“The real advantage is partnering with a provider whose values, beliefs, best practices, and goals are aligned with your own business needs”

As today’s financial institutions “Align” their business goals, managing the business risks behind cybersecurity has become an essential priority for every organization. The fact is that cybersecurity has become a multi-factorial business challenge and that requires a multidisciplinary approach. When it comes to the financial services industry and the alternative investment management (AIM) space, it is a unique challenge that affects every facet of business operations.

The DNA that comprises the success of Align Managed Services is the cumulative experiences, passion, dedication, and strategies of its core management team including Vinod Paul, Chief Operating Officer, John Araneo, General Counsel & Managing Director of Align Cybersecurity, and Chris Zadrima, Senior Director of Managed Services. With a combined track record of over 50 years across the investment management industry, leading Global Managed IT Services Providers and compliance, this leadership team comprehends the demands of financial services firms and has aligned their solutions purpose-built for their client base.

The collaboration has resulted in Align Managed Services growth as a leading premier provider of technology solutions and services with a recognized center of excellence in Managed Services and cybersecurity. Vinod Paul adds over two decades of in-depth financial services and technology experience leading innovation and building Global Managed a broad corporate legal background, encompassing investment management law, data privacy and cybersecurity law, corporate governance and employment law. Chris Zadrima is a recognized leader in building customer management teams and a subject matter expert on leveraging cloud-based solutions to solve business and operational requirements. The trifecta leadership style and management principles ensure that Aligners understand that client service is a core initiative outlined in the firm’s formal strategic plan and a committed goal.

The Client-First Perspective in Cybersecurity

Align Managed Services represents the new prototype for the Modern MSP/ MSSP model, developed with a clientfirst perspective. Align has been able to service the financial services industry with constant innovation, while also utilizing a service delivery model that is focused on the client and their business needs. For more than 36 years, Align’s team has worked tirelessly to ensure its clients’ technologies are leading edge, secure, and sized to their business requirements. “Our team uniquely understands the objectives and goals of our clients and we engineered a solution that puts their needs first. We understand our client’s underlying regulatory requirements, investor and stakeholders’ expectations, the prevailing operational and cybersecurity standards, and most importantly how our clients leverage their data securely,” adds Paul. Align has also dedicated itself to the Financial Services vertical. By partnering with its clients, the company has achieved a mutually beneficial relationship of innovation and, as a trusted advisor, Align works directly cooperatively with clients to solve this vertical’s top challenges with technology and cybersecurity solutions that scale and evolve with changing regulation and business needs. Today, Align is at the forefront of technology innovation and assists clients with leveraging new and improved technologies to their business’ advantage. According to the team, choosing a Managed Services Provider is not just about the technology. “The real advantage is partnering with a provider whose values, beliefs, best practices, and goals are aligned with your own business needs,” says Zadrima.

The Comprehensive Solution

The Align management team made a conscious decision to build its cybersecurity services inside of a managed services provider because although cybersecurity and IT are independent and autonomous business functions, they are inextricably intertwined, and a model cybersecurity program can only exist if it has meaningful connective tissue with the IT functions. Align’s suite of cybersecurity services can be principally broken down into two fundamental categories that include Cybersecurity Advisory Services and Managed Security Technology solutions. The first services allow advising each client holistically and comprehensively, allowing the Align team to get a deeper understanding of each client’s cyber posture than any other single vendor could ascertain. In turn, this allows the company’s team to examine that client’s underlying cybersecurity risk on multiple planes simultaneously. “Conversely, the second category of services are the tools we use to fashion each client’s unique cybersecurity program, which is curated specifically based on that client’s unique cybersecurity posture,” explains Araneo.

