Cloud Monitor Helps Tyrone Area School District’s IT Team Keep Accounts Secure, Students Safe, and Security Budget Justified

Tyrone Area School District, located in Tyrone, Pennsylvania, serves a community of approximately 1,700 students and 300 faculty and staff. The district uses Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 for education and business, with full one-to-one device deployment.

As the district’s IT Director, Glen Drager leads the technology efforts, a role he’s held since putting in the first network in 1997. With a future-focused, multi-layered security philosophy and a supportive school board that prioritizes funding for security, Tyrone Area School District is committed to protecting students and data wherever they go.

“Cloud Monitor automatically visualizes login attempts and successes in a map view, which makes it especially easy to share with the school board and other non-technical stakeholders. I can point to the map and say, ‘Here’s where the 35,000 attempts in the last week to our Microsoft domain are coming from.’ That visual proof clearly reinforces why our multi-layered security investment is crucial.”

— Glen Drager, IT Director, Tyrone Area School District

Challenges

Despite having a strong security posture with multiple layers of defense, including Google Workspace Plus edition, Microsoft 365 A5 licenses, GoGuardian, and Content Keeper for web filtering, Glen and his team struggled with visibility and efficiency across their dual Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 environments. 

Although Google and Microsoft provide security tools, using them can be cumbersome and time-consuming, requiring the team to shift between platforms and spend hours analyzing logs.

“Google and Microsoft make their security and investigation tools incredibly difficult and time-consuming to work with. Cloud Monitor proactively monitors your domains, alerts you to risks it finds, and essentially spoon-feeds you the relevant information you need to react quickly. It finds threats that you didn’t even know you were missing.”

— Glen Drager, IT Director, Tyrone Area School District

“We simply don’t have the time to go digging through logs in Google and Microsoft’s admin consoles. They make it incredibly difficult to find exactly what you’re looking for, and actually be able to do anything about it,” Glen explains. “My team is constantly busy with help desk tickets, fixing hardware, and putting out fires. To address critical security and safety risks quickly, we essentially need the information spoon-fed to us.”

This lack of an easy, centralized view meant that Glen’s team, despite having a strong and experienced staff, was spending too much time on manual investigations. 

The district’s “split system,” running both Google and Microsoft 365 with two different Google domains for curriculum and business further complicated matters. “It got really complicated trying to find a good solution that could pull it all together in a ‘single pane of glass,’” explains Glen. “A lot of products don’t deal well with that scenario.”

“The suspicious login alerts from Cloud Monitor are vital for us. Since most of our student accounts don’t use multi-factor authentication, it acts as a critical security guard, immediately flagging unusual login activity from around the globe. It allows us to lock down a compromised account in minutes, which is far faster than digging through logs ourselves. It gives us the actionable intelligence we need to maintain strong account security.”

— Glen Drager, IT Director, Tyrone Area School District

They needed a more proactive approach to identifying security and safety risks, and a consolidated view to quickly respond to critical threats. “That’s what ManagedMethods has achieved. Cloud Monitor is comprehensive across our environment, allowing us to find and adjust those critical risks quickly,” Glen shares.

Results

Cloud Monitor provides Glen the “single pane of glass” he needed to integrate monitoring across his Google and Microsoft 365 environments and separate domains easily. 

In fact, during their 30-day free audit, the platform immediately flagged some issues in emails that they previously had no visibility into. Glen recalls, “That sold me on the product, honestly. We didn’t have a lot of issues in our system, because we’d worked hard to keep things secure. But I realized we were still missing things, and we didn’t have great tools to dive deep into those areas. Cloud Monitor finds what you’re missing and makes it very easy to address issues quickly.”

For Glen, Cloud Monitor acts as the security guard for his complex system. “It’s like Paul Revere ringing the bell. But instead it’s shouting ‘The Russians are coming! Lock down that account!”

Cloud Monitor is primarily used for cybersecurity, with suspicious login activity being a top priority. Glen frequently monitors the login alerts, especially for student accounts that lack multi-factor authentication.

“Is Cloud Monitor worth the investment? Absolutely. It’s the peace of mind knowing you have a security guard that never sleeps, catching the things your existing tools miss and giving you the time to focus on everything else. We’ll frequently ignore the native admin tools and jump into Cloud Monior to see what’s going on because it saves us a ton of time.”

— Glen Drager, IT Director, Tyrone Area School District

He also shares how the reporting helps him show the board how real the threats to their systems are. “Yes, you can get that information out of Google and Microsoft. But, again, you’re jumping around to different platforms and trying to pull it together,” says Glen. “Cloud Monitor automatically visualizes login attempts and successes in a map view that makes it especially easy to share with less technical stakeholders. I use it when I’m going to the board to help justify my security budget.”

Additionally, Cloud Monitor’s comprehensive data loss prevention policies help his team monitor for things like credit card information in emails. It’s also the tool they use to easily review third-party app usage and permissions.

The most profound impact, however, is felt in the platform’s student safety capabilities. While the district layers other products for student safety monitoring, Cloud Monitor serves as a critical back-up layer.

“GoGuardian is great in what it does with student safety, but no one tool will catch 100% of the risks every time. That’s why layers and redundancy are so important,” Glen explains as he recalls a serious self-harm incident that GoGuardian and his web filter both missed. “Cloud Monitor found some self-harm behavior content in a Google Doc that was serious enough to warrant a follow-up and get that student the help they needed.”

Ultimately, Cloud Monitor provides the necessary ease and efficiency to Tyrone Area School District’s cybersecurity and student safety operations. For Glen, it isn’t just an expense; it’s an essential layer of protection for the district’s most valuable assets: their students. 

“If you’re a tech director today, you have to realize that you’re not just securing data—you’re protecting kids,” Glen advises. “Is ManagedMethods worth the investment? Absolutely. It’s the peace of mind knowing you have a security guard that never sleeps, catching the things your existing tools miss and giving you the time to focus on everything else. That kind of time-saving efficiency is the true return on investment.”

Want to learn more about improving your district’s cybersecurity, student safety, and classroom engagement?

Get started with your free Google Workspace and/or Microsoft 365 security and safety audit today.

The post K-12 Google & Microsoft Security and Safety Through a “Single Pane of Glass” appeared first on ManagedMethods Cybersecurity, Safety & Compliance for K-12.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from ManagedMethods Cybersecurity, Safety & Compliance for K-12 authored by Katie Fritchen. Read the original post at: https://managedmethods.com/blog/customer-story-k12-tyrone-area-school-district-pa/