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Case Study: IT Transformation Led by TrustPoint Cyber for a National Mortgage Lender

Executive Summary
With the help of TrustPoint Cyber, a nationwide mortgage lender embarked on a multi-year IT transformation journey. TrustPoint Cyber took the lead in designing and executing a defense-in-depth strategy—combining infrastructure modernization, layered cybersecurity controls, and cloud integration—that enabled the lender to scale securely, support a distributed workforce across the country, and safeguard sensitive financial data.

These initiatives modernized the organization’s technology footprint, expanded capabilities into Azure and AWS, and ensured sustainable growth without sacrificing agility or security.

 

Company Background
This mortgage lender is a correspondent and wholesale financial services provider specializing in non-qualified mortgage (non-QM) products. Operating across more than 46 states, it serves borrowers who require flexible lending solutions tailored to unique financial situations.


Phase 1: Scaling with Hyperconverged Infrastructure (2017)

 

The Challenge
By late 2016, the lender’s workforce had grown from 10 employees in 2011 to more than 100, quickly pushing the limits of its Microsoft Small Business Server 2011 environment. The organization faced licensing caps (75-user limit), performance bottlenecks under heavier workloads, and fragmented infrastructure that was difficult to manage at scale.

A traditional infrastructure refresh—adding more physical servers, expanding storage arrays, and reconfiguring networking—would have been costly, complex, and offered only incremental improvement.

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TrustPoint Cyber’s Approach
TrustPoint Cyber evaluated the total cost of ownership for traditional upgrades versus a new, consolidated approach using hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI). HCI integrates compute, storage, networking, and virtualization into a single, software-driven platform. By replacing multiple pieces of hardware with one unified system, HCI reduces physical footprint, simplifies management, and scales more easily to meet future demand.

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For the mortgage lender, this meant:

  • Simplified scalability — adding capacity by simply adding more HCI nodes

  • Unified management — all resources managed through a single interface

  • Lower maintenance overhead — fewer components to configure, patch, and troubleshoot

  • Improved performance — tightly integrated resources reduced bottleneck

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This strategic adoption of HCI also drew industry attention. Brent Sudeck was featured on the cover of BizTech Magazine for his leadership in adopting hyperconverged infrastructure as a transformative solution for small and mid-sized businesses.

 

The Solution

A Nutanix-based HCI appliance was deployed, consolidating multiple workloads into eight virtual machines (including Exchange) and reducing reliance on disparate hardware. The architecture was designed for future scalability—supporting more than 200 users.

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The Results

  • Streamlined infrastructure: Reduced complexity and improved reliability.

  • Scalable foundation: Positioned the organization to support growth without repeated infrastructure overhauls.

  • Improved performance: Faster response times for both internal users and client-facing systems.

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Phase 2: Defense-in-Depth — Securing and Scaling the Remote Workforce (2020s)

 

The Challenge
Following the HCI deployment, the mortgage lender expanded from 20 to nearly 500 employees located across the United States. Traditional VPN and RDP connections created performance issues, security risks, and onboarding bottlenecks. The company also needed to integrate and secure expanding workloads in Azure and AWS, defend against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, and modernize network infrastructure to support a nationwide scale.

 

TrustPoint Cyber’s Approach

TrustPoint Cyber designed and implemented a defense-in-depth strategy—layering multiple security controls across endpoints, networks, identities, and cloud workloads. Goals included eliminating internet-facing ports, enforcing least-privilege access across all systems, seamlessly integrating Azure and AWS resources into the core network, and deploying enterprise-grade cybersecurity and centralized network management.

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The Solution

TrustPoint Cyber implemented a layered security architecture:

  • Perimeter & Access Security: Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) with Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)

  • Network Visibility & AI Threat Detection: AI driven network detection and response platform for autonomous threat detection and response

  • Endpoint Protection: Next-gen EDR for rapid containment and remediation

  • Identity & Authentication Security: Secret Double Octopus passwordless MFA to remove credential vulnerabilities

  • Infrastructure & Network Management: Advanced cloud-managed security appliances for centralized, scalable branch deployment

  • Policy Enforcement: Firewall-as-a-service and device posture checks to ensure only compliant devices connect


This layered defense ensured that if one security layer was bypassed, multiple others stood ready to detect, block, and contain threats.

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The Results

  • Zero exposed attack surface: “Our attack footprint doesn’t exist anymore. Once users connect, we give them exactly what they should be able to access—nothing more.” – Brent A. Sudeck

  • Rapid deployment capability: New branches, remote teams, and cloud workloads brought online in days

  • Significantly strengthened security posture: Multiple overlapping security layers reduced risk and improved response times

  • Consistent, reliable access: Uniform experience whether connecting on-site, remotely, or via cloud services

  • Operational efficiency: Ability to scale infrastructure and security coverage without proportional increases in IT staffing

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Looking Ahead

With its defense-in-depth strategy in place, the mortgage lender is positioned for:

  • Continued expansion into cloud-native mortgage processing workflows

  • AI-driven automation for underwriting and compliance

  • Further refinements to its Zero Trust and layered security architecture


Conclusion
Through strategic planning, cost-conscious decision-making, and a deliberate defense-in-depth approach, TrustPoint Cyber—under the leadership of Brent Sudeck—guided this mortgage lender through a complete IT transformation. From HCI deployment to SASE and ZTNA, from AI-driven cyber defense to passwordless MFA and centralized network control, each layer was purposefully designed to strengthen the organization’s resilience against cyber threats while enabling growth and agility.

TP Results
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