Level 2 – Proactive

We take responsibility for your entire IT infrastructure, so we perform preventive maintenance, advance monitoring tools, and root cause analysis processes to avoid problems occurring, or re-occurring, in the future.

• TOTAL Care Center (TCC) system
  Our Total Care Center provides the ability to monitor and manage almost all of your critical Windows-based computer systems. TCC provides a tool to manage system event logs, alerts, patch management, remote support, and even asset management to provide a clear picture of what hardware, software, and systems are being utilized across the organization. TCC runs 24×7 to monitor the health of your systems and network.
• TOTAL Server & Network Management
  We will remotely monitor and manage your critical systems and servers. We check for adequate disk space, key processes, CPU utilization, security events, and much more. Event log management and well-designed alerts ensure that most problems are avoided before you ever notice them. Plus, we can monitor and manage more than just servers. We’ll take care of routers, firewalls, switches, and almost any other device on your network.
• TOTAL System (Virus) Protection
  You don’t need to pay outrageous prices for world-class anti-virus software to protect your internal systems. Your organization can have world class, multi-layer protection from viruses. The best protection is achieved by multiple layers that weed out the worst offenders while leaving you easy access to the information you need. No upfront investment, just complete organization-wide virus protection every day. Our anti-virus solution provides top-notch malware protection for desktops, laptops, and servers. And unlike most AV packages it has minimal performance impact. You never need to worry about anti-virus purchasing headaches, conflicts, or upgrades again.
• TOTAL E-mail (Spam) Protection
  You can have world class, multi-layer protection from viruses and the ever-annoying spam. Without this service, substantial investment in software tools along with on-going maintenance and management is required to successfully protect the organization.
• TOTAL Remote Desktop Access
  When employees need to work from home, our secure remote desktop access service provides an incredible experience – as though you were sitting at your desk in the office. With extremely tight security access controls and amazingly fast screen response, there is almost no need to come into the office at all.
• TOTAL Asset Management
  Ever wonder what software is installed in your organization and whether it’s legal or not? Do you wish you had an up-to-date list of ALL technology hardware assets? Using our robust software asset management system coupled with regular on-site audits to ensure everything is included in the list such as monitors, printers, and even telephone systems, our TOTAL Asset Management service will provide the answers you need without any headaches if you tried to do it yourself.
• TOTAL Network Protection (OPTIONAL)
  Think your systems are protected by your existing firewall/router? Think again. If you aren’t using a business class firewall rather than the consumer-oriented SOHO products, you could be in trouble. Although cheap firewalls work well for basic purposes, they quickly fall short of protecting your systems. Our network protection service includes not only a world-class firewall which will increase the speed and reliability of your Internet connection, but also an intrusion prevention system to stop attacks that come across legitimate ports into your network. And we also provide content filtering and added layers of spyware and virus protection. We link the managed firewalls into our central global management system to increase alerting and monitoring capabilities. Plus, we keep spare units on hand locally in case of failures and we perform all necessary updates and management.
• Desktop Optimization and Spyware Management
  We run specialized daily and weekly tune-ups on each desktop and laptop computer to maximize system, disk, and memory performance and to ensure that no critical disk or hardware failures are imminent. Plus, our tools clean up spyware, if any has found its way past your other defenses, to keep your system running fast.
• Desktop & Server Patch Management
  We monitor and manage all Windows-based desktops, laptops, and servers to ensure that the latest OS patches are applied to protect against security breaches and ensure on-going performance and stability. In addition, patches are applied to critical Microsoft applications such as Office and Exchange.
• 24/7 Critical Service Monitoring
  We monitor all the services, not just the hardware, that you define as critical for your organization. Perhaps your e-mail service is critical. Maybe your website. Maybe your ERP application. We’ll setup specific monitoring routines that check for specific services, ports, processes, or web pages and if they don’t respond in the normal manner, we send out an alert and immediately notify our team to take action.
• Advanced DNS Management
  DNS, or Domain Name System, is at the heart of delivering web page and every e-mail. A large number of Internet access and e-mail problems arise due to incorrect or non-fault tolerant DNS configurations. We provide a fully redundant DNS system with advanced features for forwarding URLs and ensuring that people can always find your web site and your e-mail server.
• Problem Tracking and Permanent Resolution
  Save time and money by permanently solving on-going problems including networking, the Internet and email, hardware problems, and user training. We document all issues, incidents, problems, projects, and changes to your systems in our service desk system. As service desk data accumulates over time, we look for trends and patterns to determine how to avoid incidents proactively rather than merely solving them once they occur.
• Infrastructure Maintenance
  Our service lets you know exactly what shape your infrastructure is in and what is recommended for a reasonable and affordable plan to improve it to meet future growth needs. On a regular basis, we will check key servers and systems to ensure they are being maintained to extend their useful life and reliability.
• Backup Job Monitoring
  Did you know that most unmonitored backup jobs fail each night? If you aren’t monitoring the success or failure of a nightly backup job, you’ll only figure out it doesn’t work when you need it to work the most! We monitor your backup jobs to ensure that they run successfully.
• Backup Restore Testing (OPTIONAL)
  The best backup strategies include testing restoration from backup media on a periodic basis to ensure everything is working as planned. We will perform periodic backup restore testing to give you peace of mind that you’re protected.
