Josh Dinneen, CEO of Blue Mantis – Interview Series

Blue Mantis serves mid-market and enterprise organizations by helping them discover and implement enterprise software solutions from firms like AWS, Arctic Wolf, Acronis, Cisco, Dell, HPE, Microsoft, and plenty of others.  Major customers include Cole Haan, the Jacksonville Jaguars, Liberty Mutual, Woodforest National Bank, and Boston Medical Center.

Are you able to share the journey of Blue Mantis from its inception to becoming a number one managed services provider in cloud, cybersecurity, AI, and digital transformation?

Blue Mantis has a 30+ 12 months history of delivering progressive and proven technology solutions to mid-market and enterprise clients. We’ve been an integral a part of their digital transformation journeys and, as your query suggests, we now have also been on our own modernization journey, one marked by a dramatic expansion within the kind of solutions we provide and the style wherein we help clients achieve positive business outcomes.

Now we have transformed from our roots as a small, regional reseller of hardware and software products to a national and now a global provider of next-generation services in what we call three core business “pillars” – cybersecurity, cloud and managed services.

As we now have scaled our organization, we now have also successfully attracted several latest blue-chip executives to expand our leadership team. In doing so, we now have strengthened our technical acumen, broadened our services offerings, refined our sales execution, and sharpened our go-to market strategies.  These key leaders include Chief Operating Officer (and former CISO and CIO) Jay Pasteris; Chief Services Officer Steven DeMaayer; Chief Revenue Officer Terry Richardson, and our Chief Marketing Officer, Sarah Foote.

As a provider of next-generation solutions, we now have also expanded our consulting capabilities and we’re increasingly serving as a strategic advisor for our clients, surveying the hyper-dynamic technology landscape and developing the blueprint to assist clients harness these technologies to support their businesses and attain measurable and positive outcomes. Now we have also constantly broadened our portfolio of product bundles and services, which include cybersecurity and risk management, cloud, networking, data center modernization, modern workspace, carrier services, resource management and the flexibility to supply any of those solutions as managed services.

Formerly often known as Green Pages until our latest brand identity and name change were unveiled in July 2023, the name Blue Mantis signifies our role as a strategic advisor, one able to leading our clients into the long run. Actually, the word mantis literally means a “seer, a prophet and one who divines.” This really captures our mission and our ethos.

What are the important thing aspects that contributed to Blue Mantis’ impressive growth rates in cybersecurity, cloud service practices, and managed services?

First, was our ability to stay keenly focused in the marketplace opportunities we saw right in front of us. Second, was keeping our clients on the forefront of the whole lot we do was critical. Third, we felt it was critical to undertake the transformation that has moved Blue Mantis from a gross profit, cost of products sold model to a strategic services-led business aimed toward driving business outcomes for clients. That dramatically modified the expansion trajectory of Blue Mantis. To enhance our organic growth, we even have made several acquisitions and added technical talent in these three key growth segments.  These investments have paid strong dividends; we now have achieved a five-year growth rate of 405 percent for cybersecurity, 119 percent for cloud service practices and 495 percent for managed service. Now we have also increased our headcount by 127 percent during that point.

Are you able to elaborate on the twin role of AI at Blue Mantis, each internally for operational efficiencies and externally for client services?

Now we have gone all-in on GenAI for each internal and external uses. To achieve success in AI, data management takes on heightened importance. We’re continuing to take a position in our data enablement capabilities at our foundation. As a Microsoft partner, we had early access to Copilot and are on the forefront of Managed Services Providers harnessing the ability of AI for enterprise customers. This point has been validated by customers, partners, and market observers within the IT channel.

For our clients, we began offering Managed AI Copilot Solutions in Q2 2024, a customized turnkey offering powered by Microsoft. We seamlessly and securely integrate AI into clients’ existing Microsoft Cloud environments with executive education, strategic planning, and managed services. Our GTM relies on an Assess, Modernize, Manage framework. Through our consultative approach, we now have helped customers discover high-value use cases for GenAI, discover and remediate security issues related to their data estate, and modernize data processing in support of GenAI use cases. Internally, we’re leveraging AI across many functions inside Blue Mantis. Whether it’s Microsoft Copilot or one other AI technology, we’re seeing significant productivity improvements as more use cases are identified and other people turn into aware of the technology.

