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Whenever we receive calls from prospective clients that are looking to transfer their networks to Hanson Information Systems (HIS), there are a few things our systems analysts tend to recommend to them. 

While HIS strongly advises this comprehensive approach to network maintenance, as outlined below, the Customer may elect to choose some monitoring services and decline others; these choices will be reflected in any final maintenance agreement.

The number of labor hours required to carry out the maintenance tasks is dependent on the number of servers, workstations and other attached network devices, as well as the overall complexity of the network.  A determination will be made after a network assessment is complete and in consultation with the Customer’s IT support/contact staff.

Internet Connection Monitoring

HIS will monitor the Customer’s Internet connections 24x7x365, alerting our staff when connection issues arise.  The Customer will provide HIS with contact details for all internet connections to be monitored.  If Customer chooses to have HIS open trouble tickets or otherwise report outages or internet issues to ISPs, HIS will need to be confirmed as an approved contact with each ISP, and contact, account and security questions/answers/numbers, etc. must be provided to HIS.

Firewall Monitoring

HIS will monitor the Customer’s firewall connectivity as part of the Customer’s Internet connection monitoring.  Hanson will make recommendations concerning the functionality and security of any existing firewall on site.  Where appropriate, HIS will recommend updates to an existing firewall or replacement with a more secure unit, all in consultation with the Customer. Many firewalls offer additional services such as Content Protection and Intrusion Protection; these are licensed from the firewall manufacturer and subject to annual license renewal.

HIS will make changes to firewalled access to the network in consultation with the Customer.  HIS will run updates to firewall firmware and licensed add-on services in consultation with the Customer.

Server Hardware Monitoring

HIS predominantly supplies, operates, and maintains Dell servers.

Monitoring of server hardware and general system health will be carried out using Dell Open Manage Server Administrator (OMSA) or, where installed and licensed, Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC).

OMSA allows basic monitoring of a server platform and the setting up of email notifications for events arising.

iDRAC provides an out of band management platform on a server. This allows management of the server, independent of the operating system. IDRAC allows all the features of OMSA plus a range of hardware management, maintenance and control options that can be managed remotely. If iDRAC was not purchased with your server then additional software will need to be purchased.

Virus and Malware Protection

Anti-virus and anti-malware protection programs provide coverage against the widest possible spectrum of threats.

Operating anti-virus or anti-malware individually will provide protection to your network; operating anti-virus and anti-malware together will provide overlapping and complementary protection against a wider range of threats and threat vectors.

Anti-virus and anti-malware programs and user licenses must be purchased, and there will be an annual license renewal fee.

Anti-virus

HIS recommends installing Symantec Endpoint Protection; this is a network-based and managed corporate Anti-Virus program providing protection to all servers and workstations on your network.

Anti-Malware

HIS recommends installing MalwareBytes for Business; this is a network-based and managed corporate Anti-Malware program providing protection to all servers and workstations on your network.

Both protection packages will be configured to provide information on the system.  In the event of failures and/or warnings, these are investigated further, with necessary remedial action taken.

Email Protection

If email is operated on site, HIS recommends filtering mail through our Barracuda-based email filtering system to increase protection against spam, viruses and malware threats. The aim is to reduce the possibility of viruses and malware reaching the system .

Customers are protected by the same level of protection we afford all our Hosted Email and in house email systems.

HIS can customize the level of protection to meet the Customer’s specific needs and allow Customer management of email users’ quarantine, spam, whitelist and blacklist settings for their mail domain(s).

Windows Updates

WSUS Services control and monitor networkwide updates to servers and workstations. The WSUS system issues reports on updates approved for installation and computer/server updates status.

In the event of update failures and/or warnings, these will be investigated further and any necessary remedial action taken.

Backups

VSS Backups

VSS Backups provide the first point of recovery for files that have been changed, lost, deleted or corrupted. VSS backups are located on the machine being backed up and are used as a quick method of rolling files back to a previous version.

Windows Server Backups

HIS recommends using an external hard drive or network attached storage, in conjunction with the built-in Windows Server Backup software included in current Windows Server operating systems to maintain on-site system backups; these should be bare metal backups when possible, otherwise extensive data backups. Multiple backups of files are retained on the external hard drive.

This backup regime will be configured to provide email notifications of backup job outcomes.

HIS Offsite Backup System

HIS OBS provides an offsite, locally stored backup for data. This is the backup that will be used for data restoration in the event of all other backups failing.

HIS OBS pricing is based on storage space used and not on the number of machines using the space. Retention policies can be customized to user requirements. All data backed up is stored in HIS’s dedicated, Springfield based, datacenter.

Daily reports are sent to HIS and the Customer detailing how the backup jobs ran, whether successful or whether they encountered any issues in the backup process.  In the event of failures and/or warnings, they are investigated further and any necessary remedial action taken.