The Challenge 

As SaaS adoption exploded across the University of Cincinnati to support everything from learning management to research and business operations, the university’s small security team struggled to keep up. Departments frequently adopted new SaaS tools, creating risk, compliance, and visibility gaps.

Key challenges included:

  • Lack of centralized visibility into SaaS usage, configurations, and permissions
  • Shadow IT and SaaS sprawl as departments onboarded tools without IT’s involvement
  • Insufficient expertise to manage, monitor, or secure every SaaS platform in use
  • Delayed vulnerability response and difficulty collaborating between security and development teams
  • Limited ability to track role-based access, integration risks, and configuration drift in real time

The Requirements 

The University of Cincinnati needed a SaaS security partner that could support:

Centralized, Real-Time Visibility

Unifies monitoring across all major SaaS platforms

Configuration Drift and Permissions Monitoring

Provides instant alerts and full change tracking

Seamless Integration with Existing Workflows

Sends findings to SIEM (Splunk Cloud) and ties into ticketing

Ease of Use for a Diverse Team

Intuitive UI and robust documentation, accessible to all

Proactive Alerting and Vulnerability Identification

Enables rapid incident response and security validation

Partnership and Responsive Support

Provides “train the trainer” onboarding and ongoing support

The Results

With AppOmni, the University of Cincinnati’s security and technology teams:

  • Achieved immediate visibility and value, detecting real security events and misconfigurations within hours of onboarding
  • Reduced time spent on research and incident response thanks to contextual alerts and embedded documentation
  • Enabled collaboration between security, IT, and development, aligning on risk management and integrating DevSecOps best practices
  • Empowered student analysts with hands-on SaaS security training, building real-world experience for tomorrow’s security leaders
  • Accelerated  incident response during a major ServiceNow attack in which the university’s  security team triaged, investigated, and mitigated issues faster than waiting for the vendor’s notification

Why It Matters

AppOmni enables the University of Cincinnati to turn SaaS complexity into security clarity, reducing risk and compliance burden while increasing efficiency. The partnership with AppOmni is more than technology. It’s a collaboration that advances both cybersecurity and student development, helping the educational institution prepare for the next wave of SaaS and AI-powered innovation.