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Global Engineering Firm Saves $1M by Selecting Virtru over Microsoft Office 365 GCC High for CMMC 2.0 and ITAR

Global Engineering Firm
“It's very rare that we get a vendor with this type of acumen and reputation… It was different. It was refreshing. You made my job easy.”

IT Director

Meeting ITAR and CMMC 2.0 compliance is a top priority for any business operating in the defense industrial base today. For businesses with sufficient IT budgets, Microsoft Office 365 offers an effective solution. However, businesses with constrained IT budgets must find affordable and compelling alternatives.  

This case study explains how one such company, with tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue, and a global workforce distributed across hundreds of locations, selected Virtru over Microsoft GCC High and saved more than $1 million, while complying with CMMC and ITAR regulations.  

With Virtru, this enterprise was able to: 

  • Save over $1M annually by using Virtru + Microsoft Commercial Cloud as an alternative to GCC High. The firm additionally saved the resources it would have spent to move thousands of users to GCC High. 
  • Support ITAR and CMMC compliance regulations for protecting sensitive data in Microsoft Office 365 with Virtru Microsoft 365 Outlook Add-In
  • Retire its last on-prem Microsoft Exchange server and re-skill data center employees to focus on other business areas to accelerate growth.
  • Automate encryption for certain types of data flowing in and out of the business using the Virtru Data Protection Gateway.
  • Manage its own encryption keys for total control of data in the cloud using the Virtru Customer Key Server.

See Virtru in Action: Book a Demo

A Seamless, Affordable Alternative to Microsoft Office 365 GCC High

This enterprise is a Microsoft shop. Its teams were using a mix of Microsoft Commercial Cloud and Microsoft Exchange Server — but they wanted a more unified, modernized environment where employees could collaborate securely and seamlessly in the cloud. 

They looked into Microsoft’s GCC High environment, but the price tag was hefty. Migrating thousands of employees to the GCC High environment would have required significant resources — not to mention the annual recurring expense of their licenses. In addition to the high cost, moving to GCC High would limit collaboration between Microsoft GCC High and Commercial Cloud users, which would have created massive roadblocks for productivity. 

So, the team started to investigate alternatives.

ITAR and CMMC 2.0 Compliance in Microsoft Commercial Cloud

The team was looking for an encryption solution that would allow for seamless and highly secure data sharing and collaboration, both with internal and external users. It needed to be easy for users, admins, and the recipients of shared data. They looked at PreVeil, but found the recipient experience of encrypted emails to be lacking. They wanted something easy, professional, and intuitive. 

They found what they were looking for in Virtru: 

  • An encrypted email and file-sharing solution that would support CMMC and ITAR compliance and data protection in Microsoft Commercial Cloud
  • A seamless and unified experience for internal users, integrated directly within Office 365 — so teams wouldn’t have to compromise on collaboration or efficiency
  • An easy recipient experience with custom branding to build trust and confidence
  • A skilled and knowledgeable team of engineers to partner with for the deployment 

The enterprise could also manage its own encryption keys for total control and security with the Virtru Customer Key Server, and it could leverage Virtru’s Data Protection Gateway to automatically encrypt emails containing certain types of sensitive information. 

See Virtru in Action: Book a Demo

A Partner for Enterprise Digital Transformation

The firm needed a cloud security partner with deep expertise, including engineers who would be flexible, extremely knowledgeable, and honest about potential challenges. Virtru’s engineering team not only met, but exceeded their expectations. “The reason we closed the deal was not just because of the solution,” said the firm’s IT director. “It was because of the way [the Virtru sales and engineering teams] treated us.” 

“It's a great partnership,” he continued. “We see everything in the security space. It's very rare that we get a vendor with this type of acumen and reputation. Usually, talking to [vendors, you feel disappointed, or like the solution] is missing something. You feel like you didn't really get the toy in the Happy Meal™. You got the burger, but it was missing something, right? … But, job well done to Virtru. It was different. It was refreshing. You made my job easy.” 

With Virtru, the firm would save over $1 million each year by not switching to GCC High. They were able to deploy powerful encryption to the global workforce, unify their Microsoft environment, and ultimately shut down their last Microsoft Exchange on-prem server. 

“It's a win-win,” the IT director noted. “Usually what happens is, you bring in a security vendor or an encryption vendor, and someone loses. We're still trying to find out who the loser is. We haven't found that group yet. Everybody's a winner.”