Category Archives: Manage Service

How a Managed Service Provider (MSP) Will Benefit Your Business

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Using a Managed Service Provider, like Systemsnet, removes the hassle of having an in-house IT department, while still having the IT support you need.

Using a Managed Service Provider, like Systemsnet, removes the hassle of having an in-house IT department, while still having the IT support you need.

Information Technology (IT) can be a hassle, and it is often the last thing a company wants to worry about. That is, until something goes wrong. And with IT, a lot can go wrong. Depending on the size of your business, you may have any number of computers, all networked together, VoIP phone systems that rely on the Internet, and active Internet connection that must be maintained at all times with all computers connected to that Internet connection for employee productivity. If it is running smoothly, IT is just running in the background and no one even notices it is there. But the second a phone line goes down or a computer hard drive starts acting funny, IT is the first group to get called, and it is all on them to make things right while the employee stands there impatiently waiting to get back to work. Without properly functioning IT, a business in the 21st century simply cannot operate.

So what do you do to make sure that your business’s IT is working all the time, without having to worry about the headaches that come with managing IT all the time? Your business needs to turn to a Managed Service Provider (MSP) such as SystemsNet. An MSP is a dedicated provider of IT services, hired by a company to handle all the details of that company’s Information Technology infrastructure. Their services will vary from client to client, depending on the client’s needs, but they often have the capability to handle any IT situation that may arise. This leaves the client free to handle the running of their business, and frees up resources that would otherwise be dedicated to an IT team that no longer is needed.

By hiring an MSP, a company is able to reduce their costs because they are contracting out the IT portion of their business. Any business knows that by contracting out something – whether it be work or IT – money will (usually) be saved. By contracting out the IT services of the business, the management is making a decision to let someone else handle all of the IT problems. Someone else will be on call 24×7 to fix IT problems, rather than having employees of the business on call to fix those problems. Because, let’s face it, a business is an around the clock operation in one way or another, and without an active IT system that is working around the clock, that business runs the risk of falling behind. An MSP will ensure that the IT systems will be operating at all times, whenever someone needs them. And by contracting these services out, the management is saving money because they are not paying for the benefits or overhead cost of the MSP employees – those costs are covered in the contract between the business and the Managed Service Provider.

The contract between the business at the MSP could be such that the business pays a flat monthly cost for all of the services that the two parties have agreed for the MSP to cover. More services, which could include computer hardware and software maintenance, phones, VoIP, and Internet, in addition to other IT needs, will generally require a higher monthly fee. But service plans may be bundled, so that a business receives multiple services for one rate, or picks and chooses individual services at individual rates. It is up to the business, and the operational standards of the MSP, to work out the details of the contract under which the work will be carried out, but it is nearly certain that the business will be saving money and receiving a valuable service because they will not be responsible for the day-to-day operation of the IT infrastructure and ensuring that it is working at all times for their employees. They leave all of that up to the contracted MSP.

If you are interested in exploring the options that SystemsNet can offer your business as an Managed Service Provider, please contact us, and we would be happy to discuss with you how we can not only save you money on IT management, but resources on not managing your IT yourself.

Virtualization Enforces Backup Disaster Recovery

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Disk-based backup systems are quickly becoming redundant, as cloud storage becomes more affordable, more reliable and easier to use.

Disk-based backup systems are quickly becoming redundant, as cloud storage becomes more affordable, more reliable and easier to use.

SystemsNet is more than a suite that virtualizes physical processes, but it provides quick, reliable recovery of your virtualized information and application. Modern organizations are modernizing their IT services, with competent organizations future-proofing their infrastructure by investing in virtual machines. Virtualization allows companies to use less physical servers for their needs, allow easy allocation and departmentalization of information, and enable replication and snapshots of their servers. However, businesses are facing demands for greater access points during collaborative efforts, with a very small margin for errors. Virtualization creates an environment where downtimes and data loss are no longer threats to servers.

Virtualization and Disaster Recovery: Virtualization has changed how IT departments view their servers. No longer are departments tied to certain vendors or server types – virtualization frees them of this restraint. Virtualization lowers costs, reduce the electrical footprint of the IT department, as well as boost efficiency of data. Virtualization remedies the problem related to aging servers that can potentially put information at risk. Physical servers will require different backup tools that are compliant with specific vendor servers. Virtualisation of servers protect virtual machines via snapshots or full backups and is the end point for back disaster recovery.