• Backup Media Rotation (OPTIONAL)
  Swapping tapes or disks on a regular basis is an easily forgotten by your staff if you’re not careful. We will arrange to perform weekly or daily media swaps so that you can be sure that your backup process is working as you intended.
• TOTAL Remote Backup
  Tape backup is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Backups fail. Tapes get worn out or lost. SlingStoneIT has invested in a world-class remote backup solution using advanced compression and integrity checking to make remote backup and restore a feasible solution for our clients at cost that is often less than tape backup and traditional off-site storage. (Storage included varies depending on service purchased. Additional storage can also be purchased.)
• TOTAL Image Backup (OPTIONAL)
  Our image backup system creates complete images of your critical Windows or Linux systems including the OS, databases, applications, user accounts, and all configuration settings. These images allow you to recover from a disaster is hours or even minutes rather than days or weeks.
• Complete Vendor Management
  From Web Hosters to Application Vendors to Telephone Service Providers – Stop spending hours and hours trying navigate your vendor’s technical support line or understand pricing options for the newest vendor’s proposed products and services or managing on-site vendor repair technicians that don’t get things fixed the first time. We’ll handle all vendor technology management issues for you. We’ll answer your questions. We’ll escalate issues to the vendor’s support team. We’ll utilize our advanced support contracts already in place allowing us to get priority response to issues for you. Bottom line: you don’t need to waste your time managing your vendors that provide: operating systems, telephone systems, telecom services, Internet services, web hosting services, printers, network wiring, business applications, computer hardware and software, and development/programming.
• Desktop OS Training
  Your employees are more productive when they know how to navigate their desktop, organize their commonly used tools, and perform time-saving shortcuts. Let us train your staff through formal classroom style training, informal lunch-and-learns, or one-on-one.
• Office Productivity Suite Training
  If your employees knew how to use all the powerful features in your organization’s office suite, they could be creating proposals, contracts, flyers, spreadsheets, invoices, and newsletters in half the time with twice the sophistication. Let us train your staff through formal classroom style training, informal lunch-and-learns, or one-on-one. They’ll learn real-world tips, tricks, and functions that will improve their productivity right away.
• Business Application Training (OPTIONAL)
  We support many applications from Quickbooks to Great Plains to SalesForce.com. Our team has experts that know how to utilize the modules most effectively and we can train your staff to get more out of your systems. Even if it is a new system that we haven’t worked with before, we’ll learn about it so that we can provide lunch-and-learn sessions and Q&A roundtables with your staff to increase the usage and productivity of the staff using it.
• Database Configuration, Maintenance, Tuning, and Management
  For larger applications such as ERP and CRM systems, the back-end database is the heart of the system. We have database experts to support and manage all major databases including MS SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, and more.
• Physical Security Review
  Easy entry to your facility can provide a huge step towards a breach of system security. To prevent unauthorized access to the facility, our team will perform a physical security assessment and, if needed, brief social engineering tests. From the review, we will provide the results and simple to follow recommendations and training to help strengthen physical security, if appropriate.
• Wireless Security Review
  Unauthorized or unsecured wireless access points connected to your internal, trusted network can provide a playground for hackers and mischievous neighbors. It can be difficult to find the time to search for these rogue devices. Our team will walk through and around all local company facilities in search of unauthorized or unsecured wireless devices. Results and immediate actions will be provided to management.
• Firewall Security Review
  Firewalls are the primary mechanism to keep the bad guys out and the good guys in. But over time, firewall rules grow and grow. The list of rules can become long, confusing, and potentially unsafe since old “holes” may remain even after they are no longer needed. Our team will review your firewall rules and make suggestions for cleaning and/or optimizing.
• Anti-Virus Security Review
  Viruses are prevalent and growing worse every day. Anti-virus software while powerful is only as good as the latest signature update. Our team will review anti-virus status on servers and desktops to validate that staff are monitoring anti-virus and that this key protection mechanism is being utilized as completely as possible.
• Network Architecture Security Review
  Beyond firewalls and anti-virus software, the actual design and configuration of network architecture – both LAN and WAN connections – can have a significant impact on the security of the organization. Our team will review and evaluate the network infrastructure and architecture to ensure that it supports your company’s security posture. In addition, as network architecture changes are contemplated, our team will evaluate the security impact, if any, they might have.
• DNS Security Review
  The Internet’s Domain Name System provides an easy way for humans to interact with computers by replacing awkward IP addresses with easy to remember names. However, improper naming or publishing of DNS information can actually lead to a compromise in security. Our team will review your published DNS information to ensure that only the minimum amount of information is published with as few discernable aspects that could be used by a hacker.
• Server/System Vulnerability Assessments
  Without a team of security experts and library of up-to-date tools, it’s almost impossible for a company to offer the types of tests and analysis that SlingStoneIT offers. Using multiple, up-to-date vulnerability scanning tools, our team will assess all critical business systems throughout your network (both LAN and WAN) on a periodic basis.
• Security/Risk Process Review Meetings
  Attend risk assessment meetings, review new projects for proper risk classification, assist with risk identification of new acquisitions, etc.
• Patch Management Review
  With constant software updates to operating systems and databases, it is difficult to determine which patches should be implemented (or even considered) versus which ones are not critical. Our team will perform a review to determine what patches, if any, should be considered for critical systems