Alta Architects · San Antonio, TX · Est. 2000
Enterprise Storage and Security for a Commercial Architecture Firm
After 25 years as Alta Architects' IT partner, Lone Cypress Technology designed and delivered two parallel engagements: a SOC and XDR program that extends coverage far beyond the endpoint, and an enterprise-class SAN refresh that doubled capacity and reshaped the firm's recovery posture.
A 25-Year Partnership
A Quarter-Century of Shared Context
Alta Architects has been a Lone Cypress Technology partner for 25 years. The relationship predates most of the technology in their building, and it has carried through generations of servers, storage systems, and security tools.
For a 45-person commercial architecture firm designing buildings across South Texas, the IT environment is not a back-office concern. It is the design studio itself. Drawings, models, project archives, and historical files have to be reliably accessible to the design teams every day.
By 2025, two pressures had moved to the top of the priority list. The firm needed a partner who already understood their environment, their workflows, and their growth expectations to address both, without disrupting the design teams who depend on that infrastructure every day.
Wondering whether your firm's IT could carry you another decade with confidence?
THE CHALLENGE
Aging Storage, Expanding Threat Surface
Two pressures came forward in 2025, and Alta needed a partner to address both at once.
The first was security. Architecture firms hold sensitive client information, building plans for occupied facilities, and the kind of intellectual property that makes them attractive targets for cyber attacks.
Alta's security posture relied primarily on endpoint detection and response at the desktop and server level. Coverage in the cloud and across the broader environment, including the Microsoft 365 tenant and network layer, was thin.
The second was storage. Years of design work had filled their existing SAN, which had also reached end of life and was beginning to show its age.
The SAN supported the firm's data and virtualization workloads. Performance was a concern, capacity was a concern, and the replacement deadline could not be ignored. Alta needed both issues addressed by a partner who understood the environment, not a vendor walking in cold.
THE SOLUTION
Enterprise-Class Coverage from Endpoint to Cloud
Lone Cypress Technology consulted with Alta's leadership, designed both solutions to fit the firm's environment and growth expectations, and managed the integrations from inception to deployment. Three things shaped the work:
✔ Coverage Beyond the Endpoint
Security extended from desktops and servers into the network layer and the Microsoft 365 environment, with continuous monitoring across all of it.
✔ Consultative Design
Both engagements started with environment fit, not product fit. Solutions sized to Alta's workloads and the next several years of expected growth.
✔ End-to-End Integration
Lone Cypress owned both projects through sizing, procurement, deployment, validation, and handoff. One accountable partner, not a stack of vendors.
Across the two engagements, the program included five deliverables:
1. Security Operations Center (SOC) & XDR
A 24/7 SOC and SIEM solution extending detection and response from endpoints to servers, network devices, and the Microsoft 365 and email environment.
2. Enterprise Storage Refresh
Design and integration of a new enterprise-class SAN to replace the end-of-life array, approximately doubling usable capacity and modernizing the storage tier supporting Alta's data and server nodes.
3. Strengthened Disaster Recovery Posture
Native SAN replication to a secondary array, snapshot-based point-in-time recovery, and tighter integration with the firm's backup platform to shorten restore windows.
4. Microsoft 365 & Email Threat Coverage
Expanded monitoring across the M365 tenant to address identity, mailbox, and cloud activity that endpoint tools alone cannot see.
5. Consultative Design and Integration
End-to-end ownership of both projects, from sizing and procurement through deployment, validation, and handoff.
THE RESULTS
Security and Storage Sized for What's Next
With both engagements complete, Alta Architects has the foundation to focus on design work while their IT environment supports them in the background.
✔ 24/7 Coverage Beyond the Endpoint
Detection and response now spans desktops, servers, network, and the Microsoft 365 environment, with a Security Operations Center watching it around the clock.
✔ Room to Grow
The new SAN approximately doubled usable capacity and brought the performance profile of an enterprise-class system to the storage tier supporting Alta's data and server workloads.
✔ Stronger Recovery Posture
Native replication, snapshot-based point-in-time recovery, and tighter backup integration shortened restore windows and materially reduced the firm's exposure to data loss.
Before these engagements, Alta was carrying real risk in their cloud security, a storage system on borrowed time, and a recovery profile constrained by aging infrastructure. Today, all three are sized for the next chapter of the partnership.
CONCLUSION
A Foundation for the Next Chapter
Alta's leadership now has security coverage that reaches well beyond the endpoint and a storage tier with both the capacity and performance of an enterprise-class system. Day to day, the design teams focus on their projects while a 25-year IT partner keeps the foundation steady underneath them. That is what a long-haul partnership looks like in practice: not a transaction, but a foundation that has carried the firm this far and is sized to carry it forward.
Whether you are reworking your security posture, refreshing aging infrastructure, or both at once, the conversation starts with understanding your environment.
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