iCorps Execs: Security Practice Is Surging, Huge Demand For Microsoft EDR

Through delivering services such as security assessments and Microsoft tools such as Defender for Endpoint, cybersecurity is now the fastest-growing business at iCorps, company executives tell CRN.

iCorps CISO Jeffery Lauria

Solution and service provider iCorps Technologies Inc. is seeing strong growth in its cybersecurity business through delivering security assessments, SMB-focused virtual CISO services and Microsoft security tools such as Defender endpoint detection and response (EDR), according to company executives.

The growth comes as Woburn, Mass.-based iCorps doubles down on its cybersecurity practice with the recent promotion of longtime company executive Jeffery Lauria to the role of CISO.

[Related: Microsoft Says 15,000 Partners Are Driving Its $20 Billion Security Business]

“What we’re doing right now is making investments in our cybersecurity practice, because we see that as the fastest growth area in the company,” said Michael Hadley, president and CEO at iCorps, which he co-founded in 1994. “That’s really going to help drive us forward.”

For many years, iCorps Technologies — a CRN Tech Elite 250 company — has operated as an IT services firm that offered security solutions. But that orientation has distinctly shifted, and expanded, over the past 16 to 17 months, Hadley said.

“Now we are a security and support organization that bakes in security to everything we do,” he said.

Lauria has spent two decades with iCorps Technologies, initially joining as director of technology and consulting services in 2003. In July, he was promoted to CISO to oversee the continued growth of the company’s security practice.

For iCorps, appointing Lauria as CISO is “huge for us,” Hadley said.

The expansion for iCorps comes amid an intensifying cyberthreat landscape and increased demand for cybersecurity assistance even among the smallest businesses.

As an example of how iCorps is working to stand out with its cybersecurity services, Lauria said the company offers a virtual CISO service that is “designed around the SMB and their needs.”

By contrast, many security service providers are “talking to small businesses as if they are a huge enterprise,” he said.

Other key services that iCorps offers in security include customized security assessments, IT governance assessments and cloud security assessments.

For managed security services, iCorps leverages a partnership with Gradient Cyber to provide customers with 24/7 security operations center (SOC) coverage, Lauria said.

All in all, iCorps is focused on taking a “holistic approach” to securing its customers, he said.

A past winner of a Microsoft U.S. partner award for its work in security and compliance, iCorps has long specialized in Microsoft technologies, though the company does not exclusively recommend Microsoft security offerings to customers, according to Lauria.

“We’re really about delivering the right solution for the business. And there is a possibility Microsoft might not be the right solution,” he said. “And on those rare occasions, we’re going to identify that and we’re going to put the right solution in.”

However, iCorps has found that the tech giant’s broad portfolio more often than not has what customers are looking for in terms of cybersecurity capabilities, Lauria said.

And iCorps, which is a direct partner with Microsoft, is finding particular interest around implementing security tools that customers can use for no additional cost, as a result of having a Microsoft 365 subscription.

“A lot of times, what we’ve discovered is that customers don’t realize the full value of what they’ve purchased,” Lauria said. Many businesses know they want Outlook, Teams and SharePoint, “but there’s so much more in the Microsoft stack,” he said.

In serving the security needs of customers, iCorps leverages Microsoft tools including its EDR platform, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, as well as Defender for Cloud and Microsoft Sentinel security information and event management (SIEM), according to Lauria.

The products all work together to enable robust security for customers, Lauria said: Defender for Endpoint and Defender for Cloud offerings deliver telemetry to Microsoft Sentinel, which is then analyzed by Gradient. When issues are identified, iCorps’ team will respond on behalf of the customer, he said.

With this Microsoft-driven approach, customers are “leveraging something they already own and getting maximum value,” Lauria said. And given that Defender for Endpoint has been recognized as an endpoint protection leader by Gartner, “if you already have Microsoft 365 and the right licenses, why would you go and buy another EDR?”