IT consultancy - Awareness

The benefits of outsourcing your network and systems monitoring.

Maintaining performance For IT infrastructure to perform efficiently, and to ensure access to services and data at any time, continuous network monitoring is a must. However, so many businesses fail to monitor their network as they lack the resources, skills and manpower to do so. Too many just rely on the smooth operation of devices and fail to monitor their health. They assume that everything is fine rather than incur the high costs involved in staffing their own IT department to effectively monitor these assets. For example, whilst it is vital to have a UPS that activates within milliseconds of the loss of your main power source, it’s not enough on its own. The UPS itself also needs to be monitored, because if you are not aware of its battery life then you may wrongly assume that you have enough capacity to shut down your servers. The difference between knowing you have 20 minutes of battery life versus 2 minutes of battery life is essential and could have disastrous consequences for the integrity of that data. Not having a monitoring solution is therefore a high-risk strategy as it makes your business vulnerable in the event of a systems failure. What are the options for businesses without their own monitoring system in place? How do you maintain the high performance of your IT infrastructure without the hassle and cost of recruiting and training your own in-house team? The most cost-effective and secure option is to outsource, which enables you to: protect your business from disruption identify areas requiring systems improvement increase systems availability and effectiveness quickly identify slow or ailing components predict potential outages through alerts reduce your exposure to risk by minimising downtime reduce the cost of recruiting and training your own in-house team. Why outsource your network monitoring to ASL? With our monitoring solutions, we keep an eagle eye on all of your important devices within your infrastructure. Taking the UPS as an example we actively monitor; battery capacity, temperature, and running time remaining. These usage trends are monitored, identified and acted upon. Continually monitoring the status of all your infrastructure such as network, servers, UPS, databases and other key assets means you are alerted at the earliest opportunity to potential risks and areas for improvement. At ASL, we have extensive experience providing network monitoring solutions for UK SMEs, and have the expertise to support you with your network management requirements. We provide affordable solutions to suit any budget that can be scaled up or down according to demand, we: provide 24/7/365 network and systems monitoring proactively address and fix alerted issues constantly look after your environment during staff absence prevent problems by identifying software or hardware issues analyse usage so your network capacity is not exceeded configure UPS to shut down attached devices properly in the event of an outage provide highly trained and expert staff. To discuss how we can protect your business from network disruption call us at ASL on 0345 862 0350.

Business continuity and disaster recovery – understanding the difference.

Protecting your business in the event of a disaster. Whether you experience a man-made issue such as human error or cyber-attack, or a natural event such as a fire or flood; being aware that business continuity and disaster recovery are two different things. Can you ensure that you have the right plan in place to safely recover your systems and data in the event of a catastrophe. What is Business Continuity? Business Continuity refers to your ability to continue to do business in the event of a systems failure or disaster. The action you take to recover your data forms part of your continuity plan, but it’s not the only thing to be considered. Issues to do with staff, equipment used, as well as where your business is located, particularly if you operate from several sites, are also included in the risk assessment and subsequent planning. What is Disaster Recovery? Disaster recovery refers to the specific part of your business continuity plan that’s related to the recovery of your critical data in the event of a disaster. Unfortunately, disasters can happen at any time. There’s no telling when the next fire or storm will strike, or when human error, malicious attack or systems failure will occur. Should the worst happen and to avoid it being a fatal blow, you need to ensure your data is regularly backed up and securely stored to make it quick and easy to recover. Guarding against data loss in this way could not only reduce your financial loss, it could also save your reputation and enable you to maintain your customers’ loyalty. Awareness – planning for recovery after disaster At ASL, we have vast experience helping businesses across the UK to develop, design, plan and implement business continuity for disaster recovery solutions. We can: design a bespoke solution tailored to your business needs and budget recover all your networks, applications and business services across all your locations ensure business continuity at remote sites carry out frequent recovery testing for your critical applications define your recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery time objectives (RTOs). In addition, should your head office be affected, our disaster recovery solution can make sure your remote sites are not affected. Being able to bounce back with minimum disruption means being clear about what it is you need to do first, and this is where our extensive knowledge and expertise is invaluable. If you have any doubts about your ability to recover after an unplanned event, and want to explore how business continuity and disaster recovery can help safeguard your business, contact us at ASL. Call 0345 862 0350 to discuss developing and implementing a business continuity and data recovery plan.

On-premises backup and recovery considerations.

