A list below is the tools and software we generally roll out on our clients systems so that we can pro-actively manage their site and prevent problems before they cause downtime or loss of production.

Beanywhere – Free for contract clients

This is our remote support tool that we install on desktops and servers and allow us to remotely access a user’s desktop or laptop and assist them when they have a problem. Your systems are secure and we shall also ask permission before logging on.

Monitoring Utilities – Free for contract clients

This is a tiny utility that checks your machine for any hardware or software problems. It is very lightweight and an extremely valuable tool. It does an audit of all the IT equipment on your site allowing us to report on it. Its main job is to report errors and alerts back to our central system in the office. If a hard drive is going to fail then it will tell us before it fails. If a server is running out of disc space, it will alert us before it does.

We produce monthly reports to show you the performance graph of the server, laptops and desktops. We can recommend memory and hard drive upgrades if required.

Panda anti-virus – Cost (About £22 per year per PC + VAT)

We mainly use Panda anti-virus. They have a few products in their range but this one allows us to logon to a portal and get centralised alerts from different client sites. We monitor these alerts and can react accordingly when there is a virus alert or outbreak. We can quickly roll out a scan of all computers on a network in the event of an outbreak to rapidly clamp down on it.

Anti-spam – Cost (Around £2 per m0nth per user + VAT)

We use a high quality anti-spam system for all our clients. This is a centrally manage system where we control and manage quarantine and spam level thresholds, white lists and black lists. Importantly, this is an offsite system so spam and virus emails are blocked before they even get to your office providing a better layer of security.

Another very important function of this software is that it will hold your email in a queue should your email server go down and be unable to receive email. Rather than bounce the mail back, it is stored on this system and will come through when your server comes back online.

OpenDNS (£2 per month per PC + VAT)

OpenDNS is a fantastic tool that protects your web traffic from malicious websites and malware. It is very powerful and useful, providing an extra layer of security for your network. If you get an email from your bank or Paypal for example and it tries to send you to a dodgy website pretending to be your bank, OpenDNS will block the website to prevent a massive security breach. There is reporting available to show you sites blocked, most sites visited etc. You can also request certain sites are blocked like Facebook, gambling, porn etc.

Online Backup (From £5 per month – 3 computers – unlimited data)

We have a brilliant online backup system that backs up your server data as well as any data on a workstation including documents, photos etc. You can access your data via a web browser or app on your phone.

Disaster Recovery (From £19 per month per server)

ArcServe is a very powerful backup and disaster recovery software. It takes a complete snapshot of the server and creates a virtual server image of it. This gives us a lot of restore options. We can restore to;

  • A new physical server – can be different model etc
  • A temporary Virtual server – Boot up the server to a previous point in time – requires a virtual host server.
  • As a hard drive to access the backed up data
  • Back the image up offsite for true DR in terms of being unable to access your current location.
  • In a scenario where your server has been stolen or completely failed (hardware), we could restore the latest backup to a server on our site and give you remote access while we replace your server. Requires standby server at our end.
  • This is a fully managed solution so we keep an eye on the backups to ensure they work constantly.

Advice and progression

What we find most interesting is looking at your business and seeing how you use technology and then seeing if there is a way we can help make your business, even more efficient and reduce costs by using some specific software. For example, tasks management, billing, and project management software. Using email better. Sharing data. There is a host of small things that could make a big difference.

For your information and convenience and to allow you to come to one source for your IT requirements we also provide the following services;

  1. Internet connections – ADSL, Fibre, Lease line etc
  2. Hardware supply – servers, routers, hard drives, memory, laptops and desktops etc
  3. Hardware upgrades – upgrade to an SSD – 10 times faster than a normal drive. Memory etc
  4. Refurbished laptops / desktops – under warranty and extremely good value for money
  5. Website hosting – from £5 per month
  6. Domain and DNS management – Free
  7. Hosted Exchange email – £5 per month per mailbox
  8. Cloud server – sharing data between remote users – from £10 per month
  9. Domain name registration

 

Please get in touch at your convenience if you would like further information on any of the above and wish to discuss your specific IT requirements.