Virtualization Ensures Business Continuity

Disaster recovery planning is integral to any organization that relies on its IT infrastructure. What qualifies as a disaster will be different depending on industry and location of information, but typically it pertains to data that is in a compromised position. With careful planning, company owners and administrators are able to safely integrate virtualization to ensure business continuity and mitigate any potential failures.

Before virtualization, a dedicated backup software was required, to be installed on each server to ensure efficacy. However, this was and still is very labor intensive, with backup data being allocated to offsite locations across a network. Virtualization is seamless, less labor intensive, and easily implemented via cloud storage, where information is stored and replicated. Real time replication allows for information be accessible via an administrator’s personal computer or smart device.

Traditional backups required that data be saved in an offsite location as quickly as possible, utilizing the capabilities of the full network. However, this caused downtime that needed to be carefully executed and timed as to not to interfere with everyday operations. Performance issues can run rampant in these scenarios.

There is also an issue with grouping of different server types that can cause cross-compatibility issues. SystemsNet offers a framework that is compatible across different server networks, as well as engaging entire backups of hosted virtual machines. This creates a space of fault tolerance, allowing for data in the virtual machine to be accessible, even during hardware failures. Shadow copies of the servers are saved and replicated, allowing it to be posted onto new servers with no downtime.

Disk-Based Backup System Are Quickly Becoming Redundant: Cloud storage is changed in the past decade – it has become more affordable, available to the everyday consumer, easily implemented, and effective in saving replications of servers. Physical storage, however effective, is limited to restraints of a physical product. Once lost, it is misplaced forever. The inefficiency of data onto physical servers and memory centers is plagued by costs and plagued redundancy. Cloud storage allows for the implementation of access points that are not typical of physical storage devices. To learn more about how SystemsNet can help with your IT processes, contact us. Virtualization is the next step of any competent IT environment, ensuring the safety of information with full backups of data. We are a tremendous competitive differentiator, expediting data recovery in the event of hardware failure. Contact us to learn more.

Benefits of Server Management Via Virtualization

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Virtualization is a way to improve the overall efficiency of your servers and reduces your dependency on hardware.

Virtualization is a way to improve the overall efficiency of your servers and reduces your dependency on hardware.

In layman’s terms, IT virtualization deals with improving the efficiency of physical servers. Virtualization is a concept that can be a applied to computers, operating systems, and different forms of data storage that are regularly used in servers. Server virtualization helps allocate data and application, creating access points for employers and employees. Organizations and businesses are challenged by x86 servers, which are too inefficient to handle different applications and operating systems. Even relatively small data centers have to utilize several servers, with most operating at an inefficient capacity. Virtualization steps in to simulate the abilities of servers with a practical, effective framework. Businesses and IT organizations can run multiple operating systems on a single server, saving time, allowing for the migration of virtual machines to other servers, as well as allocate resources between different machines. Here are some specific benefits you can enjoy by employing virtualization in your intel management system:

Virtualization Saves Energy Costs, Affordability. Virtualization is changing IT and the monitoring of information, providing efficiencies that aren’t capable with physical servers. Migrating physical servers into virtualized ones enables you to consolidate many processes into fewer servers. This is a stand-alone benefit, with companies enjoying the benefits of a lower electrical footprint with lower monthly costs. The cost effectiveness of virtualized servers is a benefit that was underlined in the early 2000s – and it’s still is an advantage.

Efficient Downsizing and Reduce Center Size. Virtualization allows you to use fewer servers, reducing the amount of space needed for servers. Developing companies with volatile funding will particularly enjoy the scalability of virtualization.

Better, More Efficient Access To Information. Virtualization allows you to pull data from servers at a whim, with many capabilities using apps and software that are easily accessible. With virtualization, you can clone, edit, and modify a server in minutes. System provisioning and deployment can be done in a moment’s notice.

Virtualization For Effortless Backup of Data. Not only do you want backups of your virtual machines, you also want to be able to have restore points, where you can go back to “snapshots”. Virtualization has made it intuitive to backup your machine and upload it to other servers, with the process being accessible and seamless. Compared to the upkeep of physical machines, virtualization reduces downtime.

