The team at SouthStar Bank, a mid-sized financial services firm, keeps pretty busy, collaborating on countless files and sharing them externally and internally. But their technology – an on-premises file server with VPN access – was creating collaboration bottlenecks and data security risks.

“We were dealing with what I call a legacy shared drive,” says Bryan Buck, Chief Technology Officer at SouthStar. “As we grew and our operations became more complex, that started showing some real challenges.”

Buck knew his team would need to upgrade to a system that could facilitate their level of activity while keeping their processes smooth and their files secure. After a robust vendor selection process, he implemented Egnyte, gaining valuable benefits in content security, user experience, and overall performance.

Challenges: On-Premises Technology Created Security Risks and Slowed Workflows

The files SouthStar deals with every day are highly sensitive. Many of them contain customers’ financial data or the bank’s proprietary information. “We run a tight ship with our files,” explains Buck. “We need to know where they’re stored and who has access, and we need to be able to collaborate on them efficiently.”

Prior to Egnyte, the on-premises system the team was using fell short of this goal in several areas:

• Efficiency. Only one person at a time could edit a file, which slowed collaboration to a crawl. The team also had to rely on third-party solutions to exchange files with customers and scan for sensitive data, which made those processes more costly and time-consuming.
• Visibility. It was difficult to see where sensitive information was stored and to view and manage access permissions. That created serious security and privacy risks.
• Capacity. After years of using their on-premises system, the team was running out of backup space. "The shared drive grew and grew until I couldn’t keep as many backups as I needed," Buck says.

As Buck set out to find a new system, end-user experience was top-of-mind. “I wanted something that was new, different, better, and would offer a seamless transition for users,” Buck says. “I wanted users to be able to do things the way they always have, with the benefits of improved security, efficiency, and control.” To address the capacity issue, it was also important that whatever system they implemented be cloud-hosted. As Buck explains, “We really wanted to solve the local storage piece and not have to worry about backups.”

Solution: Full Control in an Easy-to-Use Platform

Buck kicked off a search for a solution that would meet his team’s criteria. When he started evaluating Egnyte, he was immediately impressed. “Initially, I attended a webinar that Egnyte hosted,” Buck says. “By the end, it was clear that Egnyte could solve many of our challenges.”

Buck made the decision to implement Egnyte, and to utilize its integrations with Microsoft Office and Azure Active Directory. Three features that most impressed Buck were:

• Unified view of risk. Egnyte provided a dashboard that gave Buck a clear picture of the risk level that SouthStar faced at any given time, and quickly flagged potential security issues. “I like the way Egnyte alerts me to unusual behavior,” Buck says. “Say somebody deletes an unusually large number of files. I get alerted to that instantly. I can then log in, get full visibility into what happened, and follow up with that person.” The platform also made it easy to change access permissions in just a few clicks, and for multiple stakeholders to edit a file simultaneously.
• Ease of use. Buck was able to implement the Egnyte system with virtually no disruption to his team. “The lightbulb moment was learning that, with Egnyte, the user doesn’t even know that something has changed,” Buck explains. Egnyte enabled users to store files in a centralized repository that appeared as a mapped file drive, making it easy to locate, access, and share files. They could also quickly and easily access files from any device through the cloud. Buck offers a personal example: “One week, I had COVID and was stuck working from home. I hadn’t installed Egnyte on my personal laptop, but I was still able to log in via the cloud and access whatever files I needed.”
• Native integrations with Microsoft. Buck and his team were impressed with the ways Egnyte’s integration with Microsoft Office has streamlined collaboration. “Our ability to co-edit documents using the Office integration is huge for us,” explains Buck. “Previously, a user would have to wait up to an hour for someone to be out of a document before they could edit it. Now, they can collaborate in real time.”

Along the way, Buck had a great experience working with the Egnyte team. As he puts it: “From sales to implementation to post-implementation, the Egnyte team was willing to listen and respond quickly. They’re always available for regular check-ins to help us get the most value out of the solution.” 

Benefits: Better Security, Reduced Costs, and Happy Users

Since implementing Egnyte, SouthStar has gained a holistic view of their data and better control over it, leading to significant improvements in content security and the user experience. “Detecting sensitive data is a key feature for us, and we’ve made tremendous progress there,” explains Buck. “I can see where my content is, ensure we have the right permissions set up for every file, and get alerts to any unusual behavior that could pose a security risk. All of that is so quick and easy now.”

