Customer Story: District of Sparwood

Industry	Driver	Company Size
Local Government	Greater Visibility & Stronger Security Posture	80

The Challenge

The District of Sparwood, with a one-person IT department, wanted to improve visibility across their environment while strengthening alerting accuracy and reliability.

The Solution

With Blumira's proactive alerts and personalized support, the District of Sparwood gained greater network visibility through a cost-effective and easy-to-implement SIEM solution.

It's nice to know that it's actually working and I have peace of mind knowing that if something did get into our network, Blumira would catch it right away, way before our EDR would.

The District of Sparwood

The District of Sparwood is a municipality in southeastern British Columbia, home to approximately 4,200 residents. Located in the East Kootenay region, Sparwood is governed by its local council and falls under the broader jurisdiction of the Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK). 

The Challenge: A Little Too Quiet

Murray Sedlowsky serves as the Information System Technician for the District of Sparwood. As a one-person IT department, he oversees all aspects of the district's technology, including servers, networking, desktop support, software, backups, and communication systems. Balancing this wide array of responsibilities leaves little time to specialize, making it challenging to stay ahead of IT demands and ensuring the municipality’s technology needs are met effectively. His previous setup with SentinelOne, while indicative of a secure environment, lacked the level of visibility and reassurance provided by his new system.

“We weren't really getting any alerts with our EDR; it was really quiet as far as alerts and everything goes,” Sedlowsky said.

The Solution: Easy-to-Set Up SIEM & Proactive Support

Sedlowsky initially heard about Blumira through the 7 Minute Security Podcast. At the time, the District of Sparwood did not have any SIEM solution in place or plans to add a SIEM to their security technology stack. 

“[The podcast] was doing a series where they evaluated different SIEMs and had good things to say about Blumira, like how small and agile the company was, and how responsive they were to feedback from the host, which wasn’t always the case with the other vendors,” Sedlowsky said.

Sedlowsky had heard about other SIEM solutions being a lot more expensive and taking more time to set up and configure. Sedlowsky considered Arctic Wolf’s SOC services but found the cost excessive, expressing a preference for a scaled-down offering better suited to his organization’s needs.

“Arctic Wolf explained that they provide 24/7 network monitoring, even on the weekend, but the cost and service was overkill for what we needed,” Sedlowsky said.

Sedlowsky highlighted Blumira's excellent value for its price and how effectively it met his needs.

“I liked it off the bat. Initially, I planned to try Blumira for a trial period, but I was really happy with everything I saw and it was within our budget,” Sedlowsky said. “So, I didn’t end up looking at other solutions after that.”

Sedlowsky described the implementation process as straightforward, thanks to the clear setup guide. However, what stood out most to him was the proactive outreach he received from Blumira’s Customer Experience (CX) team, throughout the onboarding process.

“What stood out was that [the CX Team] took the time to follow up and identify areas that could be optimized. It felt really personal, like you genuinely reached out to me,” Sedlowsky said. “I've never actually had a software company do that before. Usually it’s like ‘here's the product, if you have any problems, call us, but we won't call you.’ Having that proactive service gave me the warm fuzzies about Blumira.”

Loud Alerts Bring Peace of Mind

Since implementing Blumira, Sedlowsky experienced a significant increase in useful alerts, adding an extra layer of reassurance alongside their EDR solution. These alerts offered valuable insights, confirming that his SIEM was actively monitoring and detecting changes in the environment.

“It's nice to know that it's actually working and I have peace of mind knowing that if something did get into our network, Blumira would catch it right away, way before our EDR would,” Sedlowsky said.

Over time, Sedlowsky gained the ability to customize alerts, further improving their usefulness. He particularly valued alerts for user actions, as they reassured him that nothing was going unnoticed.

“With [Blumira], I get alerts for things like when a local user or domain user has been added or when they're changed to different security groups, which also gives me peace of mind,” Sedlowsky said.

During a pen test, Blumira immediately flagged potential issues, reinforcing Sedlowsky’s confidence in the platform’s ability to quickly detect and address threats. Its proactive alerts have consistently proven their value to him throughout his experience.

“We recently had a pen test done this past summer, and right off the bat, BOOM, I started receiving alerts,” Sedlowsky said. “It felt good knowing that if something did happen, Blumira would catch it, and we'd be able to take care of it right away.”

He also noted that following their SIEM deployment, the district secured access to cyber insurance, which he believes Blumira may have helped them qualify for. 

“We have an extra layer of security now,” Sedlowsky said. “I feel pretty confident that if there were a breach within our network, I would know about it sooner rather than later.”