For more than 75 years, Aldon Management has been redeveloping and managing multi-family residential apartment properties throughout the Bethesda, Maryland metroplex and expanding nationwide. Known for its passion in creating affordable apartment rentals with ample amenities and caring property management, Aldon Management was experiencing rapid growth and needed a trusted managed IT services partner to manage the complexity of its IT operations across dozens of properties.

“Instead of investing in building our own data center or hiring IT staff at each location, we were looking for a single provider who could do it all … migrate all property IT environments onto an agile, easy-to-scale platform and centrally manage network performance and security,” said Joe Carney, Aldon Management VP of Business Support and Technology. “Taking the day-to-day IT responsibility off our hands would allow me to focus on IT strategy and our talented staff on property management and business development”.

Aldon Management’s technology advisor, OmniLegion Technologies, worked with the Aldon Management property management team to fully vet out their needs and identified Magna5 as the ideal partner going forward. “We always know that we can trust Magna5 to deliver optimal results for our customers,” said EJ Bowen, CEO of OmniLegion Technologies. “They bring a highly skilled, enterprise-grade team of IT team experts to the table and can deliver a fully managed platform at an affordable price.”

To ensure reliable uptime and high network performance, Magna5 delivered a fully managed cloud network solution providing proactive centralized management and response.

• Full Network Visibility – Migrated each property location infrastructure to Magna5’s secure, cloud environment featuring next-generation equipment and full visibility into the properties’ infrastructure for real-time monitoring and alerting. Fully trained and certified engineers watch Aldon Management’s network around the clock, resolving issues before they happen.
• Cybersecurity Protection & Data Backup – Boosted early-warning detection and response to quickly flag suspicious cyber threats or unauthorized access. The cloud managed network provided an extensive suite of security features, including IDS/IPS, content filtering, web search filtering, anti-virus, geo-IP based firewalling, IPsec VPN connectivity and advanced malware protection. Solution also provided built-in data backup and recovery in the event of a cyberattack or natural disaster. Seamless data restoration was critical for Aldon Management to avoid loss of tenant, contract, financial, proposal and property management information.
• Microsoft 365 – Took over management of the company’s Office 365 applications and upgraded licensing to enhance communication and improve security across property locations. Employees can easily access Office 365’s suite of applications to collaborate, share and communicate through email and flexible collaboration tools accessible from either desktop or mobile devices. Implemented multi-factor authentication, conditional access and geographic login blocking for additional protection. Also provided security training to employees on common phishing and social engineering techniques that could lead to ransomware attacks.
• Endpoint Protection – With both company and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) laptop and mobile equipment, implemented advanced endpoint detection and response capabilities to monitor known and unknown cyber threats as well as threat hunting to seek out potential footholds and hard-to-detect persistent threats. Also installed mobile device management tools to manage apps, control device access and protect company data through encryption, password enforcement and mobile device tracking.
• Easy Access to Experts – Reduced unplanned downtime with quick access to Tier 1 and Tier 2 help desk support 24/7/365. Experts are available via a toll-free number, email, chat or a client ticket portal. Magna5 ensures all calls are routed to an engineer most knowledgeable with Aldon Management’s specific problem for quick resolution.

“As we secure new properties, the repeatable IT builds allow us to scale quickly with a predictable monthly fee that helps us budget IT spend and drive down costs,” said Joe. “And during the Covid 19 pandemic, the Magna5 solution provided us with anywhere, anytime network and real-time office functionality from any device.”

Around-the-Clock Access to Technical Support

In the property management business, downtime can significantly disrupt business operations and revenue.

“With our systems now fully managed in a cloud environment, Magna5 knows before we do if something is down. Problems are typically fixed before any disruption occurs,” said Joe. “When we contact them with a specific technical challenge, it is not unusual they will have a solution in place within a week.”

The Challenge:
With no IT teams at each property location, the company was seeking centralized management and easy-to-scale solutions that would enable them to expand new properties and empower employees to communicate and collaborate more effectively.

The Solution:
Cloud Managed Network
Microsoft 365
Managed Security
Data Backup and Disaster Recovery
Dark Web Scanning
Help Desk Support

The Results:
Enabled Aldon Management to integrate multi-site properties onto one centrally managed and scalable cloud platform to save money and improve efficiencies and security.

The Advantage:
• Gained central visibility into all their cloud-based network systems, applications and devices.
• Improved network performance and uptime.
• Simplified IT monitoring and management.
• Provided early detection and response to security breaches or cyberattacks.
• Enabled real-time endpoint forensics and visibility into malicious activity.
• Provided quick data backup in the event of a disaster.

“The team at Magna5 have our best interest in mind and go the extra mile to keep our network running smoothly and secure. The flexibility of their cloud network enables us to spin-up IT capabilities at new properties in less than a week.”
Joe Carney, VP of Business Support and Technology
Aldon Management

OmniLegion Technologies is an IT consulting firm that designs and builds customer experience, unified communications, security and networking solutions customized to the customers' needs.  We are a team of IT experts and engineers that have 80+ years of IT and CX experience.