Cloud Monitor Delivers Proactive Protection and Time Savings to Georgia Technology Team
Rabun County School District, nestled in the mountains of Tiger, Georgia, operates a 1:1 environment for its approximately 2,200 students and 300 faculty and staff, all using Google Workspace for Education Plus.
As the Director of Technology, Greg Purcell is responsible for keeping the entire network running and ensuring compliance and security with a remarkably small team. With increasing cybersecurity threats targeting schools, Greg knew he needed a solution that could act as a force multiplier—something that could simplify their cybersecurity and student safety efforts without requiring more staff.
“It was a constant worry that with just Google’s native tools, we simply didn’t have the means of monitoring for things that could truly affect a student’s life. Cloud Monitor fills that gap, plus does so much more. It’s well worth the investment.”
— Greg Purcell, Director of Technology, Rabun County School District
He found that ManagedMethods’ Cloud Monitor provided the essential visibility, automation, and control they were desperately missing in their Google Workspace environment to keep students safe and data secure.
Challenges
Greg and his team were mired in manual, time-consuming investigations for any security or student safety concern. Their reliance on Google’s native tools and a fragmented process was a serious drain on their limited IT resources.
“We had to go to multiple places, logging into different systems like Google Admin console and various content filters, just to try and figure out what was going on,” Greg recalls. “It took a lot of time and digging just to get to the root of the problem, and that felt incredibly frustrating because we knew time was critical.”
“It’s technically possible to find an email or file using Google Admin console, but the process is not exactly the most user-friendly. Now that we know how much easier it can be, my team has told me they would be very sad if we ever lost Cloud Monitor. They rely on it every day. It saves us valuable time and gives us the visibility and control we need.”
— Greg Purcell, Director of Technology, Rabun County School District
The team struggled with the limitations of Google’s Admin console for investigations, which felt designed for technical experts, not time-crunched K-12 IT staff. Even while using the advanced security and investigations tools provided by Google Workspace for Education Plus licenses, his team found the interface used to search emails and Drive files cumbersome. “It’s technically possible to find an email or file, but the process is not exactly the most user-friendly. Dealing with the message IDs and the Admin console was just a huge pain. It was also hard to train team members how to do it,” Greg explains.
More critically, they lacked sophisticated, AI-driven detection for self-harm, bullying, or abusive situations that could truly make a difference in a student’s physical safety.
“We realized that with just Google’s native tools, we simply didn’t have the means of monitoring for things that could truly affect a student’s life. That was a constant worry at the back of our minds.”
Results
His initial contact with ManagedMethods was through the oft-maligned cold call. “As you can imagine, I get a lot of those and I’m usually ‘not here’,” Greg chuckles. “I don’t know why I took that call, but I’m glad I did. We got to talking and I realized this could be very beneficial.”
Greg was quickly won over when he saw a live demonstration. Cloud Monitor’s ability to automatically monitor for personally identifiable information (PII), detect risky images, and catch student attempts to bypass filters—all gaps that Google’s native tools failed to adequately address—made the decision easy. The product’s reasonable price also helped cement his decision to buy. “It also didn’t hurt that some surrounding districts had recently dealt with ransomware attacks and we’d really been pushing cybersecurity awareness across the district,” Greg adds.
“Cloud Monitor is well worth a look, even a second look. I take it personally to protect our students, on the cyber side and on the physical side. Cloud Monitor provides the critical means of doing so that Google’s native tools simply don’t offer. With the security, safety, compliance, and even administrative management controls you get, Cloud Monitor is like having an additional employee on your team at a much lower cost.”
— Greg Purcell, Director of Technology, Rabun County School District
Cloud Monitor has helped the district’s IT team move from a reactive to a proactive security and safety posture, and has provided significant time savings and improved efficiency.
“Cloud Monitor is like having an extra employee that’s constantly monitoring all our Google Workspace traffic, helping us keep students and staff safe by continuously monitoring for risks,” says Greg.
And it’s not just about student safety and data security. Cloud Monitor also solved a major administrative pain point, making it much easier to pull up emails, retrieve lost Drive files, and manage account actions than it ever was with Google’s native tools.
The ability to proactively detect and manage a variety of risks across their Google Workspace environment makes Cloud Monitor a powerful and irreplaceable tool, even for Google Workspace for Education Plus admins.
“My team has even told me that if we ever lost Cloud Monitor, they would be very sad,” explains Greg. “They rely on it every day. It saves us valuable time and gives us the visibility and control we need.”
Cloud Monitor proactively monitors staff sharing, detects PII and PCI data sharing compliance risks, identifies students using VPNs to bypass their web filter, and much more. The platform alerts Greg’s team when there is an issue that needs their attention, so they know exactly what, when, and where to focus their time if needed.
“Cloud Monitor is well worth a look, even a second look. I take it personally to protect our students, on the cyber side and on the physical side. Cloud Monitor provides the critical means of doing so that Google’s native tools simply don’t offer,” Greg advises other K-12 tech leaders. “With the security, safety, compliance, and even administrative management controls you get, Cloud Monitor is like having an additional employee on your team at a much lower cost.”
Want to learn more about improving your district’s cybersecurity, student safety, and classroom engagement?
Get started with your free Google Workspace and/or Microsoft 365 security and safety audit today.
