Texas Research International (TRI) Case Study: Scaling Cybersecurity for a Diverse Research Enterprise with Vigilance MSSP

About TRI

Industry: Aerospace, Environmental Testing, Defense

Services: Texas Research International (TRI) is a multidisciplinary research and engineering organization serving both government and commercial sectors. With eight specialized subsidiaries, TRI provides services across aerospace, materials science, environmental testing, and defense. Despite supporting over 300 users worldwide, TRI operates with a lean 4-person IT team. To meet rising demands for compliance and cybersecurity including CMMC and NIST SP 800-171, TRI needed a scalable solution that didn’t require significant internal hiring or loss of control.

Problem: With only four internal IT staff, TRI was under increasing pressure to meet strict cybersecurity compliance standards and manage centralized operations across all subsidiaries. Their existing commercial cloud vendors lacked the expertise to handle the complexities of government cloud environments like Microsoft GCC High. TRI required a solution that provided 24/7 monitoring, expert guidance, and the ability to scale without expanding headcount, especially given the prohibitive cost of hiring multiple internal security engineers.

Texas Research International (TRI):
Scaling Cybersecurity for a Diverse Research Enterprise with Vigilance MSSP

Learn how TRI achieved:

Scalable CMMC Compliance: See how Summit 7 helped TRI transition to Microsoft 365 GCC High and implement Vigilance MSSP, meeting CMMC and NIST SP 800-171 requirements without growing their internal team.
24/7 Security Monitoring: Discover how TRI gained continuous protection across all subsidiaries with real-time alerts, proactive incident response, and ongoing policy enforcement, ensuring no gaps in coverage.
Expert-Led Cloud Migration: Learn how Summit 7’s experienced engineers guided TRI through the complexities of migrating to GCC High and securing Azure environments, replacing vendors who lacked government cloud expertise.
Cost-Effective Security Expansion: Explore how TRI avoided the high cost of hiring multiple in-house security engineers by leveraging Summit 7’s bundled MSSP and compliance support, scaling security without inflating budgets.
Confidence in Compliance Roadmaps: Find out how direct access to knowledgeable engineers gave TRI peace of mind during every phase of their compliance journey—eliminating guesswork and ensuring lasting success.

"Figuring out how we would scale to meet these CMMC requirements—would it mean that I would hire two security engineers at $150,000/year? Really looking at it from a cost perspective is what sold me on Vigilance. I was like, ‘Wow, I’m getting like 3 engineers and 24/7 monitoring. I can’t touch this. If I tried to hire for this internally it would cost me a small fortune."

Cory Hicks
Director of IT, Texas Research International

Challenge

TRI's IT team is responsible for all centralized operations across its subsidiaries, including cybersecurity and compliance. With only four internal IT staff and increasing expectations around CMMC, NIST SP 800-171, and data protection for sensitive environments, the team needed a way to extend their capabilities.

“We are a small 4-person IT support team, supporting over 300 users worldwide,” said Cory Hicks, Director of IT at TRI. “Figuring out how we would scale to meet these CMMC requirements—would it mean that I would hire two security engineers at $150,000/year? Really looking at it from a cost perspective is what sold me on Vigilance. I was like, ‘Wow, I’m getting like 3 engineers and 24/7 monitoring. I can’t touch this. If I tried to hire for this internally it would cost me a small fortune.’”

TRI was transitioning from Microsoft Commercial to GCC High and needed a partner who could help guide that shift while supporting a more complex cloud security model. Their current vendors lacked experience with government cloud environments.

“We realized that our commercial cloud vendors were great, but they just didn’t have the expertise to carry us through this initiative,” said Hicks. “We didn’t like a lot of the other plugin enclave solutions; we wanted something more reliable. It was actually our commercial MSP who recommended Summit 7.”

The Solution: Vigilance + Guardian for Azure

TRI chose Summit 7 to help them migrate to Microsoft 365 GCC High and implemented Vigilance, a managed security service (MSSP) built for the Defense Industrial Base (DIB), along with Guardian for Azure to secure their cloud environments. These solutions allowed TRI to fully leverage GCC High’s G5 license security and compliance features while gaining 24/7 monitoring and incident response.

“Knowing the depth of the engineering talent is what made us choose Summit 7,” said Hicks. “We got to talk to several of Summit 7’s engineers who demystified this compliance transformation roadmap we were looking at. It was terrifying to think about starting this journey with the engineers at other companies—who were saying to us, ‘Oh yeah, I think I’ve seen that done once before.’ To go from that to talking to Summit 7 engineers—who do this day-in, day-out and know this like the back of their hand—was extremely comforting.”

The Outcome

With Vigilance in place, TRI gained continuous coverage across all their subsidiaries—ensuring secure operations, monitoring policy adherence, and scaling without hiring more internal staff. They now receive proactive alerts, real-time insights, and direct communication with engineers who understand the nuances of compliance and federal cloud environments.

“After our first project, we knew we had made the right choice—and it all came down to the engineering support,” said Hicks. “We worked with these amazing engineers who were at our beck and call for this project. They made it easy and simple. I would recommend Summit 7 to other companies because of the open and honest communication.” Hicks added, “When you are starting, there are lots of questions—lots of ‘I have no idea’ moments—and Summit 7 always had the answer or was quick to get it for us. Even if it was an answer that we really didn’t want to hear, they are always real with us.”

Why Summit 7

With Summit 7, TRI gained:
• 24/7 monitoring through Vigilance MSSP, tailored to the DIB
• Scalable support without hiring additional internal security engineers
• Direct access to experienced engineers familiar with DoD compliance
• Full use of Microsoft G5 security capabilities
• Better visibility, faster response, and a unified cybersecurity posture

"Knowing the depth of the engineering talent is what made us choose Summit 7. We got to talk to several of Summit 7’s engineers who demystified this compliance roadmap we were looking at. It was terrifying to think about starting this journey with the engineers at other companies - which we were close to going with - who were saying to us, “Oh yeah, I think I’ve seen that done once before.” To go from that to talking to Summit 7 engineers, who do this day-in, day-out and know this like the back of their hand, was extremely comforting."

Cory Hicks
Director of IT, Texas Research International

Custom-Built CMMC Solutions on Azure Government

Summit 7 has developed a comprehensive CMMC compliant solution as well as a robust set of managed security tools in its product line to form the CMMC Managed Security Solution. This Managed Security Solution set is designed to support the DIB in their journey to protect critical US data.

The core requirements of the CMMC Managed Security Solution utilize E5 licensing in Microsoft 365 GCC High and multiple security workloads within Azure Government.

Texas Research International (TRI): Scaling Cybersecurity for a Diverse Research Enterprise with Vigilance MSSP