University of Tennessee Circling Up Cyber Defense

The University of Tennessee (UT) is working to bolster its cybersecurity capabilities by closing the circle on how it monitors the landscape for network threats from its security operations center.

The university’s partnership with Dell Technologies signifies a crucial step forward in improving security. By leveraging Microsoft’s security toolset alongside Dell’s Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service, the university now benefits from round-the-clock monitoring – something it had never had before.

“The security operations center is the tool set, and the people that are keeping an eye on all of the alerts being fed from the Microsoft Security toolset are going to the Dell Managed Detection and Response Service and they are doing the triage and escalation to our team,” said Matthew Williams, UT’s chief information security and technology officer.

Integration helps to streamline operations, eliminating the need to manage a fragmented network of specialists, explained Ramon Padilla, the chief information officer and vice chancellor for innovative technologies at UT.

“We specifically went with Dell Technologies because we did not want to manage a portfolio of specialists,” said Padilla. “We wanted a company that could bring all the various specialties together under one umbrella.”

“[Dell doesn’t] immediately come to the table with a technician that’s wanting to solve a specific problem,” said Padilla. “They’re asking, what is it we’re trying to solve here, and how do we get there? And then they work with us to make sure that the solutions they’re bringing to the table are in line with our vision.”

Dell provides a three-legged approach including developing an artificial intelligence strategy, a security operations center strategy, and an identity and access management strategy. Padilla said the security operations center particularly is “exceeding my expectations every day.”

“Any IT professional that is looking for a technology partner should consider Dell Technologies, because they can not only provide hardware and software solutions, but they provide services that extend beyond what you would expect,” said Williams.