Logan Finance secures its future with a compliant, cloud-first Azure infrastructure

To replace aging infrastructure and reduce risk, Logan Finance turned to SHI for a scalable, compliant Azure solution.

Challenge:

When Michael Caniglia joined Logan Finance as Senior Vice President of Information Technology, the company had just 30 employees and was relying on an inherited managed services provider that offered limited visibility and control over the IT environment. As Logan prepared for rapid growth and digital transformation, the existing support model proved too rigid. Key infrastructure like Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) was locked down, preventing Logan’s IT leadership from making critical changes or scaling effectively.

The need for a modern, flexible IT foundation became more urgent as Logan expanded operations offshore, partnering with a third-party services group based in India. Initially, the offshore team consisted of just a handful of users, but as that number grew to over 30, Logan began receiving complaints of severe latency and performance issues. Users reported that applications took 10 to 20 minutes to load, causing significant delays in productivity.

Without internal infrastructure staff to manage these growing pains, Logan needed a partner who could not only solve the immediate performance issues but also build a future-ready foundation.

Solution:

Logan Finance turned to SHI and the SHI Complete program to take full ownership of their IT operations. SHI replaced the legacy MSP, helped Logan regain control of its AVD tenant, and provided a seamless transition to a managed services model that included engineering, asset management, security, and compliance. According to Michael, “The engineering team here mapped it out for me within two weeks. On the day they said they were going to do it, it was seamless.” With a foundation in place, SHI turned its attention to solving the offshore performance issues.

Working closely with Michael and his team, SHI’s engineers rapidly deployed a new AVD host pool in the India region to reduce latency and improve access speed. The solution was designed for scalability and cost efficiency, using autoscaling features that ensured Logan only paid for what was in use.

Beyond resolving the immediate issue, Logan also served as a pilot customer for several cutting-edge technologies. SHI used Azure Image Builder pipelines to streamline image updates and leveraged Terraform to manage infrastructure as code—making Logan one of the first customers to adopt this methodology with SHI. The partnership was marked by constant communication, rapid iteration, and proactive strategy. SHI’s quarterly business reviews and SHI One reporting platform gave Michael real-time insights into costs, performance, and optimization opportunities.

Outcome:

The deployment led to a dramatic improvement in user experience for Logan’s offshore team. Application load times improved roughly 90%, dropping from up to 20 minutes to just 2–3 minutes, enabling the India-based team to work efficiently and without interruption. Logan now has nearly 40 offshore users relying on the optimized AVD environment. SHI’s autoscaling solution helped control costs, while SHI One’s analytics empowered Logan to forecast usage and plan future investments. “It provides me with the reporting I need, the cost savings I need, and what my projections could possibly be,” said Michael.

The success of this project reinforced Logan’s trust in SHI as a strategic IT partner. As the company explores additional digital initiatives—including a potential automated underwriting platform—Michael plans to turn to SHI to lead integration and implementation. “I don’t want to hire a data architect or an engineer to maintain this for me,” he explained. “I’ll go to SHI. I know they have backup upon backup, and I know exactly who to call.” He also emphasized the rare consistency of SHI’s team: “You guys have probably the lowest turnover from an MSP company I’ve ever dealt with. With SHI, I know what I’m getting.”

From overcoming infrastructure limitations to enabling global scalability, SHI helped Logan Finance transform its IT operations into a platform for innovation and growth. “From the ground up,” Michael said, “it’s been a top-notch experience.”