Taking the right approach with on-premises disaster recovery. The age of the Cloud has well and truly arrived, however, a large number of SMEs are still continuing to choose the on-premises backup and disaster recovery option. At ASL, we know the success of any backup and recovery solution lies in the planning. In choosing an on-premise solution, it’s extremely important to take into consideration a number of points before finalising your plan. What are the considerations for an on-premises solution? The first major consideration is whether to invest in building and maintaining your own system, which would include the appointment of IT staff with the appropriate expertise in the configuration and operation of the system. Suitably qualified personnel could be a) expensive and b) a challenge to find so you may want to consider the option of outsourcing instead. The second consideration is to determine the amount of data you need to backup and whether the purpose of this backup is file recovery only, if corruption has occurred, or data recovery, in the event of a disaster. Other considerations include: backup and recovery specifications – size and speed of storage environment RTO – recovery time objective or the maximum amount of downtime tolerable RPO – recovery point objective or how far back files are to be recovered application requirements – to accommodate real-time transactional data or static files internal or external implementation of the recovery – will consultants be needed to assist? data replication to off-site centre or cloud data amount kept on physical systems vs. virtual machines VM storage support backup server deduplication facility – to reduce storage and increase recovery speed backup to tape, disk or hot site – affects RTO Keeping your data from being exposed to third parties Keeping your data under your own control. Addressing these considerations will assist you in determining the nature of the data storage environment required. Why outsource your backup and disaster recovery to ASL ASL has more than two decades of experience in designing and implementing backup and disaster recovery solutions. We know how important it is that your IT systems, business applications and data are recovered as rapidly as possible to reduce the impact a disaster can have on your operation. Our experts have the specialist knowledge required to keep your IT systems up and running in the event of a disaster. For further information about on-premises backup and recovery solutions, contact ASL on 0345 862 0350.

Ensuring business continuity after a DDoS attack

Keeping your business running after a Distributed Denial of Service attack. Throughout 2016 there was a significant rise in serious DDoS attacks, with many large organisations including; PayPal, Twitter, GitHub, and Spotify having reported disruption to their online services. In 2017, we expect to see a rise in the number of organisations targeted for financial gain, as it’s predicted that the increased use of IoT and mobile devices will open the door to attack. Today, the resources often used to increase business flexibility and agility, can unfortunately also increase cyber-threat and attacks, these include: increased employee use of mobile devices virtualized computing infrastructure increased texting and emailing of employees outside of work employees working from home or remote locations. Is your business prepared for a DDoS attack? A Distributed Denial of Service attack happens when a machine is targeted by other maliciously corrupted systems. The purpose is to cause your IT infrastructure to crash, ultimately resulting in your business shutting down. The reasons behind attacks vary and are not limited solely to financial gain. Attackers may want to steal data or be motivated by revenge, as in the case of a disgruntled employee, or they might simply want to demonstrate their knowledge and skill in launching an attack. Reports in the media of DDoS attacks against well-known brands, mean that most of us are well aware of the level of disruption they cause. Despite this, few organisations have a business continuity plan in place. If your business was attacked today, how confident are you that you would be up and running again with minimal delay? The impact of a DDoS attack can have far-reaching consequences. The vast majority of businesses rely on IT systems to operate, and uninterrupted access to the Internet is fundamental to our digital economy. Any break in service, for whatever reason and however temporary, has an immediate impact on your bottom line. In addition, reputations are quickly damaged and client confidence diminished. ASL – keeping your business up and running 24/7/365 In order to safeguard against DDoS attacks and ensure the continuity of your business, it’s extremely important to be prepared. As business continuity can only really be guaranteed with professionally implemented backup and recovery services, the advice is to seek assistance from ASL. We have 20 years of specialist knowledge and expertise in ensuring our customers are prepared for cyber-crime. In the event of such an attack, with backup and recovery in place, you can be up and running again with minimum disruption and loss. To find out more about ensuring business continuity after a cyber-attack, call us at ASL on 0345 862 0350.

SQL Server troubleshooting

Getting to the root of your Microsoft SQL Server problems The success of SQL Server as the world’s leading database for midmarket ERP software applications is no surprise. Its ability to process thousands of simultaneous queries and operations without missing a step is down to a robust design and continuous Microsoft development during the last 30 years. Nevertheless, SQL Server frequently gets blamed by IT administrators when ERP users find their systems slowing down or ‘hanging’ completely without warning. Understanding SQL Server, and the wealth of tools available for monitoring performance, can lead to the wrong conclusions in determining where the fault lies. The business consequences can be significant. If system performance problems remain unresolved for any length of time, it’s not just the system users who become frustrated, customer service suffers too. Need help overcoming your SQL Server performance problems? At ASL, we can help you to get to the bottom of your SQL issues. We take the time to understand precisely how the problem manifests itself: slow inputting of orders/transactions slow response times to queries application ‘hangs’ or ‘crashes’ slow screen draw slow report generation. We undertake a thorough evaluation of the SQL server deployment: we check whether the database deployment meets the minimum requirements recommended by Microsoft and their sizing documentation we identify the precise application activity where the performance problem is manifested we use SQL’s inbuilt tools to monitor the problem as the user experiences it. We undertake a thorough evaluation of the entire IT environment: we look at all the IT resources involved in the tasks that are underperforming we perform tests to rule out factors such as network latency and under specified end-user devices such as old PCs, we run further diagnostics to see whether overall ‘system load’ is a factor in the manifestation of the problem. Once we’ve completed our analysis we’ll come back with recommendations for resolving the problem. It may be something as simple as tuning the database or it may involve improving the specification of some part of the system. Whatever the problem we have the SQL Server experience and systems know-how to get to the bottom of the issue quickly and propose remedies that work. If your business is struggling with performance problems that appear to be SQL Server related get in touch by emailing sales@aware-soft.co.uk or calling 0345 862 0350.