This has empowered him to manage risk at a more granular level and on a continuous basis, resulting in concrete benefits for SouthStar: “When we implemented Egnyte, there were 20,000 sensitive files stored in unpermitted locations,” Buck says. “The visibility and control I’ve gotten from Egnyte has allowed me to bring that number down to zero.”

Egnyte has gotten an enthusiastically positive response from the company’s users. As Buck puts it: “Our basic users are happy that implementing Egnyte didn’t disrupt their workflows. And more advanced users love that they can access files from any location using either the web-based or mobile version of the platform.” Users also enjoy the ability to share files as links rather than attachments. “Rather than email files back and forth, our users can simply share a direct link,” Buck says. “That has made us a lot more efficient.” 

The cloud-based solution has also alleviated limitations on backup space – and even created cost savings for SouthStar. “We’re able to reduce annual spend by $10,000 by eliminating redundant software, because Egnyte allows us to roll file-sharing, content scanning, and so many other things into one simple solution.” 

Buck adds, “That’s really the essence of what Egnyte has done for us. With our previous solution, there were all these steps and tools we had to use to do what we needed to do. But with Egnyte, it’s all-in-one.” 

Virtua Consulting, an IT consulting firm and member of the Egnyte Partner Program with clients across the United States, had a good thing going. They had set up their largely Mac-based clientele with a file-sharing system that was perfectly suited to on-site workflows, and were able to make quick adjustments, without any disruption, when Apple changed their product offering.

Enter COVID, and on-site workflows suddenly felt like a thing of the past. “When the pandemic forced us to switch everyone to a work-from-home model, we knew we would need a cloud-based solution to keep things running smoothly,” explains Justin Esgar, Chief Executive Officer of Virtua Consulting.

That cloud-based solution arrived in the form of Egnyte. With Egnyte as their partner, Virtua was able to switch their clients to remote workflows without losing any of the speed, security, or file-sharing capabilities they relied upon. Along the way, Egnyte allowed them to strengthen their relationships with their clients and grow their revenue.

Challenges: VPN Hinders Universal Work-from-Home

When Virtua’s clients switched to remote workflows after the pandemic began, Virtua initially kept their existing VPN in place – and for a time, it worked. “The system had its own built-in operating system, and our clients were able to keep working after they switched to work-from-home with no major disruption, at least at first,” Esgar explains.

Soon enough, however, the solution began to show signs of strain. “We started hearing complaints about the system not being fast enough,” Esgar says. “Our clients were dealing with a lot of lag time – and to be honest, this wasn’t much of a surprise. The VPN had a pipeline that was built for maybe three or four users to work from home at the same time. But our clients didn’t have just three or four remote users. They had up to a hundred, or even more.”

It was clear that VPN access could not meet the demand for remote functionality that the pandemic had produced. Esgar knew he would need a cloud solution that could enable remote collaboration at a large scale – while simultaneously ensuring security and access governance.

Solution: Faster, More Secure Workflows Through the Cloud

When Esgar considered Egnyte as an alternative to their VPN, he immediately recognized it as the ideal solution. “Egnyte was the only solution we pitched to our clients,” he explains. “For one thing, it’s cloud-based, which we knew would help with the remote-work issue. It also has so many great features built in that I knew would make productivity and security top-notch for my clients.”

For Esgar, the most valuable features of the Egnyte system are:

• Speed. Using Egnyte, entire companies can access their network remotely, without lag time. Esgar comments: “Our clients don’t have to VPN into the office and worry about how fast the internet is there. Everyone can work from home, or from anywhere, and easily connect to Egnyte in the cloud.”
• Security and Governance. Egnyte alerts admins to any usual behavior that may pose a security or compliance risk. “With Egnyte, our clients can make sure nothing is happening from an issues standpoint,” Esgar says. “For example, no one wants to find out the person who quit yesterday deleted a bunch of files on the way out. This helps our clients strengthen their security, as well as their regulatory compliance.”

