Shauli Zacks
Published on: July 23, 2025
In today’s rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape, many organizations face the dual challenge of securing complex cloud environments and maintaining operational resilience despite staffing shortages. To explore how businesses can rise to meet these challenges, SafetyDetectives sat down with Judd Robins, Executive Vice President at TekStream Solutions.
Based in Atlanta, TekStream is a leading IT consulting and recruiting firm specializing in digital transformation, cybersecurity, and cloud enablement. In his role, Robins focuses on digital resilience and the integration of AI-powered security solutions that help organizations scale securely and efficiently. In this SafetyDetectives interview, he shares insights on why SIEM deployments often underdeliver, how co-managed security is reshaping the industry, and what makes TekStream’s innovative student-powered SOC model a game-changer for the public sector and beyond.
Can you start by introducing yourself and your role at TekStream Solutions?
Certainly. I serve as Executive Vice President of TekStream Solutions, an Atlanta-based IT consulting and recruiting firm. In my role, I’m particularly focused on digital resilience and cybersecurity, currently examining the integration of AI-powered technologies that deliver scalable, secure, and future-ready solutions. These solutions empower businesses to build and maintain robust cybersecurity stacks in an increasingly complex cybersecurity landscape.
What are TekStream’s core services, and what types of organizations do you typically work with?
We offer a wide range of services, including digital transformation, cloud migrations, application and content consolidation, managed detection and response (MDR) services, software implementation, and IT recruiting. Our clients are typically mid-sized to enterprise institutions and range across various industries, including education, government, healthcare, finance, construction, and transportation.
Many companies struggle to get meaningful results from their SIEM deployments—what are the biggest reasons SIEM projects fail, and how does TekStream help avoid those pitfalls?
SIEM projects often fail due to unclear objectives, poor data onboarding, lack of continuous tuning, and staffing shortages that prevent proper utilization. TekStream helps organizations avoid these pitfalls by aligning SIEM deployments with measurable business outcomes, ensuring relevant data sources are onboarded efficiently, and leveraging our Splunk-powered MDR and co-managed services for ongoing tuning and use-case development. This approach enables clients to maximize the value of their SIEM investments while reducing operational burdens on their internal teams.
What should organizations look for when choosing a co-managed security partner?
Co-managed security is the future of cybersecurity management. It enables cybersecurity leaders to improve the operation, configuration and maintenance of their cyber tech stack while lowering their security operations center (SOC) staffing overhead.
At TekStream, we take this one step further through our whole-of-state (WOS) approach, which leverages shared intelligence and collaboration to address public sector cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Built on our Splunk-powered MDR services and utilizing the power of our student-powered SOCs, in partnership with Louisiana State University (LSU) and The New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), this approach enables TekStream’s customers to mitigate the impact of cybersecurity events more effectively, leveraging a cost-deferment strategy while also upskilling their workforce.
Because of our unique, industry-leading approach to MDR services, we made an inaugural appearance in Gartner’s Market Guide for Co-Managed Security Monitoring Services earlier this year.
TekStream works closely with cloud-native environments—what are some common cloud security blind spots you see, especially when it comes to hybrid or multi-cloud setups?
Hybrid and multi-cloud environments provide flexibility and resilience, but the complexities of managing them often create security blind spots. Common security issues include inconsistent policies across environments, lack of centralized visibility and monitoring, and insufficient network segmentation.
There’s a major cybersecurity talent shortage right now. How are you helping clients build operational resilience despite staffing limitations? Are automation or training initiatives playing a role here?
We address the cybersecurity talent shortage in two ways. First, we augment our clients’ teams with TekStream’s co-managed MDR services and automation, reducing manual workloads while enhancing detection and response capabilities. Second, we invest in workforce development through our student-powered SOC program in partnership with LSU and NJIT, training students on real-world incidents while providing clients with affordable, skilled monitoring support. This approach builds operational resilience while strengthening the future cybersecurity talent pipeline.
