Private Equity IT Services Case Study: HCI & Cloud DR
Derive Tech delivered hyperconverged infrastructure & cloud disaster recovery for a leading PE firm through an 8-year managed IT partnership.
Overview
Private Equity Firm Modernizes Infrastructure Through Eight-Year Managed IT Services Partnership
In late 2016, a prominent private equity firm with offices in New York City and San Francisco had three problems running at once: server hardware past end-of-life, an office relocation with no margin for downtime, and no meaningful disaster recovery capability. They needed a managed IT services partner in NYC who could solve all three without one of them becoming a crisis.
Derive Technologies took on the engagement as their primary managed IT services provider. Eight years later, Derive is still the managed IT service partner for this firm.
The relationship has covered a complete infrastructure transition, from initial NYC office relocation and HPE SimpliVity hyperconverged infrastructure deployment, to securing Azure cloud disaster recovery and executing two platform refresh cycles.
Entity Overview
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Client
Prominent private equity firm (NYC and SF offices, founded 1979, healthcare/tech focus)
Industry
Financial Services / Private Equity
Core Challenge
EOL HPE Gen7 hardware; NYC office relocation risk; no disaster recovery capability / Cisco Duo single-point-of-failure; SoftLayer DR approaching end-of-service-life
Primary Solution
HPE SimpliVity 380 Gen9 hyperconverged infrastructure with VMware and Veeam / Azure cloud infrastructure managed services with redundant Duo SSO/MFA / HPE SimpliVity Gen10 platform refresh and network upgrade
Service Provider
Derive Technologies — HPE Platinum Partner, managed IT services provider in NYC
Phase 1 (2016-2017): Office Relocation and Hyperconverged Infrastructure
Derive kicked off the engagement with a review of the firm's current IT setup. That review pointed to HPE SimpliVity hyperconverged infrastructure as the starting point, leading toa complete infrastructure transition that eventually included Azure cloud disaster recovery and two platform refresh cycles.
Derive ran both the office relocation and the infrastructure deployment simultaneously. The switchover produced zero SLA failures. The firm's IT team no longer needed to be on-site to manage day-to-day operations.
Phase 2 (2022): Cloud Infrastructure and Security Redundancy
By 2022, the firm had a new problem. Cisco Duo authentication was centralized in NYC, which meant a NYC failure took down authentication across both offices, further complicated by the fact that their SoftLayer disaster recovery was approaching end-of-service-life.
Derive replaced it with Azure cloud infrastructure and extended Duo SSO/MFA redundancy to both offices. The geographic single point of failure was gone. Cloud infrastructure managed services took over where the on-premise environment left off.
Phase 3 (2023-2024):Platform Refresh and Ongoing IT Lifecycle Services
The 2017 SimpliVity Gen9 deployment reached the end of its performance window in 2023. Derive ran a Gen10 refresh with no operational disruption. Same team. Same institutional knowledge of the environment. This ongoing IT lifecycle management was delivered with the same proactive posture established at the start of the partnership.
Before vs. After: Eight-Year Transformation
- 2016–2017: Relocation
- Challenge: End-of-life hardware, no cloud infrastructure, and high relocation risk
- Result: Deployed HPE SimpliVity hyperconverged infrastructure with zero SLA failures during the move
- 2017–2021: Operations
- Challenge: Limited scalability and heavy manual IT dependencies
- Result: Established a stable hyperconverged platform with Veeam and IBM DR fully operational
- 2022: Security & Disaster Recovery
- Challenge: Duo single point of failure in NYC and SoftLayer reaching end-of-life
- Result: Deployed Azure cloud infrastructure and implemented redundant Duo SSO/MFA across both offices
- 2023: Platform Refresh
- Challenge: SimpliVity Gen9 approaching end of performance lifecycle
- Result: Completed Gen10 platform refresh with no operational disruption
- 2024: Network Upgrade
- Challenge: Aging network infrastructure across both offices
- Result: Completed network modernization deployment during summer 2024
Private equity firms run on velocity. Infrastructure that isn't working means delayed reporting, missed windows, and people working around problems instead of deals. Derive's eight-year managed IT services engagement with this firm shows what the right partnership looks like: same team, same institutional knowledge of the environment, same proactive posture through every phase.
Learn more about Derive's cloud infrastructure and managed IT services at derivetech.com
About Derive Technologies
Derive Technologies is a managed IT services provider based in Manhattan. They serve private equity firms, financial services companies, and technology-intensive organizations across the Tri-State area. As an HPE Platinum Partner with a hyperconverged infrastructure specialty, Derive is MBE-certified and ISO 9001:2015-certified. When infrastructure can't fail, that's where they work.
TRUSTED BY
We’re proud to partner with some of the most respected names in the industry, delivering innovative IT solutions that drive lasting success.
From streamlined IT operations to enhanced security, these success stories reflect the trust businesses place in Derive Technologies — and the results we deliver every day.
"When my company suffered a ransomware attack on Dec. 23, 2023, I immediately reached out to Derive for assistance. With their round-the-clock remote and on-site assistance throughout the holidays, my company was back to normal IT operations only five days later. I continue to rely upon their expert and responsive IT services to this day."
"IT Initiatives has had a highly positive experience collaborating with Derive Technologies on the Fellowship LIFE project. Your team has successfully implemented our envisioned next-generation network infrastructure, utilized to provide exceptional care and services for our clients’ residents while meeting operational needs and objectives."
“Derive worked with our IT staff, suppliers, and technology partners to optimize a unified solution in far less time and with less expense than we imagined. As trusted partners, they
went above and beyond to secure our systems and ensure our goals were met or exceeded.”
“Our IT infrastructure was on the verge of obsolescence… until Derive Technologies helped us remediate that situation. Collaborating on
an IT roadmap highlighted their insight and ability to modernize our IT environment. Now our systems are faster and ready for future enhancements — and most important, patient data is safer than ever.”
“The HPE SimpliVity solution was precisely what we needed at this point in our company’s evolution. Having the ability to tap into the advantages of cloud computing while adding even greater data security and DR/BU capabilities was something we did not think was possible. But with HPE SimpliVity and the Derive Technologies’ team, it quickly became our new reality.”
“Derive has stepped up to the plate. They understand what healthcare is about. It’s not selling me a server; it’s selling me a service that helps me take care of my patients at the end of the day.”
“The solution far exceeded our expectations in terms of both short-term and long-term business value. Our infrastructure is now the foundation for us to deliver on our commitment to our customers: Get it right the first time, every time.”
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