Two people look at an open notebook Two people look at an open notebook

Cyclotron simplifies compliance with Microsoft Purview

With their expertise in deploying Purview in complex scenarios, Cyclotron won a 2024 Microsoft Partner of the Year Award for their thorough and thoughtful approach with their customer.

January 21, 2025

Based in San Francisco, Cyclotron was founded in 2014 to help customers solve mission-critical business and technology challenges through proven industry-specific frameworks. From finance and retail to health and technology, Cyclotron supports organizations across a wide range of industries through their key focus areas: Microsoft Azure, data and AI, business applications, collaboration, security and compliance, change leadership, and strategy.

While Cyclotron’s expertise covers the entire Microsoft ecosystem, they’re especially well-versed in deploying Microsoft Purview—a unified platform that combines data governance solutions and Microsoft 365 compliance solutions and services.

As a Solutions Partner for Security with four Security specializations and over 100 successful Purview deployments, Cyclotron has certainly proven their expertise. And they were recognized for it when they were named the global winner of the 2024 Microsoft Partner of the Year Award for Compliance in the Security category.

“We’re very honored to be recognized as the 2024 Microsoft Compliance Partner of the Year,” said Amber Bahl, CEO of Cyclotron. “We have seen incredible growth this year as we have deepened our focus on client success, developed innovative new offers around AI, and become a leading partner with over 200,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses deployed. Compliance is a big component of those journeys, so we’re proud to have that pillar of our work recognized on a global scale with this award.”

To help customers confidently manage risks, protect and govern sensitive data, and meet regulatory and compliance requirements, Cyclotron takes a thorough and thoughtful approach—which is exactly what one customer in particular needed.

A case of compliance complexities

A leader in mergers and acquisitions, Cyclotron’s customer is on a mission to build and invest in software companies with data-driven guidance and permanent capital. With more than 800 successful acquisitions and over 40,000 employees, the customer’s growth has been impressive—but not without its challenges.

Internally, the customer wanted to improve their compliance posture and insider risk management program. Administrators lacked visibility into insider risk scenarios, and very few data loss prevention (DLP) controls existed. Externally, two new companies they acquired had complex regulatory and compliance requirements, and they needed a way to access their internal resources and applications—with unique compliance oversight for their own data and users.

“Data protection is a two-headed problem: you have to protect the data governed by your compliance requirements, but you also need to discover areas where your policies are deficient and quickly revise,” said Nathan Berger, Director of Security at Cyclotron. “Cyclotron guides organizations with Microsoft Purview to address both challenges.”

The customer identified Purview as the right solution, but the implementation would be challenging given the technical complexity of their compliance needs. They consulted their Microsoft account team, who connected them with a partner that had expertise in deploying Purview in complex scenarios: Cyclotron.

Between their distinction as a Solutions Partner for Security and their deep engagement with Microsoft—from Customer Immersion Experiences to co-sell motions for Microsoft 365 E5 and Microsoft Azure—Cyclotron had the skills and experience for the challenge.

A person writes on a dry erase board

“Data protection is a two-headed problem: you have to protect the data governed by your compliance requirements, but you also need to discover areas where your policies are deficient and quickly revise.”

—Nathan Berger, Director of Security, Cyclotron

Above and beyond the implementation

To address the customer’s compliance goals, Cyclotron needed to help them:

  • Address immediate compliance needs with Purview implementation.
  • Expand Purview use to all acquired organizations and new, incoming acquisitions.
  • Maximize value of the E5 investment with automation, risk reduction, and consolidation.

“The customer was impressed with Cyclotron’s expertise on Purview and confidence in approaching the repeatable Purview solution,” said Berger. “In addition, Cyclotron was able to help subsidize the Purview implementation with special access to Microsoft funding programs.”

Beyond providing a solution deployment framework to help their customer get the most value from E5, Cyclotron helped them tap into the advanced features in Purview—including multitenant functions in Microsoft Entra to minimize liability for compliance audits and integration with Windows 365 for data protection.

“Cyclotron was absolutely instrumental in educating and architecting the new Purview controls,” said the customer’s Global IT representative. “This project has set up our ability to better utilize features within Purview that we have not used in the past and will allow us greater flexibility with our complicated environment.”

A person sits at a desk working on a computer A person sits at a desk working on a computer

“Cyclotron has been a wealth of knowledge when it comes to bringing order to the chaos. We would not have been able to kick-start Purview without their insight.”

—Global IT Representative

Partnering for Purview success

In the end, Cyclotron helped their customer deploy Purview capabilities to 2,000 users during the engagement—and beyond that, they have deployed over 800,000 Microsoft 365 seats for Purview capabilities in the last year. They also established strong Purview reference architecture across both newly acquired companies for repeatable success, which is crucial for this particular customer: acquisitions happen often.

The implementation also saved costs by eliminating the need for third-party DLP tools for endpoint protection; improved sensitive data detection with automation, reducing human error and ensuring compliance; detected insider risk activities from internal users; and saved four hours per week for compliance administrators.

Ultimately, Cyclotron helped the customer reduce compliance risk by providing their guidance and expertise to expand Purview policies across multiple tenants. “Cyclotron has been a wealth of knowledge when it comes to bringing order to the chaos,” said the customer organization’s Global IT representative. “We would not have been able to kick-start Purview without their insight.”

And now, without the compliance complexities, the customer can stay focused on their primary goals: supporting their team while expanding—and driving success for—their portfolio of companies.

Explore more Partner Success stories

Discover how organizations like yours are using Microsoft technology to help customers solve challenges, drive results, and scale their businesses.

This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.