Esgar also points to the ease of sharing and requesting files, the flexibility to access the system via web or mobile app, and the many available integrations as features that made Egnyte the best solution for Virtua’s clients. “All of these bundled together made Egnyte the clear choice,” he explains. “It was really easy for us to tell our clients: ‘Egnyte is the best solution for you moving forward, whether you stay remote, go back to the office full-time, or adopt a hybrid model.’”

When Virtua set up their clients with Egnyte, the ease of implementation enabled them to get up and running quickly. As Esgar says: “Switching to a new system involves renaming and uploading a plethora of files stored in the previous system. This is normally very time-consuming. But with Egnyte, we were typically able to get our clients set up in about two and a half weeks.”

Benefits: Happy Clients, Repeat Business, and Great Support

Since Virtua standardized on Egnyte, clients have reported myriad benefits spanning security, compliance, productivity, and ease of use. “With Egnyte, our clients don’t have to worry about their data. It’s secure and protected,” says Esgar. “The security and governance functionality allows our clients to scan for sensitive data and make sure nobody is doing something they shouldn’t be. And they love being able to access all their data from one central, secure location. It’s super easy.”

Esgar also speaks to the benefits of Egnyte’s Partner Program. “Being an Egnyte Partner gives me next-level access to Egnyte’s outstanding support team,” he explains. “It also allows me to resell the product to my clients.”

All of this has strengthened Virtua’s relationships with their clients, leading to repeat business and increased revenue. “Egnyte makes us look good to our clients, so they keep coming back,” Esgar says. “We’re giving them a tool that empowers them to work from anywhere while still maintaining top-notch security. That’s an amazing combination of power. And for us, providing them with that power means longer client relationships and more money for our business.”

How would Esgar sum up the impact Egnyte has had on his clients in one sentence? “Egnyte allows us to standardize security and productivity for our clients. What more could you possibly ask for?”

On any given day, Nimbus Therapeutics was running multiple experiments and projects simultaneously. Lots of projects meant lots of data, and as the volume of content grew, the Nimbus team realized their reliance on manual data management processes was just not sustainable.

“Our data team would start their day with tons of content to load into our database,” says Dr. Rebecca Carazza, Ph.D., Head of Information Systems at Nimbus. “Before it could be loaded, it had to be pre-processed and put into the right format. All of that was done manually.”

When Dr. Carazza joined the company in 2018, she set out to automate the transfer and management of increasing volumes of data. Her efforts focused on three areas: people, process, and technology.

Challenge: Manual Processes Threaten Major Disruption

In the Nimbus team’s drug discovery workflow, external vendors play a prominent role. “Although we’re a biotech, there are no labs at Nimbus,” Dr. Carazza says. “All compounds are synthesized externally, and our experiments are run at contract research organizations (CRO). At any given stage in the drug discovery process, numerous external parties are sending data to Nimbus, often in varying formats. Nimbus ingests this data manually, making it practically impossible to scale operations.

As the team analyzed its processes, it identified several challenges:

• Human error. The team had to validate the data, upload it into the corporate database, reconcile different data formats, and troubleshoot in the event of any issues. Human error at any one of these steps threatened data integrity.
• Inefficiency. To ensure everyone was working on the correct file version, the team had to create an entirely new file or manually update and rename an existing one each time a document was modified.
• Lack of visibility and accountability. File update notifications were sent through email, which could easily get lost in crowded inboxes and provided no visibility to the broader team. Recipients also had to keep constant tabs on their inboxes so they could respond in a timely fashion. Without tracking issues, root cause analysis was nearly impossible.
• Delays. Stakeholders were dispersed across time zones, which often slowed the process. Content sat for hours or days before the data team started their workday.

Dr. Carazza knew the team had to drastically reduce their reliance on these manual processes. “We needed a scalable, automated solution with minimal manual processing and clear accountability.”

Solution: A Powerful Tech Stack—With Egnyte at the Center

Nimbus was already using Egnyte for data storage when Dr. Carazza joined the company. She saw an opportunity to use Egnyte’s built-in public cloud workflows and integrations to help automate how it handled content sent from vendor partners.

Dr. Carazza’s team assembled a tech stack—consisting of Jira™, AWS Lambda, and other platforms—to create an end-to-end solution that would automate how the data was received, validated, uploaded, and updated. Egnyte was an indispensable partner, acting as the hub for the data team to synthesize these tools into a cohesive, interconnected workflow, which the team now refers to as NIMBEye.