What are some specific AI-driven initiatives or projects which have had a big impact in your clients?

We’re still within the initial stages of this technology wave and many purchasers are still formulating their strategy regarding applied GenAI for his or her business. The market is clearly within the education phase as clients are “the art of the possible” as they give the impression of being to reap the benefits of this emerging technology. Probably the most significant impact we’ve seen is on two fronts. First, as clients begin to explore their data assets, this has revealed the expansive scope and magnitude of their data estate and caused them to revisit their data governance processes and expose latest threat vectors for data leakage and data loss. Many purchasers have been surprised to seek out out just how much data they’ve and who has access to it. Second, when clients invest the effort and time to coach their staff, time-to-productivity is greatly enhanced. Establishing command and trust of this latest technology is critical to driving the kind of impact that clients expect to see from their GenAI investments. Naysayers and detractors have been converted to champions and advocates when given the correct baseline and this has had a big impact with clients as they roll out GenAI solutions.

How does Blue Mantis stay ahead of emerging threats and manage risk for its clients?

We’re a security-first firm, and we consider security to be the bedrock of the whole lot we architect, construct and support. As a provider of managed services, we’re relied upon heavily by clients to be their eyes and ears and their first line of defense against their adversaries – whether insider or external threats.  We stay ahead of those threats and help not only manage but reduce risk by offering a whole suite of cloud security, network and systems security and governance, risk and compliance solutions to fulfill all their needs. We put a high premium on security awareness training each internally and with clients to make sure we not sleep thus far on the most recent vulnerabilities and attack methods. This involves threat intelligence feeds, security conferences, and industry best practice research. We also offer comprehensive security assessments to discover weaknesses in a client’s existing security posture. This helps them prioritize potential risks and implement solutions tailored to their environment, industry and budget. For many purchasers we offer managed security services and 24/7 monitoring through Managed Detection and Response (MDR) solutions through partners like Arctic Wolf, in addition to guidance and implementation services to help them on their Zero Trust journeys.

By combining these approaches, we offer clients with a comprehensive security strategy that adapts to the evolving threat landscape and increases their vigilance against cyberattacks.

Are you able to discuss any recent cybersecurity trends or challenges that mid-market and enterprise organizations should concentrate on?

Whether we’re talking about mid-market or enterprises, the organizations we’re working with face lots of the same challenges. At the highest of the list is the necessity for higher and more holistic data management and privacy assurance from a regulatory perspective. The brand new SEC mandate to reveal data breaches more quickly and transparently intensifies our client’s already complex environments.

Data resiliency is one other major challenge for the midmarket. It isn’t any longer ok to be ok. For the straightforward reason that again, no matter size or vertical industry, our clients’ customer data is under continuous attack by an increasingly sophisticated universe of adversaries. Clients’ risk profiles are expanding, and defenses must turn into stronger, more vigilant and more sophisticated to make sure continuous protection.

Finally, despite the increased threats they face, many organizations are expected to “Do more with less.” That is where Blue Mantis has shined. We help clients who’re grappling with these issues by delivering guidance and direction on how best to prioritize projects within the areas of cloud, cybersecurity and digital transformation. Nonetheless, we now have also expanded our capabilities and scale in the world of strategic resource management in cyber security as all as IT. Now we have expanded a comprehensive talent pool that permits Blue Mantis to seamlessly integrate resources into client teams, filling specific skill gaps and ensuring project success.

How does Blue Mantis guide clients through their cloud journey, and what are the important thing components of a successful cloud strategy?

Blue Mantis helps guide customers through their cloud journey with a practical approach. We work closely with customers to grasp the actual drivers behind their cloud transformations and work together collaboratively to construct a roadmap.

As with most transformation initiatives, moving to the cloud doesn’t mean customers can have parity with their existing operations and this creates challenges inside their firms. Whether it’s a skillset gap, expertise needed, training, or capability for work, we help our customers envision their future state and ensure they’re supported in any way needed to achieve success.

Now we have identified 4 primary insights about leveraging the cloud:

First, is alignment to the business.  Any cloud transformation must have clearly defined objectives. With no clear demarcation for ‘what beauty like’ and the business outcomes defined, it is simple to wander off in your cloud journey.