Why perform regular systems updates?

Are you putting your business at risk by neglecting systems updates? After spending time and money to ensure your IT systems and software meet your business requirements, it’s important that you don’t just sit back and think – job done. It’s too easy to forget the most simple and fundamental tasks, such as software updates and firmware patches. By neglecting to update to the latest versions, you open your business up to unnecessary risk. The risks of using outdated software Increased Security Issues – Outdated software is a ticking time bomb that presents a huge security risk. Your best defence against malware and viruses is through installing the software updates released to address specific threats. By carrying out regular updates, you can patch the vulnerabilities hackers rely on to infect your IT system. It’s important to be aware that hackers pay close attention to security patch release dates, as this tips them off to the vulnerabilities of the previous version. By not applying a patch, you could expose your business to serious risk. Impact on Workflow – Security issues aren’t the only risks you’ll encounter by not updating your systems and software. You also run the risk of impacting employee workflow. For instance, if your employees want to work on joint projects but they are running different versions of software, then compatibility issues may arise hindering their progress. To prevent this issue, you need to synchronise every piece of software across your network, which also includes mobile versions. According to Microsoft, businesses unnecessarily expose themselves to cyber-attack when they fail to update their software. Why make time to update? Your system may be working fine so you might be thinking – why bother updating and applying a patch? Failure to patch leaves the door open for malware to enter, however, patching is not only about security. An update may be released to improve an application’s stability. To ensure you are both protected and able to operate applications effectively, you need to make system upgrades a priority. However, this is time-consuming and can be a complex task if you have a large infrastructure. You can’t afford to risk being hacked or having your employee productivity levels drop, but you don’t have time to prioritise systems updates. So what are your options? The answer is easy – you need to consider outsourcing. ASL software systems updates and patching. By outsourcing to us you can be confident in keeping track of all updates, we take on the responsibility so you can concentrate on your core business. We deliver proactive protection, we monitor to find outdated software and security vulnerabilities. The larger your infrastructure the more difficult it is to keep on top of updates, which is why it makes sense to contact us at ASL to discuss our IT support services. We update your software to ensure that you’re running the most current and bug-free version, we offer; A quarterly systems update – too often can become a hindrance to business operations, and not often enough can leave your business open to security threats. Urgent patches that have serious consequences are performed on an as-needed basis. A proactive review of all Firmware updates, Windows updates and software updates (working in partnership with your other suppliers). A server snapshot to ensure that any update issues can be rolled back, quickly and safely. Urgent updates out of business hours to limit disruption. To find out more about ASL IT service and support call 0345 862 0350

Why book an onsite IT survey?

How does an onsite IT survey improve and protect your business? For all businesses, a thorough IT site survey/assessment offers a means to appraise the current health of IT systems and assess potential future vulnerabilities. It delivers an overview of how your current technology is helping or hindering your core business efficiency and productivity. It incorporates systems and network performance reviews, software audits, technical reviews and risk management. Does your company need an IT health check? Evaluating the health of your IT environment is necessary in order to work out its vulnerabilities, and mitigate future risk. The ultimate goal of an IT assessment is to identify areas where improvements can be made that will; increase efficiency, decrease cost and reduce risk. By bringing in a ASL specialist IT assessor to identify your systems strengths and weaknesses, you are enabled to develop a blueprint to improve your technology and security. We help you to work out: The effectiveness of your technology in supporting your overall business goals. The steps you need to take to improve your overall IT environment. How to plan for an unexpected disaster. We attend site to review your: network servers and end user devices software infrastructure backup, recovery and business continuity plan What can you expect from our onsite IT assessment? After an in-depth analysis we are able to assess any weaknesses, and then come up with a plan to upgrade and improve efficiency, security and availability. We can ensure you have the right technology in place to run your business at optimum efficiency. Software issues – we can evaluate your existing software and advise on vulnerabilities, software updates, licensing issues and necessary upgrades. Security issues – we can review your security measures to ensure your data and systems are protected and safe from attack. Backup and recovery issues – we can ensure your business has IT continuity. We can devise and implement an IT disaster strategy to ensure your business can keep on running – no matter what happens to your hardware, software or vital business data resources. Network issues – we can analyse your network, leading to recommendations and the implementation of network changes to ensure your IT network is fast, resilient, free from bottlenecks and fully monitored. Hardware issues – we can identify where hardware is under specified or vulnerable to future failure or overloading. Booking an onsite IT assessment. If your business is in need of an IT assessment, contact us at ASL. Call us to discuss your requirements, and find out how we can help you discover your IT issues before they strike and lead to disaster. Call 0345 862 0350 to book an onsite IT survey.

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