Ensuring secure, seamless work in the pandemic

The collaboration – which centered around migrating customers to Microsoft 365 – has helped increase MCG’s secure email hosting and access to collaboration tools that are now essential to remote work success.

MCG’s 100 clients with nearly 2,000 email accounts experienced an onslaught of phishing and ransomware attacks, any of which could have been devastating to their businesses, if successful. Rackspace Technology had previously helped the New York-based company restore email service during Superstorm Sandy, so the two teams quickly worked together again on a strategy to transition clients to Microsoft 365. Even while executing that plan in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rackspace Technology team was able to transition customers to a more secure service, in most cases over the course of a weekend.

“There was a significant value prop to partner with Rackspace Technology because they’ve expertly supported us in previous urgent and uncertain times. We could assure customers the whole project would be executed effectively and with limited to no downtime,” said Ken Goldberg, President of MCG. “The collaboration between our teams was stellar, the strategy was exactly what we needed, and the customer service was fantastic. It really was a pleasure working with the entire Rackspace Technology team.”

In order to transition so many customers in a short period of time, the Rackspace Technology team planned for a three-phased approach. Customers experiencing the most attacks were prioritized and transitioned first. But as phase two approached, the pandemic occurred, forcing businesses into a remote work culture, creating a higher urgency for change. While secure email would still be a key benefit of the transition, customers now desperately needed the remote work and collaboration services from Microsoft, including SharePoint, OneDrive and Microsoft Teams.

Rackspace Technology met that urgency with action, quickly working to transition the rest of MCG’s clients, all with little to no downtime for employees. The result is a more nimble company that not only is protected from the potentially costly email attacks, but has a Microsoft infrastructure that can be scaled to other products.

“We have a great history with MCG and we were excited to help their customers improve both their security and collaboration efforts, especially after the pandemic created such a chaotic work environment,” said Jeff DeVerter, Chief Technology Officer, Solutions at Rackspace Technology. “MCG customers are now set up for further success as the future of work evolves and new tools are needed.”