Kyle
Ellison

The challenge & approach

A regulated financial exchange needed more than a compliance checkbox.

The client faced growing regulatory scrutiny under Reg SCI and needed a trusted advisor who could translate their compliance obligations into an operational security program. Rather than pitching a product, Kyle mapped the client's risk exposure across governance, detection, and vulnerability — then proposed a phased engagement that started with GRC and built toward a fully managed security operation. A key differentiator in the pre-sales motion was the creation of a reverse timeline: working backward from the platform's scheduled launch date, every required security milestone was mapped in sequence, giving the client clear visibility into exactly what needed to happen and when. This approach demonstrated strategic foresight, instilled confidence that nothing would fall through the cracks before go-live, and made budget approval straightforward at the CISO and CRO level.

Outcome

A $300K engagement became a $1.25M strategic partnership.

The client expanded into a full managed services portfolio covering every major security domain. What started as a compliance project became a long-term risk management program, with Stratascale embedded as the client's de facto security operations partner.

The challenge & approach

75+ plants. Multiple continents. Zero consistent OT security baseline.

The client operated critical manufacturing infrastructure with no standardized OT security posture across facilities. Legacy industrial control systems ran alongside modern IT infrastructure with minimal segmentation. Kyle positioned Stratascale as one of the few partners capable of delivering SANS ICS-aligned assessments at global scale — not just at a single facility, but across the entire manufacturing footprint. The engagement was structured as a phased assessment with a unified risk reduction roadmap delivered at the conclusion.

Outcome

A global risk reduction roadmap — and a replicable security architecture.

Each facility received a gap analysis tied to a prioritized remediation roadmap. The final deliverable included a scalable OT security architecture designed to be deployed consistently across all plants — giving the client a blueprint for ongoing security maturation without restarting the assessment process at each site.

The challenge & approach

A U.S. chip producer needed ISO 27001 — and a partner who could get them there.

The client was under pressure from enterprise customers and regulators to achieve ISO 27001 accreditation, but lacked the internal expertise to navigate the certification process independently. Kyle structured the engagement as a Year 1 readiness program with explicit expansion triggers built in — ensuring that advisory, gap remediation, and audit preparation were scoped as a multi-year program rather than a one-time project. This approach secured long-term commitment while reducing the client's perceived risk of starting the journey.

Outcome

Year 1 signed. A multi-year advisory relationship established.

The client entered a structured accreditation program with a clear path to ISO 27001 certification. The engagement was positioned not as a cost center but as a competitive differentiator — enabling the client to pursue enterprise contracts that required demonstrated security maturity. The multi-phase structure ensured Stratascale's continued involvement well beyond Year 1.

The challenge & approach

A family business running on tribal knowledge — and missing out on the biggest contracts in the market.

Ellison Steel was operating without formal project management or supply chain visibility tools. Project status lived in spreadsheets and memory, making it difficult for ownership to track progress, forecast costs, or communicate timelines to clients. Simultaneously, the absence of AISC certification was quietly closing the door on an entire tier of high-value work — federal government projects and hyperscaler data center buildouts for AWS and Microsoft require it. Kyle identified both gaps and drove the solutions in parallel: implementing Tekla for operational visibility, and leading the certification process end-to-end.

Outcome

Operational clarity. New markets. A stronger business.

Tekla gave ownership real-time visibility into fabrication and erection timelines for the first time — transforming how the business communicated with clients and managed project delivery. AISC certification opened the door to federal government contracts and mission-critical data center buildouts for AWS and Microsoft, permanently expanding the company's addressable market and competitive positioning.

The challenge & approach

GCCH lags commercial — and this client was feeling it.

GCC High environments require custom engineering and rigorous security vetting that commercial Microsoft tenants don't. This aerospace client faced a compounding set of problems: manual data labeling was inconsistent and error-prone, DLP policies were either too broad or too narrow, and CUI was flowing through the environment without reliable classification or encryption. The path to CMMC and ITAR compliance felt distant. Stratascale deployed its Purview Accelerator — a structured four-phase engagement designed specifically to cut through GCCH complexity and get clients to operational data governance without the trial-and-error typically required.

Outcome

Automated. Encrypted. Compliant. Faster than they thought possible.

The client exited the engagement with automated data classification and encryption running natively across their GCCH environment — no more manual labeling, no more enforcement gaps. DLP policies were tuned to reduce false positives while maintaining rigorous CUI protection. Critically, Purview's native capabilities allowed the client to retire a competing data protection tool from their tech stack entirely, generating $75K in annual savings. The Adopt phase ensured the internal team could sustain and evolve the program independently, delivering durable compliance outcomes aligned to both CMMC and ITAR requirements.