certain the prices are successfully communicated to their enterprise stakeholders, and finally optimize that spend over time.  Following this blueprint and making some good selections has made lots of our prospects profitable of their cloud journey.

What differentiates Blue Mantis’ managed providers from different suppliers available in the market?

Once more, I might return to the purpose made earlier about reinvention. What separates Blue Mantis from the numerous know-how resolution suppliers available in the market is that many have did not reinvent themselves. We now have had a transparent imaginative and prescient and a centered technique that has been embraced by a terrific, proficient and dependable base of staff who stay dedicated to the mission. We now have not tried to develop too huge too quick or to tackle greater than we might efficiently handle. And that could be a temptation, imagine me.  Our steadfast devotion to resilience and skill to adapt and alter is huge based mostly available on the market we’re in. I’m extraordinarily proud and appreciative of the proficient folks now we have grown and retained right here at Blue Mantis and the brand new leaders and staff members now we have efficiently added. This has been big in serving to us develop, diversify and differentiate. They’ve embraced change, been versatile and proceed to drive our purchasers into the longer term. Purchasers inform us repeatedly – “this makes you stand out.”

What are the newest developments in knowledge middle modernization, and the way is Blue Mantis getting ready its purchasers for future alternatives?

The info middle trade is actually witnessing a transformative period marked by the extremely speedy and broad adoption of Generative Synthetic Intelligence (GenAI). This know-how, which incorporates superior fashions like GPT-4, is reshaping the panorama of knowledge processing and administration. We’re working intently with CIOS, CISOs and even CEOs inside our consumer base to assist them absolutely perceive the implications of this seismic shift. As essential, we’re getting ready present knowledge middle assets – whether or not these are on-prem, in a non-public or public cloud or consumed in a hybrid mannequin. Blue Mantis companions with all the foremost knowledge middle {hardware} suppliers to make sure your modernization resolution is future-proof and energy-efficient. We will additionally optimize for value by integrating the providers of our FinOps staff, which has been confirmed to scale back our prospects’ annual cloud prices by 30% or extra.

Are you able to present insights into how Blue Mantis approaches complicated networking challenges for its purchasers?

We remedy complicated networking challenges for purchasers by means of a number of key methods:

1. Blue Mantis companions with purchasers to know their enterprise objectives and communication wants, making certain that the community infrastructure helps these goals successfully.
2. We provide personalized options to fulfill the particular wants of every consumer, contemplating elements like their measurement, trade, and actual community necessities.
3. We apply superior applied sciences together with software-defined networking (SDN), community perform virtualization (NFV), and superior community monitoring instruments.
4. Purchasers’ networking initiatives are supported by means of our staff of extremely expert networking specialists who’ve intensive expertise in coping with complicated community environments. This staff can diagnose and resolve intricate community points effectively.
5. We’re not some extent options supplier; we provide complete end-to-end providers that handle the whole lot from community design and implementation to ongoing administration and optimization.
6. We apply proactive monitoring and upkeep to each consumer engagement to repeatedly monitor community efficiency and determine potential points earlier than they change into vital issues. We conduct common upkeep and updates to make sure community reliability.
7. By combining better of breed and emergent know-how, we guarantee our prospects are absolutely conscious of the choices they’ve.  Combining a consultative method, extremely expert specialists, and a portfolio of market main companions we’re in a position to ship the correct resolution on the proper time.

By combining these approaches, Blue Mantis successfully addresses the complicated networking challenges confronted by its purchasers, making certain safe, environment friendly, and dependable community efficiency.