Absolute Security Solutions Reduce Downtime and Strengthen Lincoln International’s Cyber Resilience
As a globally renowned, fully integrated M&A consultancy, Lincoln International offers services on all matters related to corporate finance, mergers, and acquisitions. The company also advises clients on a host of needs, ranging from capital increases and company valuations to strategies for successful joint ventures. Leading this work is a dedicated team of more than 1,000 professionals across 15 countries around the world.
Strengthen Access and Asset Control for a Global, Regulated Firm
Lincoln International needed secure, compliant, always-on remote access for a global workforce, without the friction of a legacy, firewall-based VPN that forced manual steps like choosing access nodes or extra authentication. As the firm expanded its offices, it would have required new on-prem server hardware — at odds with a cloud-first strategy and clean integration with SSO/2FA. Moreover, laptops lost or stolen during travel underscored the need for device-level controls beyond disk encryption, such as remote lock, recovery messaging, and rendering a device unusable. Together, these pressures made modernizing secure remote access in the cloud and extending protection at the endpoint a priority.
There are hardly any other IT companies with which we have worked so closely and successfully for more than 12 years. What started as a local solution for two offices in Germany has now become an integral part of the entire company. Absolute Security helps more than 1,200 employees work practically from anywhere every day.
How They Did It
Seamless Migration from On-Prem to the Cloud
Lincoln International has used Absolute Secure Access since 2012, initially as an on-premises deployment providing edge visibility for mobile devices on any network. As the firm expanded, it upgraded to Absolute Secure Access SaaS: “Since our company has been pursuing a cloud-first strategy for several years, the move from on-premises to the cloud came at just the right time. In addition, the Absolute Secure Access cloud solution could easily be integrated into our existing SSO/2FA environment,” says Sven Gölles, Head of IT Europe and Asia at Lincoln International.
Although the team worried the cloud might be slower than their firewalls, on-site tests across several offices showed it was faster than on-prem hardware. The new solution also reduced IT effort and simplified the user experience. After a successful European pilot, the rollout went company-wide: 1,200+ employees across 25+offices now connect via regional access points for faster, easier access. “We were one of the first companies to move from an on-premises license to Absolute’s cloud subscription model,” mentions Gölles. “We were able to save money, as the responsibility and management of the individual systems no longer had to be carried out by our internal IT team, allowing us to focus on our corework.”
Extending Cyber Resilience to the Endpoint
To complement Absolute Secure Access, Lincoln International is piloting Absolute Secure Endpoint to extend cyber resilience all the way to the device layer. Following an uptick in laptops being lost or stolen during travel, the team required controls beyond disk encryption, including remote lock and on-screen messaging to block malicious access to a stolen device. “I find Absolute Secure Endpoint very helpful to render a stolen device practically useless — had thieves known this beforehand, they might have refrained from stealing it,” Gölles adds. Absolute Secure Endpoint also complements Microsoft Intune with essential features, giving IT low-touch assurance for devices they can’t physically reach.
Resilience that Reduces Downtime
Together, Absolute Secure Access and Absolute Secure Endpoint anchor Lincoln International’s cyber resilience strategy. Absolute Secure Access runs as a cloud service outside their core environment, so even in an attack scenario, they can restore secure tunnels and keep operating, rather than being blocked by on-premises infrastructure, saving time and costs. If remediation is needed, IT can reimage devices in 30–45 minutes, and the client quickly reestablishes trusted access to cloud data, minimizing downtime.
Day to day, Absolute Secure Access is a continuously used, “install-and-forget” layer that gives employees seamless, always-on access while imposing almost no administrative overhead; Absolute Secure Endpoint activates only when required and complements Microsoft Intune with essential controls. The net effect is faster, simpler, and more secure work globally, with resilient access by default and device-level assurance when incidents arise.
For us in IT, Absolute Security is a secure and reliable solution with so many configuration options, especially in terms of security.
From Access to Assurance, Global Continuity is Secured
Like most companies, Lincoln International has had to adapt to a radically new working environment. Absolute Secure Access has been an integral part of the company’s secure remote access and cloud strategy, and with the adoption of Absolute Secure Endpoint, its overall cyber resilience.
For Lincoln International, Absolute Security:
- Increases performance and reliability at a global scale, with higher data throughput, faster access, and highly stable site-to-cloud tunnels.
- Shrinks the attack surface by closing previously required firewall ports and reducing the number of servers IT must maintain.
- Stops downtime by ensuring that, if ever in an attack scenario, devices can be reinstalled in 30-45 minutes and securely reconnected.
- Simplifies operations by removing local server management and eliminating user choices between access nodes or second authentication steps.
- Improves business continuity with a cloud-based service that operates outside the firm’s core environment.
- Enables granular traffic control, determining which applications must traverse the VPN and which can access the internet directly.
- Extends resilience at the device layer with Absolute Secure Endpoint, including remote lock, on-screen recovery messaging, and the ability to render stolen devices practically unusable — a quiet, Intune-complementary control that runs without user disruption.