Egnyte facilitated the interconnected use of Lambda (AWS’ event-driven compute service) and Jira’s workflow and ticketing system to accelerate the process of finding new content and getting it into the database. “If AWS Lambda finds any new content that needs to be loaded, it creates a Jira™ ticket to get that done automatically,” Dr. Carazza says. “NIMBEye enables us to utilize Egnyte’s API integration with Jira™ to automate all the steps that we used to handle manually.”

Today, the team uses several key features in Egnyte, including:

• Version control. Any changes made to a file appear automatically in Egnyte, and Egnyte enables the team to review previous versions of data within one file, eliminating the need to create and track different files for each version. In addition, the new version will resurrect the closed Jira™ ticket, capture key information, and automatically reprocess it, overwriting the former uploaded content in Nimbus’ corporate database.
• Secure links. The Egnyte platform provides direct links to the most current version of the files, giving the Nimbus team with quick and easy access to key content. These Egnyte links are available in Jira™ tickets as well as the daily summary emails to project teams, giving scientists access to the content loaded in the last 24 hours in a standard format.
• Issue Alerts. In the event of an error related to any piece of content, Egnyte provides a seamless process for alerting the data team or CRO to validation errors.
• Metadata capture. All content added to Egnyte for database upload will pass key metadata to Jira™ and in return, the Jira™ ticket number is passed back to the file in Egnyte. This two-way synchronization allows the team to track the progress of the ticket.

Benefits: Stronger Data and Faster Drug Deployment

Under the NIMBEye workflow, “success means that no human had to touch the content,” Dr. Carazza says. “Everything is automated—from the content leaving the CRO to entering our database to being ready for review by our scientists.” If experiments don’t successfully load, the ticket is assigned to the primary contact to correct any issues then it will automatically launch another attempt to reload the updated version.

When Dr. Carazza started at Nimbus, the data team consisted of three full-time employees. Since then, the highly successful end-to-end process automation has enabled the company to reduce the team to just one even as the amount of data loaded since 2019 has nearly quadrupled. That’s a two-thirds reduction in their reliance on manual, human-driven processes that were more vulnerable to errors and delays. This has also helped combat employee burnout—former members of the team can now focus on higher-value efforts elsewhere in the company’s operations.

Nimbus has also substantially accelerated the data uploading process. Previously, after the CRO sent the data, it often sat for hours before the data team manually loaded it into the system. Now, the data is loaded and deployed to end users within 30 minutes of being sent from the CRO or assigned to a key contact for QC with streamlined access to errors and links to content to expedite the corrections.

All of this has unlocked invaluable downstream benefits. The potential for human error has been virtually eliminated, which has helped preserve data integrity and improve data quality. In a time-sensitive field like drug discovery, in which even minor delays can torpedo a company’s intended timeline for crucial milestones, it has empowered Nimbus to remove bottlenecks from the process of CRO data ingestion.

 Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, GBBN Architects is an architectural design firm focused on innovation in housing, healthcare, education, and cultural venue design. With over 150 employees across five offices in Ohio, Kentucky, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and China, they strive to deliver designs that not only result in great buildings but positively impact people. With a geographically dispersed workforce, many working remotely, the need for a secure and easy-to-use file collaboration platform came into focus.

Challenge: GBBN Reaches an On-Premises Crossroads

In 2021, GBBN Architects found themselves at a crossroads. The company had on-premises N5 storage device running their virtual environment which was soon running out of support. In addition, GBBN’s Panzura appliances were also running out of support. Between the expiration of hardware and software licenses, GBBN saw an opportunity to research new technologies and providers.

At the same time, GBBN was also focused on managing company data more effectively. For example, the IT team would receive support tickets that read, “My project is gone from the network.” In helping resolve the support tickets, GBBN’s IT staff couldn’t pull data usage reports from individual staff members to diagnose the issue. Matt Birk, GBBN’s CIO, says, “Using traditional tools such as Windows search, responding to this type of support ticket could take up to two days of searching through terabytes of data to find where a project was moved.”

