Gartner’s How to Achieve the Minimum Viable AI Governance
Case Study
City of Phoenix Scales Endpoint Posture Management for Critical Infrastructure
The capital of Arizona and the sixth largest city in the United States, Phoenix has a population of over 1.5 million. Serving the community through more than 30 distinct departments, the city oversees critical infrastructure, including an airport, municipal courts, fire and police departments, water treatment facilities, election, and transit systems.
These high-profile assets make the city a prime target for cyber threats, necessitating robust cybersecurity measures.
Employees
15,000
DEVICES
20,000
Location
Phoenix Arizona
The Challenge
Following a series of cyberattacks in 2020, local leadership sought to modernize their endpoint posture management strategy to eliminate blind spots traditional EDR and vulnerability tools left behind.
The possibility of adversaries exploiting unknown configuration errors was a constant concern,” noted Mitchell Kohlbecker, Chief Information Security Officer for the City of Phoenix
The city’s existing tools lacked the ability to systematically identify misconfigurations, leaving the security team to discover issues by chance during routine operations.
This reactive approach resulted in ad hoc remediations that could take weeks, increasing the risk of system downtime or data breaches. The city prioritized end-to-end visibility to establish clear goals, processes, and benchmarks for reducing cyber exposure.
The Solution
After encountering Remedio at a cybersecurity conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, the city adopted its configuration-focused endpoint posture management solution. Remedio delivers granular, real-time visibility into device configurations across the enterprise, identifying misconfigurations and enabling automated, non-disruptive remediation with a single click.
Transforming Endpoint Posture Management Across Enterprise Operations
The platform’s quick deployment and user-friendly interface allowed the city to systematically address problematic configurations, enforce industry best practices (e.g., CIS, NIST), and establish a process for continuous improvement.
Remedio’s automated workflows and policy validation streamlined operations, reducing human error and ensuring consistent security baselines.
Further bolstering governance posture, the city’s change advisory board was given the mandate, alongside their cyber risk committee, to routinely review and approve configuration changes.
The Results
Remedio's automated detection and proactive hardening transformed the city’s cybersecurity operations and significantly reduced risk.
The solution was deployed in minutes without requiring any system downtime. And the initial scan revealed hundreds of critical attack vectors across thousands of devices, exposing previously undetected risks that expanded the city’s attack surface.
Empowered by Remedio’s insights, the security team was immediately authorized to remediate critical issues, addressing over 5,000 configuration risks within days. The force multiplier was profound, with six Remedio users outputting what would otherwise take a team of 30–40 to accomplish.
Over the first 30 days, the city achieved:
83
%
Reduction
In the attack surface, as measured by known risks.
480
%
Increase
In IT and Security labor productivity.
77
%
Decrease
In the mean time to remediation.
The Conclusion
The city’s partnership with Remedio revolutionized its approach to cybersecurity, uncovering hidden risks and enabling rapid, automated remediation.
By automating routine tasks and implementing robust processes, organizations can reduce the risk of human error, enhance operational consistency, and ensure that IT systems run smoothly and securely.
And by validating existing security policies and automatically detecting violations, Remedio empowered the City of Phoenix to implement a process of continuous improvement.
- 1 Reduce cyber exposure
- 2 Enhance operational efficiency
- 3 Maintain readiness & resilience in the face of evolving threats
“Configurations are as critical as vulnerability and patch management. If budgets were cut, Remedio would be one of the last tools I’d let go.”