Second, is knowing workloads and assessing their fit-for-use in cloud. .  We excel at framing the choice points for our customers and providing insights into what we’ve seen work and never work.  It is vitally common for us to see a hybrid approach to cloud, especially for legacy applications.  Many applications weren’t built for the cloud and so they usually are not cloud ready. Deciding how much to take a position to be able to make them slot in a cloud environment may be very difficult (and potentially not definitely worth the investment).

Third, prioritizing migration is critical.  As with every transformation initiative, it will be significant to see some early wins.  For business-critical applications and infrastructure, nothing will kill your cloud transformation faster than large, long running, projects that don’t return some value back to the business.  We seek to avoid this case and work along with clients to seek out balance.

Finally, as clients migrate to the cloud they may must put some kind of governance process in place.  This may be very difficult for any organization that’s experimenting with latest technology, while attempting to run their business.  Customers might want to manage their costs (as that’s something that may get uncontrolled quickly, in case you usually are not prepared), be certain the prices are effectively communicated to their business stakeholders, and ultimately optimize that spend over time.  Following this blueprint and making some good selections has made a lot of our customers successful of their cloud journey.

What differentiates Blue Mantis’ managed services from other providers out there?

Again, I’d return to the purpose made earlier about reinvention. What separates Blue Mantis from the various technology solution providers out there is that many have didn’t reinvent themselves. Now we have had a transparent vision and a focused strategy that has been embraced by a terrific, talented and constant base of employees who remain committed to the mission. Now we have not tried to grow too big too fast or to tackle greater than we could successfully manage. And that may be a temptation, imagine me.  Our steadfast devotion to resilience and skill to adapt and alter is huge based in the marketplace we’re in. I’m extremely proud and appreciative of the talented people we now have grown and retained here at Blue Mantis and the brand new leaders and team members we now have successfully added. This has been huge in helping us grow, diversify and differentiate. They’ve embraced change, been flexible and proceed to drive our clients into the long run. Clients tell us repeatedly – “this makes you stand out.”

What are the most recent trends in data center modernization, and the way is Blue Mantis preparing its clients for future opportunities?

The information center industry is really witnessing a transformative era marked by the incredibly rapid and broad adoption of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). This technology, which incorporates advanced models like GPT-4, is reshaping the landscape of information processing and management. We’re working closely with CIOS, CISOs and even CEOs inside our client base to assist them fully understand the implications of this seismic shift. As essential, we’re preparing existing data center resources – whether those are on-prem, in a non-public or public cloud or consumed in a hybrid model. Blue Mantis partners with all the main data center hardware providers to make sure your modernization solution is future-proof and energy-efficient. We may also optimize for cost by integrating the services of our FinOps team, which has been proven to scale back our customers’ annual cloud costs by 30% or more.

Are you able to provide insights into how Blue Mantis approaches complex networking challenges for its clients?

We solve complex networking challenges for clients through several key strategies:

1. Blue Mantis partners with clients to grasp their business goals and communication needs, ensuring that the network infrastructure supports these objectives effectively.
2. We provide customized solutions to fulfill the particular needs of every client, considering aspects like their size, industry, and exact network requirements.
3. We apply advanced technologies including software-defined networking (SDN), network function virtualization (NFV), and advanced network monitoring tools.
4. Clients’ networking initiatives are supported through our team of highly expert networking experts who’ve extensive experience in coping with complex network environments. This team can diagnose and resolve intricate network issues efficiently.
5. We usually are not a degree solutions provider; we provide comprehensive end-to-end services that address the whole lot from network design and implementation to ongoing management and optimization.
6. We apply proactive monitoring and maintenance to each client engagement to constantly track network performance and discover potential issues before they turn into critical problems. We conduct regular maintenance and updates to make sure network reliability.
7. By combining better of breed and emergent technology, we ensure our customers are fully aware of the choices they’ve.  Combining a consultative approach, highly expert specialists, and a portfolio of market leading partners we’re capable of deliver the correct solution at the correct time.

By combining these approaches, Blue Mantis effectively addresses the complex networking challenges faced by its clients, ensuring secure, efficient, and reliable network performance.