Website: www.kidneyresearchuk.org
Industry: Non-profit
Customer size: 70
Microsoft First Champion: Chris Holden, Information Systems Manager, Kidney Research UK
At a glance
secure365 Option(s): Advanced & Sentinel
Challenge: Strict budget and resource constraints
Benefits: Retired third-party security apps, gained 24×7 security
How Kidney Research UK has levelled up their security with Microsoft and secure365
Kidney Research UK partnered with Microsoft security experts Softwerx to support the charity’s cybersecurity aims whilst staying within budget. Softwerx advised that the charity should use a Microsoft First approach by adopting enhanced Microsoft security features and reducing spending on alternate third-party solutions.
The charity had no capacity or desire to build its own internal security team, so it took advantage of Softwerx’s 24/7 Managed Detection and Response (MDR) offering via the Softwerx Security Operations Centre (SOC). Kidney Research UK now enjoys affordable, eyes-on, round-the-clock, enterprise-grade security support.
“Softwerx is a strategic partner, and we rely on it to keep our systems secure around the clock.”
Anne-Marie McCarthy
“Having Softwerx manage our security on a 24/7 basis has meant that we can go to sleep knowing that our security is taken care of.”
Chris Holden
“Kidney Research benefits from first-rate security. Any threats will be picked up and responded to immediately, at any time of the day or night.”
Adriaan Bekker
Client challenges
Because donors and beneficiaries trust Kidney Research UK with their sensitive data, the charity places great importance on a strong security posture. Yet, it had no internal security expertise and no means to monitor its environment around the clock, even though alerts and incidents occurred on a 24-hour basis.
Compounding this, as with most charities, Kidney Research UK’s budget is strictly governed, and the expense of the enterprise-grade security it needed – including extended detection and response (XDR) and security information and event management (SIEM) systems – was prohibitive.
Softwerx's solution
Guided by UK cloud security specialist Softwerx, Kidney Research UK adopted a Microsoft First security approach, deploying conditional access in Azure Active Directory and Microsoft 365 Defender solutions, including Defender for Cloud Apps, and Defender for Cloud.
The charity then chose Softwerx’s SecureStandard security support bundle, augmented by SecureSentinel, which includes continuous Microsoft 365 Defender XDR and Microsoft Sentinel SIEM integration. Softwerx onboarded the client by ingesting their security logs via Microsoft Sentinel from the various Defender sources.
Client benefits
In addition to gaining round-the-clock, enterprise-grade, eyes-on MDR cybersecurity support by partnering with Softwerx, Kidney Research UK was also able to streamline security at a competitive price point by retiring legacy third-party security vendors. Softwerx security support now identifies, probes, and responds to all alerts and incidents straight away. Kidney Research UK can rely on always-on unified security defence, greater threat intelligence and faster responses.
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