The company’s cybersecurity advisory services include consultive engagements such as performing annual cybersecurity risk assessments, designing and drafting Cybersecurity Program Manuals, performing vendor due to diligence exercises on a client’s behalf, running cybersecurity committee meetings, performing table-top exercises, breach response services, and general cybersecurity consulting. The Managed Security Technology solutions include various services such as security education and training, continuous vulnerability scanning, and managed threat detection and response, to name a few. Align’s managed security services are designed to complement its Core Managed Services offering, which is the Align IT Suite. The Managed Security Services and solutions are in the foundational offerings of Align’s MSP/MSSP offering. In fact, there is a profound interdependency between both offerings and solutions. The company’s Cybersecurity Advisory team was designed purposefully to be multidisciplinary, including legal, IT, security, compliance, operational, technological, and governance professionals. As each client’s cybersecurity posture is as unique as a fingerprint, the Align solution includes depth of expertise over a broad range of technology, security, regulatory compliance, and operational matters, allowing the team to fashion an optimal, appropriately scaled cybersecurity program for any given client. “We view cybersecurity not through a singular lens but rather through a prism of multiple perspectives; a process that we believe best renders an unimpeachable cybersecurity program designed specifically for a given client,” John Araneo.

The company’s cybersecurity advisory services include consultive engagements such as performing annual cybersecurity risk assessments, designing and drafting Cybersecurity Program Manuals, performing vendor due to diligence exercises on a client’s behalf, running cybersecurity committee meetings, performing table-top exercises, breach response services, and general cybersecurity consulting. The Managed Security Technology solutions include various solutions that provide security education and training, continuous vulnerability scanning, and managed threat detection and response, to name a few. Align’s managed security services are designed to complement its Core Managed Services offering, which is the Align IT Suite. The Managed Security Services and solutions are in the DNA of the Align MSP/MSSP offering. In fact, there is a profound interdependency between both offerings and solutions.

The company’s Cybersecurity Advisory team was designed purposefully to be multidisciplinary, including legal, IT, security, compliance, operational, technological, and governance professionals. As each client’s cyber security posture is as unique as a fingerprint, the Align solution includes the depth of expertise over a broad range of technology, security, regulatory compliance, and operational matters, allowing to fashion an optimal, appropriately scaled cybersecurity program for any given client. “We view cybersecurity not through a singular lens but rather through a prism of multiple perspectives; a process that we believe best renders an unimpeachable cybersecurity program designed specifically for a given client,” points Paul.

Driven by Innovation

Innovation has been the lifeblood of Align since its inception. At the core of Align is the business knowledge that while cybersecurity presents its own unique challenges and requires both technological and nontechnological elements, it is also inextricably intertwined with IT. While each of these two subjects are separate and autonomous, there needs to be a meaningful connective tissue between a cybersecurity program and the underlying IT infrastructure upon which it is built. The only way to achieve this was by being the first mover to adopt the public cloud construct, which uniquely enables Align to provide managed IT services and managed security services contemporaneously and harmoniously. Moreover, the company’s cybersecurity solutions are driven by various standards that its clients need to adhere to. “We do not take a “buckshot” approach to cybersecurity; rather, we are unique in that we possess the legal, technological, and security chops to provide bespoke, right-sized, model cybersecurity programs to virtually any of our clients. Knowing that the need for cybersecurity compliance was driven both by regulation and operational due diligence, we evolved to become leaders in the Operational Due Diligence (ODD) space as it relates to technology and security,” explains Paul.

Since the inception of the Align IT Suite and the Align Cybersecurity offerings, the team envisioned a linchpin that would tie together these IT and cybersecurity services. To that end, the cornerstone of Align’s offering was to develop a cutting-edge, customer-centric Client Portal that provides a “Single Pane of Glass.” In fact, Align Managed Services leadership instills the fundamental philosophy to “treat our customers as our partners.” This culture has evolved as the company’s ethos, and it allows everyone to win.

Today, Align Managed Services is fortunate to have a client base with users spanning across 23 states and 21 Countries globally. This is a testament to the scalability of the solution as well as the support the team has built around its offerings. Since the relaunch of Align Managed Services and Align Cybersecurity in 2016, in the last 6+ years the team has shot up to one of the industry leading MSP/MSSPs in the investment management space and the broader financial services industry—if not the best. “Our commitment is to continue to scale our solutions with an enduring focus on the financial services vertical and align our solutions to our customers' goals. Fundamentally, our clients are our greatest partners, we focus on the customer experience and that has led to successful long-term relationships with our clients for Align Managed Services,” concludes Paul.