The Comprehensive Support Package
Too often, we would be called in to deal with viruses or restore files only too find that the client’s antivirus program had expired and the definitions were a year old, or that the last good backup was done 8 months ago. The problem was that we were only called in when there was a problem. As such, we had no way of checking if the backup, antivirus, or other critical services were functioning properly. The client would see the antivirus icon on the task bar, change the backup tapes and assume everything was working only to find out, too late, that it wasn’t.Our clients’ desire to be proactive in terms of their IT needs as well as accurately budget their IT support costs resulted in the creation of K-Tech’s Comprehensive Support Package. The following services comprise the Comprehensive Support Package.
How It Works
We first install our “Management Console” (a computer loaded with various software that is owned, maintained and managed by K-Tech), at your premises and connect it to your network. This allows us to provide you with the following services:
Remote Monitoring
The Management Console can monitor
- Various services running on the servers (such as email and backup)
- Various physical components of the servers (such as the hard drive and network card)
- Client workstations
- Router/firewall
- Printers
- And anything accessible through the network.
The advantage of this system is that it does not rely on the client’s infrastructure. If your email service or the server itself is down, we will still get the email notification. If your Internet connection or the Management Console is down, we are notified because of the lack of communication.
The Remote Monitoring System is working 24/7 and our staff is available for Extended Hours. The impact of this on your operations can be significant. Imagine the following scenarios:
- A major problem is detected over the weekend and a technician is scheduled to come on site early Monday morning to fix it. By the time most employees arrive for work, everything is up and running.
- The Exchange database is corrupted and emails are being bounced back as undeliverable. We immediately detect the problem, log on to the server remotely and repair the database before most users have even noticed.
Ideally, because problems are being fixed so quickly, clients may be unaware of the work involved. For this reason, we send a monthly report detailing
- Everything that was monitored.
- Everything that failed or was about to fail.
- Everything that was done remotely.
The client has the ability to logon to our servers at any time and check the status of all the hardware and services that are being monitored.
Patch Management
Microsoft releases security patches and critical updates every Tuesday. Once a week, when these updates are released, one of our technicians
- Connects to the Management Console at the client’s site.
- Scans all the servers and computers for their missing patches.
- Downloads and deploys the patches, updates and service packs.
Most updates require a reboot. To avoid interrupting the users, this service is performed after hours. Should a computer be off at that time, it will get updated as soon as it is turned back on.
The Patch Management service can also be used to update other programs such as MS Office or to roll out new software installations, significantly reducing the associated costs.
Server Imaging/Backup
Traditional tape backups are run overnight and always contain yesterday’s data.
- What if a file is lost or gets corrupted after a user spends hours working on it?
- What happens when a hard drive crashes and the system has to be rebuilt?
- What if a workstation gets so infested with Spyware that it has to be reformatted and all the applications re-installed and settings restored?
To simplify these tasks, we will
- Image the servers and workstations on a regular basis
- Take a snapshot of the changes on a regular basis throughout the day. Typically, servers are imaged every night and a snapshot is taken two to four times during business hours, while workstations are imaged once a month or after major software installations.
These images and snapshots are stored on the Management Console and can be mounted or restored in a very short time.
- An image can be mounted and individual files can be restored in minutes without having to find "the right tape".
- A new server hard drive can be cloned in an hour or two and the server restored to the state it was in shortly before the crash.
- A Spyware infested workstation can be restored to its clean state with all the programs and settings intact in an hour or less.
- Best of all, if a server fails completely, its image can be loaded onto a virtual machine and users can continue working until it’s repaired.
We will soon offer the option of storing these images at our site in order to provide for business continuity in case of major disasters such as fire or flood.
Email Filtering
We have servers and software that scan emails for viruses and rate the content for spam and phishing scams. A minor change in your domain’s DNS record* will redirect your emails to our servers where they will be scanned.
- Emails with a low spam score - legitimate emails - get forwarded to your server
- Emails with high spam scores - junk emails - are deleted
- Emails with a borderline score - most likely junk - are stored for a week and can be manually forwarded when requested. The sender is notified that their email was blocked and is asked to contact the recipient or K-Tech.
The false positive rate (genuine emails mistaken for spam) is 1 in 250,000. We also maintain a "safe sender" list and can add email addresses or domains that would bypass the filter and always get delivered regardless of content (they still get checked for viruses.)
An additional advantage of the Email Filtering service is that if the client’s email server is down or otherwise unreachable, the mail will be stored on our servers until it can be delivered. There’s also no danger in loosing emails if our servers are somehow unreachable as the mail will simply flow (unfiltered) to the client’s email server.
This service can only be offered to clients who are running their own mail server and hosting their email in-house. Although all the spam cannot be detected, with this service users have reported a considerable decrease in unsolicited emails. Users have also reported a noticeable improvement in their Internet connect speed as the number of emails reaching their servers is considerably reduced. Statistics from our servers show that about 80% of emails flowing through our system are junk.
* Our servers will become your primary mail server and your server becomes the secondary mail server for the domain.
The Return On your Investment
At K-Tech Computer Services, we’re here to help you take advantage of today’s technology. By adopting a proactive strategy, we can help you minimize downtime, increase productivity, accurately budget support costs and run your business or organization in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. The bottom line is that we can take care of all of your IT needs so you don’t have to.
