Case Study: Ascendium Education Group achieves 90% SOC staffing cost reduction and 24x7 protection with Mandiant Managed Defense

Financial Firm Reduced Costs and Overhead with MDR Services

Ascendium Education Group, a nonprofit federal student loan guarantor serving 1.9 million borrowers, needed to rebuild security after selling its IT infrastructure and tasked its team to protect sensitive financial and personal data without fully staffing an in-house SOC. To meet this constraint, Ascendium selected Mandiant and its Mandiant Managed Defense service to provide third‑party security coverage tailored to the organization’s needs.

Mandiant implemented a tailored managed detection and response (MDR) approach—24x7 monitoring, global threat intelligence, and coordinated alert handling while allowing Ascendium to retain control of firewalls, access control and endpoint tools. The engagement cut staffing costs by about 90% compared with building an in-house SOC (costing roughly one‑tenth of hiring and training a full team), eliminated the need to hire/train SOC engineers and analysts, and gave Ascendium greater peace of mind and capacity to focus on its data center transition.

Ascendium Education Group

Alex Hammond

Senior Security Engineer