Efficient Testing Of Data. Physical servers are linear, with very little room to experiment or employ cutting-edge technologies. Virtual machines allow for a bit more playroom with a testing environment that can easily be restored during an unsavory event. Virtualization is the best testing environment, for you can restore to a previous snap chat of your virtual machine.

Freedom of Vendors And Easy Migration to the Cloud. Virtualization of your IT processes allows you to test different hardware vendors that are compatible with the software, allowing you to select the best hardware that is conducive to your strategic needs. Cloud storage also allows for secure migration of data. Virtualization of your machine is closely tied to cloud storage, allowing for cloud-based infrastructure. Cloud storage is encrypted, safe, and allows for seamless, up to date information on all servers.

Virtualization Improves Disaster Recovery Exponentially. By removing the dependency of hardware, a particular type of model, or the use of numerous physical servers, businesses can easily replicate data saved in their virtualized machines. Backup of physical servers is obtrusive, with physical servers simply failing due to age or external factors. Virtualization create an environment where data recovery and management is not only intuitive, but it’s a process that is automatic. To learn more about how you virtualization can help reduce cost and improve the efficiency of your current hardware, contact us.

Ensure You are Not Caught Unawares By IT Problems

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Monthly IT Management Reporting is an important part of keeping your business, customers and data safe.

Monthly IT Management Reporting is an important part of keeping your business, customers and data safe.

There are two ways to deal with unplanned IT failure: to insure and to ensure against it. These two words, to insure and to ensure are often confused in people’s minds, but understanding the difference between the two is essential to creating the best IT security and recovery system.

Definitions

To insure something is to put in place a safety net in the case something goes wrong. That is why you purchase car insurance against the event that you have a car wreck. Most people do not experience a car wreck and so their insurance policy is worthless to them, until they do.

To ensure against an adverse event is to set up systems to make as certain as possible that you will not have a negative event in the first place. Cars are ensured against wrecks by required licensing, insurance companies ensure their product by offering discounts to safe drivers, drivers over a certain age, etc. Stoplights, stop-signs and turnabouts are all systems local governments put in place to ensure against wrecks at intersections.

Application to IT

While many people understand insurance from a legal/industrial position, they do not understand the idea of insurance that motivates industry practices like RAID redundancy and nightly server back-ups. These are all practices that put in place a recovery plan in the event that servers crash or other unplanned events cause a loss in your data.

On the other hand, activities like IT Monthly Management Reporting, anti-malware software, and virus monitoring ensure that your software and hardware will run as optimized as possible. This in turn prevents many of the problems that reduce the life of your servers.

Ensurance acts to prevent a problem, insurance creates a back-up in the event that the problem occurs. Most people understand the importance of insurance (backups) for their business IT systems, but many do not understand the importance of ensurance.

Ensure Your Data Systems

There are several steps you need to take to ensure that your systems operate at their best and prevent data loss and server failure as much as possible. Regular monitoring for viruses and security is essential for problem prevention. Monthly comprehensive IT management reports give your IT team the tools necessary to locate problem areas before they get too serious and to accurately address problems.

To properly ensure you are not caught unawares by data problems, these monitoring and reporting activities must be integrated into your regular IT routine. Your IT team must understand the strengths of your servers and your network and address any issues as they arise.

Benefits of Active IT Maintenance

Purposeful IT maintenance and problem prevention provides additional benefits beyond preventing data loss. Increased data security, budget planning, and systems management are all results of building a system of monthly proactive IT management.

Data security is essential for businesses of all size, as seen by the high-profile hacks in the last few years in the news. Although it is impossible to prevent all security leaks, active maintenance will give you the best response possible to outside threats while well-implemented security protocols will provide your best prevention of internal security threats.

Finding the right IT system for your budget is always difficult, but doing so without the right information at hand is nearly impossible. Unless you know how your current system is performing with regular reporting, you cannot know whether the really nice servers your team requested are necessary or merely nice. With monthly reports of all your IT management, you will have accurate and timely information on which to base your budget decisions.

The power of proactive management of your IT ensures against many of the threats businesses face in the technology market today. For more information about management reporting and active monitoring, please contact us today.