Another challenge to effectively manage company data was secure file collaboration. Previously, GBBN was forced to give project partners access to their network, providing a domain log-in and access to a VPN connection. Birk says, “It was challenging for our IT staff to manage connectivity. Partner users had way more access to our company data than just the project files they needed; we hoped they wouldn’t inadvertently launch a ransomware attack.” There was the additional burden of tracking whether a partner user was still employed with the firm or not, ultimately relying on the individual partners to notify the GBBN IT staff of any personnel changes. And providing VPN access to partners of smaller firms that had outsourced their IT staff was even scarier. Birk says, “Each time a new partner was added to the network, our IT team would lose more control over the users accessing our company data.”

Carefully considering the existing data challenges and knowing the opportunity, the company began researching its options, starting with Panzura, Nasuni, AWS, and Microsoft Azure. GBBN focused on their primary data requirements, specifically global file locking, stability, and security. While all solutions met all or most the basic criteria, Egnyte went beyond. Birk says, “Once we met with Egnyte, we discovered the product included many more features than the other candidates in terms of security and governance. That caught the attention of our team, especially our network administrator.”

Solution: Richer Data Usage Reporting and Collaboration Capabilities

Egnyte reporting features captured everybody’s attention. Specifically, individual staff usage data coupled with the machine learning applied to each employee’s use of data jumped out to the company. Birk says, “Egnyte has unique features we did not see with the other platforms, or at least we did not see in depth on the other platforms.”

When considering whether to renew their Project Information Management application’s license, they found overlap between features provided by Egnyte and those provided by the PIM solutions, including sending large files, download tracking, file transfer link clicks, and outside party file requests. Given the extensive range of security and governance features and Egnyte’s ability to cover critical areas served by PIM applications, GBBN decided to change to Egnyte.

Once Egnyte was deployed, GBBN found immediate value in data usage reporting. The IT team could search for file changes and get results within five seconds, not the days they were used to waiting. The team also gained additional security features built on machine learning. Birk explains, “If a user is typically opening 50 files a day, but one day they open 100 files, we get an alert. Egnyte’s features have saved us from confidential data walking out the door.” Birk continues, “Prior to Egnyte, we had no ability to audit files that were downloaded, leaving our firm to trust that no confidential or source files were taken from our network. After Egnyte was implemented, we were able to audit and report on what individuals were downloading. This new capability enabled us to reverse the trend of an abnormal download of proprietary company data. Our management team was impressed with Egnyte’s data auditing tools, and IT has really earned their keep in protecting our company’s data!”

Egnyte is also making it easier for GBBN to collaborate with other architects. According to Mike Rensing, Director of Technology, “There is no longer the need to request files or handle requests from partner firms to send files. We add partners as another team member to our data source, giving them access to the project structure.” Once partners are added to a project folder, users have full access to working project documents, making collaboration smoother. But with Egnyte, GBBN can hide and protect confidential files and folders, meaning their partners can’t access them, keeping their data secure.

Benefits: Secure Data Availability Creates a Greater Work-Life Balance

“I don’t think I’ve implemented anything in my recollection that has had as many staff come to us saying how they love the access,” says Birk. He explains one of their goals was to get rid of VPN; GBBN is now 99.9% VPN free. Another goal was to provide project managers out meeting with clients the ability to access the files they needed from iPads or iOS devices. Birk says, “Project Managers like using iPads. Egnyte is agnostic, which allows them to present projects to client leaders from any device they want. They are ecstatic about data availability, which frees them from bulky laptops, power supplies, and a VPN. They love traveling light and being able to communicate our brand more effectively.”

The availability of the data has vastly improved project site visits. Rensing says, “Our teams can go to the site, pull out their phone, snap a picture, and directly place that image file in the project folder.” He explains, “Simply filing the image where it needs to go right from the project site saves time. Teams no longer download the photos and move image files to the folder at the office. It happens right at the job site.”

“Egnyte is improving work-life balance and mobility of our staff,” Birk says. “When we bring in a new hire, they are blown away by our access and the feature set.” Rensing recalls one staff member who expressed joy in accessing files from the car. He says, “This person was delighted to be able to access work files while traveling as a passenger. Something is being done right if you get thanks for that.”

Looking at what’s next with Egnyte, GBBN Architects will be tackling the management of old project files and stale data. Birk says, “We used to search for old folders on our projects drive to determine which ones were not being accessed in the past year. We are looking at Egnyte to automatically identify project files that have not been touched for a given amount of time and move them off active storage to archival storage. That will save space and money.”