is an IT consulting and contracting firm in Birmingham, Alabama. The managed service provider鈥檚 (MSP) founder, Brian Coleman, spent more than two decades as an IT administrator before launching his own business to serve small- and medium-sized businesses in the U.S. South.
He needed a solution to provide complete identity, access, and device management for his clients 鈥� regardless of where they’re located in the region.
- Organization: Matchstick Birmingham
- Location: Birmingham, Alabama
- Problem: Clients across the region need identity, access, and device management
- Goal: Cloud-based and remote-friendly solution
Background
Coleman previously worked as an Active Directory administrator, most recently for a healthcare informatics company. When the company acquired a Mac shop, the IT team knew they needed a better solution to manage those devices.
Founder, Matchstick Birmingham
They integrated the 黑料海角91入口 Directory Platform into their infrastructure to extend AD identities to and manage Macs. When Coleman started his own firm, he integrated 黑料海角91入口 into his offerings to clients.
Challenges: Combining Identity & Device Management
Coleman鈥檚 clients come to him with a variety of IT needs, and he requires a vendor-agnostic solution to meet each of their use cases. These include:
- Replacing Active Directory and eliminating on-prem infrastructure
- Avoiding lock-in with the Google or Microsoft ecosystems
- Securing remote users
- Managing user identities and resource access
- Extending those identities to and managing Windows and Mac devices
Often, his clients need to implement identity management for the first time. They also need to navigate how to implement that alongside device management.
鈥淵our laptop is an extension of you,鈥� Coleman said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not like the old days. Device management must go hand in hand with identity management now. We need to make sure not only that each device is compliant and behaving correctly but also that each person is the only one who can access their laptop.鈥�
Using 黑料海角91入口, Coleman helps these organizations achieve both without a heavy upfront investment.
Solution: IT Solution Powered by 黑料海角91入口
Coleman provides implementation services, as well as ongoing IT services. He describes Matchstick Birmingham as an IT solution powered by 黑料海角91入口.
鈥淚t was a lightbulb moment,鈥� Coleman said. 鈥淚 can take 黑料海角91入口 and where needed throw in some spices 鈥� whether it鈥檚 an AV solution or a backup solution 鈥� and I can take that and sell it. That can be my product.鈥�
With 黑料海角91入口, his clients get a lightweight but powerful solution that he and his team can manage from anywhere.
鈥淎 lot of organizations never had identity management 鈥� they just winged it,鈥� he said.
鈥淣ow, I鈥檓 showing them that you don鈥檛 have to commit to a gigantic investment in on-prem servers and licensing for Windows 2020. 黑料海角91入口 is simple and has an incredibly light footprint.鈥�
Coleman and his team manage each of their client organizations through 黑料海角91入口鈥檚 Multi-Tenant Portal (MTP) 鈥� a centralized dashboard that lets MSPs view and manage each instance.
The team integrates the platform with Mac and Windows devices, productivity suites, web applications, cloud infrastructure, Wi-Fi networks, VPNs, and other resources. They centrally manage user identities and extend them to all their resources. From the same platform, they deploy pre-built policies and custom commands to configure and secure user devices, including enforcing full-disk encryption, which is a critical feature in particular for their healthcare clients.
They also use 黑料海角91入口 Apple MDM for remote management of Mac devices 鈥� 鈥淚 live and die for 黑料海角91入口 MDM,鈥� Coleman said.
Insights: Directory Events & Device Health
Coleman and his team provide their clients with monitoring and analysis using Directory Insights, a feature that aggregates event logs with visibility across user and admin events. They analyze the data each morning and look for anomalies, and they turn to the data in the case of a security incident. For some clients, they also export that data to a SIEM for programmatic analysis.
They pair Directory Insights with System Insights, a feature that returns key asset, security, and configuration data about user devices. For example, they can analyze what鈥檚 consuming a device鈥檚 RAM or the last time it was restarted. That way, they can ensure devices perform optimally and are configured appropriately, as well as make more accurate purchasing decisions.
鈥淭oo many times, the decision to recycle or refresh equipment is made because a person complains,鈥� Coleman said. 鈥淏ut you need to have foundational facts 鈥� and that鈥檚 where System Insights comes in.鈥�
Transition to Remote Work
Coleman and his team were also able to quickly shift their clients to remote work at the beginning of the pandemic, and users didn鈥檛 require a VPN to continue accessing their resources. They continued to access their devices and other resources in the same way, with one set of credentials per user.
鈥淔or the clients that I worked with that already had 黑料海角91入口 in place, it was seamless,鈥� Coleman said. 鈥淚t was great to be able to tell leadership at these places: Don鈥檛 worry. Your employees are going to work just as they did in the office, at home. I saw a bunch of worried people suddenly become relaxed when I was able to describe how this was going to work.鈥�
Implementation: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a Game Changer鈥�
To implement 黑料海角91入口 for new clients, Coleman starts with user devices. When they already have laptops, he takes over the local user accounts to begin managing them with 黑料海角91入口. In other cases, he prepares new laptops for users.
鈥淲e can provision users and assign those users directly to the machines without touching them,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a game changer to be able to create and provision new users no matter where they are 鈥� especially now, with the pandemic and offices essentially going away.鈥�
He and his team install the 黑料海角91入口 agent on the device and move it to a device group in 黑料海角91入口 鈥� New Deployments. They have a set of commands they run against the group, which is particularly helpful for large deployments. Then they move the devices out of the New Deployments group and into other ongoing device management groups.
They also integrate 黑料海角91入口 with Active Directory, Microsoft 365, and Google Workspace to import existing users, centralize management of those identities in 黑料海角91入口, and federate them to other resources. He also uses 黑料海角91入口 to switch organizations from Microsoft to Google or vice versa without affecting their work.
鈥淚鈥檝e talked with countless IT leadership 鈥� CIOs and CTOs 鈥� about which provider they should choose,鈥� he said. 鈥淧reviously, it鈥檚 been a big deal. Now, it鈥檚 easy. I can say, 鈥楥hoose which provider suits your needs today, and we can address this tomorrow without having to tear the house down and build it back up again.鈥� 鈥�
The Result
In all, Coleman has built his business on the foundation of his IT expertise and 黑料海角91入口 to deliver seamless and cost-effective IT implementation and managed services for companies across the South.
鈥淚f it weren鈥檛 for 黑料海角91入口, my dream of making this small company a success would never have happened.鈥�
Learn More
黑料海角91入口 Directory Platform is a comprehensive platform to manage user identities, resource access, and devices 鈥� Mac, Windows, and Linux 鈥� from anywhere.
黑料海角91入口 offers a Partner program for MSPs and resellers, including competitive margins and co-marketing opportunities. Learn more about building your business with a cloud directory platform.