Zero Outages in 12 Months: How a Financial Advisory Firm Fixed Its IT Before the Regulator Found It
What was slowing them down.
A 45-person registered investment advisory firm was averaging 3-5 unplanned IT outages per month — each lasting 45 minutes to 3 hours. Staff were managing workarounds instead of serving clients. A cybersecurity assessment commissioned by their insurance carrier found 23 critical findings: servers running unpatched operating systems, no multi-factor authentication on email or the CRM, and a backup system that had not been tested in 14 months (and was not actually working). The firm's compliance officer was aware that an upcoming SEC examination would include cybersecurity questions they could not currently answer honestly.
The solution.
Genese Solutions took over managed IT operations under a 24/7 monitoring and management contract. In the first 30 days, we deployed endpoint monitoring across all 45 workstations and 6 servers, implemented MFA on all client-facing systems, patched all critical vulnerabilities, and restored and tested the backup infrastructure. We established a structured patch management cycle, a monthly vulnerability scan with remediation tracking, and a formal incident response process. Staff received a new helpdesk with tracked tickets and guaranteed response times — replacing the informal 'ask the IT guy' model.
- Zero unplanned IT outages in the 12 months following engagement (vs. 40+ in the prior year)
- All 23 critical security findings remediated within 60 days of engagement
- SEC cybersecurity examination passed with zero findings in the IT domain
- Average IT support ticket resolution time: 47 minutes (vs. 2+ days previously)
- Cyber insurance premium reduced by 22% at renewal due to documented security improvements
“We knew our IT was a problem but we kept pushing it down the priority list. When our insurance carrier flagged the security gaps, we had no choice. Genese fixed everything that mattered in 60 days and we sailed through our SEC review. It's the best infrastructure investment we've made.”
Managing Partner
Registered Investment Advisory Firm, Northeast
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