Bazar Solutions, Inc.
HOW BAZAR SOLUTIONS, INC. REDUCED SUPPORT TICKETS AND HELP DESK WORKLOAD WITH VADE FOR M365.
Background
Bazar Solutions, Inc. CEO Michael Bazar began his career as an independent IT contractor. Originally launching Bazar Solutions as a solo project, Bazar began working full time in wireless networking in the US and Canada where he was exposed to both the sales and services side of IT with Fortune 500 companies.
Mike officially relaunched and incorporated Bazar Solutions in 2009 with the goal of bringing Fortune 500 ideas to small businesses. “We never wanted to be the guy that sells the cheapest or easiest solution that is out there,” Bazar said, “or the guy that sells everything. We wanted to be really good at cybersecurity and IT management.” Today, Bazar Solutions, Inc. provides managed services to more than 122 clients in the Texas area.
About Bazar Solutions, Inc.
Bazar Solutions, Inc. is a managed service provider with offices in Lubbock, Killeen, and Houston, Texas. Specializing in managed IT and cybersecurity for small businesses, schools, and governments, Bazar Solutions has serviced Texas businesses and organizations for more than ten years with robust, managed IT services and personalized support.
THE CHALLENGE
To protect his Microsoft 365 clients, Bazar was running an email gateway that features encryption, but because the gateway architecture sits outside Microsoft 365, it created challenges in customer environments. “There are some things that Microsoft actually does really well,” Bazar said. “They do encryption, and it’s native.” The gateway, Bazar said, interfered with Microsoft’s built-in encryption because the gateway scans email in and out of the environment.
Phishing, Bazar said, continues to be a major challenge for email gateways. “Once the email is through,” he said, “there’s nothing they can do about it.” Additionally, Bazar said, despite the fact that phishing is one of the top cybersecurity threats to businesses, “people still don’t understand what a phishing email is. That is amazing to me. We’ve been talking about phishing for a decade.”
One of the reasons for the disconnect, Bazar says, is because small businesses don’t believe their data is valuable enough to steal. “‘Why would they want my email? I have no data that’s worth stealing as a small business.’” Clients understand that threats exist, Bazar said, but they don’t understand the implications of a successful phishing attack.
People still don’t understand what a phishing email is. That is amazing to me. We’ve been talking about phishing for a decade.
While training users to identify phishing is one of the best ways to mitigate threats, most email security solutions, Bazar said, use URL rewriting to inspect links, resulting in long, complex URLs that conceal phishing links. “We’re training everyone to check the link,” Bazar said, “but when they hover over it, it’s this huge rewritten link. Having the link rewritten doesn’t do any good, because now their training goes out the window.”
Another email security issue facing his clients, Bazar said, is spear phishing. “We have a customer that we signed up, and within the first week, they came back freaked out because someone created a Gmail account with their CEO’s name. I can’t stop that. I can’t stop someone from setting up a fake Gmail account. That’s where I think a highly intelligent email security platform would be better.”
THE SOLUTION
At a Robin Robbins event in 2020, Bazar attended a speaking session on Microsoft 365 email security presented by Vade. “I wasn’t really looking for another vendor,” Bazar said. “I didn’t really have any complaints about their service. But when I saw the Vade presentation, I said, ‘This is what email security should be. What everybody else is doing is the way we’ve always done it.’ When we started having issues making our current vendor work with email encryption, that’s when we said, ‘Let’s use this as a test case for Vade.’”
Vade for M365 is an AI-based email security solution for M365 that integrates with Microsoft 365 via API and features robust post-delivery features that provide continuous protection, remediation capabilities, and managed service capabilities for MSPs.
Featuring Machine Learning, Computer Vision, and Natural Language Processing, the solution uses behavioral analysis to block sophisticated phishing attacks, targeted spear phishing attempts, and polymorphic malware and ransomware.
Purpose-built for MSPs, Vade for M365 is a low-touch solution that includes integrated features that empower MSPs to do more with less:
- MSP Response: Centralizes Microsoft 365 tenants in a unified dashboard that features aggregated email logs and one-click remediation across tenants.
- Auto-Remediate: Scans email continually and automatically removes threats post delivery.
- Vade Threat Coach: Delivers automated, contextual training sessions when users interact with phishing emails.
When I saw the Vade presentation, I said, ‘This is what email security should be. What everybody else is doing is the way we’ve always done it.
RESULTS
The previous email security vendor, Bazar noted, provided sufficient protection, but Vade’s solution also provides protection after attacks, as well as remediation and training.
“Security is an ongoing thing. Everything about what Vade is doing is better because it’s better security, not a better spam filter. That’s the differentiator. Other vendors say ‘email security’, but they’re really a spam filter. Once the email is through, they can’t do anything about it. Most vendors are that way, and that was the ‘aha moment.’ This is what cybersecurity around email security should be.”
The built-in training capabilities of Vade for M365 are also helping Bazar Solutions, Inc. alleviate some of the issues surrounding phishing education. “I really like the targeted training,” Bazar said about Vade Threat Coach. “We offer phishing training, but I like the fact that if something comes through and someone clicks on it, they get that targeted training that says, ‘Hey, you made a mistake.’”
Bazar Solutions, Inc. opted to follow Vade’s recommendation to activate Auto-Remediate, which does not rewrite links but scans email continuously and removes emails post-delivery. “Vade is keeping up with the science. It’s scanning on the inbound anyways, so if a user clicks it, they’re going to get that targeted training.” As an MSP, especially as the owner, the best thing about Vade is that I don’t have to think about it. It just works. We get very few, if any, real tickets around Vade. If I can find a solution that does a better job with security overall, that reduces workload on my help desk, and that customers don’t have to think or ask questions about, that to me is the big win. Michael Bazar, CEO, Bazar Solutions, Inc.
As an MSP, especially as the owner, the best thing about Vade is that I don’t have to think about it. It just works. We get very few, if any, real tickets around Vade. If I can find a solution that does a better job with security overall, that reduces workload on my help desk, and that customers don’t have to think or ask questions about, that to me is the big win.
Bazar Solutions, Inc. currently has a dozen clients on Vade for M365, and by the end of 2021, hopes to have 60-80 clients and around 1,800 mailboxes on the solution. “As an MSP,” Bazar said, “especially as the owner, the best thing about Vade is that I don’t have to think about it. It just works. We get very few, if any, real tickets around Vade. If I can find a solution that does a better job with security overall, that reduces workload on my help desk, and that customers don’t have to think or ask questions about, that to me is the big win.”
WHY BAZAR SOLUTIONS CHOSE VADE
- API integration with Microsoft 365
- Behavioral analysis with Machine Learning and Computer
- Vision Continual email scanning and post-delivery remediation
- Automated user awareness training
- Low-touch cybersecurity for IT admins
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