Inside DVI Training Systems' Cybersecurity Transformation with RADICL

Interviewer: Can we start with your name, title, and what DVI does?

Bud: My name is Bud Simpson. I'm the documentation systems manager at DVI Training Systems. I've been with the company about a year. DVI is a very uniquely positioned company — we work with branches of the US military to develop training content for various roles. Right now we're working with the US Air Force, building training content for Air Force pilots under Air Education and Training Command. We're developing content for all of the heavy jets — the refueling planes, the cargo planes. It's an exciting time for the company because we're learning that our training program has greater application beyond aviation.

Interviewer: How did you first find RADICL?

Bud: Working with branches of the US military, we are stewards of controlled and classified information. This requires various restrictions and controls around how we use that data, where it goes, and how we store and transmit it. We quickly realized we needed to become compliant with CMMC Level 2, which required us to onboard a vSOC. We shopped around quite extensively and eventually through word of mouth found RADICL. We knew they worked with organizations like ours, and after the first few calls it became very apparent that these were the kind of partners we wanted — not just to help us become CMMC Level 2 compliant, but as strong value adds to our operations overall.

Interviewer: Did you shop RADICL against other vendors?

Bud: I imagine we did. But I can say with confidence that we landed in the right place — none of us regret the decision. From day one it's been so apparent the level of expertise that everyone we've interfaced with at RADICL has. When I look at where we were a year ago versus where we are today, "cybersecurity maturity" is a really good way to describe the transformation we've gone through as an organization. RADICL has been a big part of that.

Interviewer: Are you using RADICL for CMMC as well?

Bud: Absolutely. We work with the Comply platform, where we're able to track and evidence-hunt and gather documentation for our C3PAO assessment this fall.

Interviewer: So your assessment is coming up — sounds like you're a few months out?

Bud: Yes, it is crunch time. Having RADICL guide us through that — validate our evidence, validate our procedures and policy documents — I don't know where we'd be without that kind of partner in this process.

Interviewer: What's your favorite part of RADICL?

Bud: The people are the best part of RADICL. When I think about the value RADICL provides, it really comes down to the expertise — and the patience they have for a younger, fast-growth company like ours. We're small but growing fast, so to have that expertise and guiding hand — not just through compliance, but through threat hunting, hardening, and awareness training — it's been a genuinely pleasant, unexpected part of my job working with the RADICL team on a weekly basis.

For instance, we're currently going through a lot of system reconfigurations gearing up for our assessment — conditional access policies, new user access, turning ports on and off on the firewall. With that much change happening fast, sometimes you can open things you didn't intend to. We were running some tests locally with a Windows TLS tool, and about 15 minutes in, I got a call on my cell from Josh at the vSOC. He said, "Hey, we've got a lot of activity on this machine — is that you guys? Just doing a courtesy check." Sure enough, our on-prem team was running access tests — nothing malicious. But just the fact that Josh had me on the phone less than 15 minutes after suspicious activity occurred, walked me through why it set off alarms, and explained recourse — that moment really summed up what RADICL is. They're there when you need them most.

Interviewer: Would you recommend RADICL, and why?

Bud: I would recommend RADICL for several reasons. The people are down to earth and knowledgeable — there's a vast amount of expertise across the VSOC team, the Comply team, and all the engineers. I don't have to wait long for an answer, and I always know I'm going to get the right advice for our scope and our needs.

RADICL is a small but mighty team. They're very approachable — I can always get an answer from the right person the moment I need it, without cutting through a lot of red tape. But at the same time, I feel like I'm working with a very robust, mature platform and a much larger organization. RADICL is really the right mix of small and agile, yet mighty in their ability to help us grow.

Interviewer: Any advice for organizations like DVI looking for their own compliance or cybersecurity solutions?

Bud: Focus on building that core team. Find the individuals or organizations that can bring added capability to your organization. No matter what your goals are in cybersecurity or compliance, you have to have the institutional knowledge and the target to hit. You can build systems and infrastructure, but without the right scoping and vision — especially if you're just starting out — it can be overwhelming. Having that guiding hand from the beginning gives you a target to hit so you can achieve your goals on your timeline and within your budget.

Interviewer: Anything else you'd like to add about your experience with RADICL?

Bud: We've been working on a really tight timeline with our upcoming assessment, changing a lot on the fly as we write procedures, SOPs, and SPs. With that aggressive timeline, the ability to get an answer very quickly — one we know is compliant, one we can take to the bank — has been invaluable for me and the rest of the organization. When I open a control and read the restrictions and recommended security postures, I have to look at our organization, compare it to the procedure document, and figure out the best path forward. There's a lot of creative problem solving that goes into that. So to always have a RADICL presence at our table has been fundamental to our success. The conversation with RADICL never ends — they're here anytime I need an answer. And that availability right now is just so critical for us.

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