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Small or Medium size
Organizations (SMO's) usually have different needs than those of
Enterprise-level businesses. SMO's generally don't have the need or
the resources to afford full-time computer personnel. Those SMO's
that do have full-time computer personnel usually do not employ
highly-specialized professionals. So when SMO's develop the need for
IT solutions, such as shared internet access, building a web site, or
having an internal email system, they seek outside assistance. Here
is the example of one of are maintenance contracts on Windows NT/2000
Servers:
HiTech Solutions –Server maintenance Plan 1 SMBIZ
We
provide monthly and weekly system maintenance services to help support
your servers. This is useful for companies and individuals who want the
benefits of using servers, but don't have the time and/or knowledge to
monitor the system and to keep it up to date. This professional work
covers:
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remote network services monitoring
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weekly security audit (of important system files,
etc.)
-
weekly system maintenance (and reporting)
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weekly log file monitoring
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weekly backup of important configurations changes
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weekly mail (or other applicable software) traffic
analysis report
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weekly bandwidth traffic analysis report
-
weekly security release updates or fixes (if
applicable)
-
weekly software (package) release updates (if
applicable)
This basic
maintenance service is not for continuous consultation, frequent
troubleshooting, software performance tweaking, nor general "user"
administration. It is a "generic" maintenance service for reviewing the
system's security and performance, and for keeping the system's software
up-to-date with recent stable software releases. For example, this
maintenance contract is not to be used to request email accounts to be
added daily, or to be used to build customized mail black hole lists or to
manually update spam filter lists. If you'd like advanced or more
customized services, please consider calling us.
The service does
include basic consultation to help provide information or define tasks
that should be done. Larger projects will be explained and need to be
contracted before completed. (You may want to use pre-paid hourly or
per-incident contracts in addition to this monthly maintenance contract.)
The maintenance
service is for systems that are running a recent stable operating system
and recent and stable software available via the operating system's
packages collection.
Example
The
following is an example of the work done for this maintenance service for
a mail server:
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outside monitoring service attempts to connect to
your server every fifteen minutes; if it is not successful, we will
manually check your system and, if possible, we will fix the problem.
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we will install and configure tools to do weekly
security audits of your system; these audits will include checking
changes of important system configuration files and changes of installed
software; we will manually review the results of the security tests for
every week.
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we will install and configure tools to check
miscellaneous system settings and resources, such as hard drive space;
we will manually review this information for every week.
-
we will install tools to monitor your important log
files to help notice any minor or important problems; we will manually
review the results for the log file checking for every week.
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We will install tools to provide backups of important
system configurations; configurations will be checked weekly for changes
for an incremental backup. Please note that this maintenance service
doesn't include a full system (software and data) backup; it is
suggested that you also set this up at your location. We can help with
this and our maintenance service can include (at no further cost)
monitoring of your own backups.
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We will install a log analysis tool; its weekly
reports will be manually reviewed to help monitor system performance,
reliability and use.
-
We will install network traffic analysis tools; we
will manually review this information for every week to help see trends
and to verify major changes or problems.
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We follow all major, software security announcements
lists; if your used software is updated due to a security release, we
will update it within one day; if an updated version is not available,
and we will attempt to work-around the problems or possibly build our
own security patch.
-
On a weekly basis, we will review for updated
software (that you use) and install the latest "stable" versions; we
will usually included minor configuration changes if necessary. (Please
note that we prefer to not follow "current" testing, or beta releases.)
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we may do minor system administration tasks, such as
making sure log files are rotated, and disabling services that are not
needed
Pricing
The standard rate for this maintenance service contract is based on the
operating system and version used. The rate is for one system. Please note
that different operating systems provide different tools and software
package systems -- and so they may be more or less time-consuming to
maintain. In addition, some operating systems are historically-known to
require more maintenance and updates or slower updates. (The rates are in
United States dollars.)
For Windows NT 4.0, or BSD/OS: $US259 per
month.
For Windows 2000 Server: US$211 per month.
For Windows 2000 Advanced Server: US$221
per month.
For Windows 2000 Back Office Server: US$300
per month.
For Windows 2000 Back Office Server, SQL,
E-Commerce: US$350 per month
Contact us to
discuss rates for other operating systems or for non-stable or
non-packaged software releases. In addition, we can help with updating
older releases to recent stable versions.
Discounts are
available for pre-paid months and for long-term (3 years) contracts.
We can offer
discounts for multiple systems; contact us to discuss your needs.
The basic remote
monitoring is done every seven days; we use at least two different
monitoring hosts. Please contact us for more monitoring hosts or to change
the number of times per hour or day we should remotely monitor your
server.
Frequently Asked
Questions (FAQ)
Why does it matter if
I have continuous maintenance? Can I just have it maintained once each
month or once every three months?
Usually, most
systems are quite stable and very reliable. But in many cases, software
may have simple bugs that may have drastic consequences. Security holes
can be used to break into systems and then important files can be removed
or stolen; or often chat or ftp servers are installed (but hidden). Our
service watches important files to see if changes to the system are made.
In addition to
keeping up-to-date with security fixes, our maintenance services provide
remote monitoring to let you know if your connection or server is down,
detailed analysis of mail or http logging and network interface traffic,
and important configurations are backed up. It will cost more money to
install, configure or use other individual services that provide all of
our packaged tasks.
Systems that are
not kept up-to-date become harder to upgrade. You can choose for us to
only update your system once per month or less frequently, but you'll lose
the benefits of our continuing services. Plus the software upgrades may be
more intensive. It may cost more money to do the service less often.
What does
"recent" or "stable" mean? How can I find out if my operating system is
"recent" or "stable"?
The "stable"
release is the operating system and software that is suggested by the
vendor for system usage. "Stable" releases are only updated with software
that has been thoroughly tested and for important security fixes. Again,
this is through the vendor's (or project's) supervision.
We suggest you use
a recent version of the stable release. It makes no sense to use a stable
release if it is three years old, for example. Feel free to contact us if
you need assistance. The main webpage for your operating system should
indicate the latest stable release.
A "current" release
contains newer software versions, but is less tested and usually not
trusted for important servers. A "current" release is continuously updated
and is usually only considered for development systems or computers that
need specific software.
What if we need
regular administration, such as daily tasks of modifying TCP wrappers
rules, adding and modifying users and passwords, or configuring new
printers, and et cetera?
The maintenance
service is primarily for systems that have a set configuration and a
defined task. The low cost of this maintenance contract is based on
several factors -- primarily because of our monitoring (remote and local)
scripts.
Contact us -- we can probably provide you with
lower cost services by using our pre-paid hourly, per-incident or yearly
support contracts.
This is where
consulting services are generally used.
Enterprise-level
customers, on the other hand, usually have highly-skilled professional
personnel. Enterprise customers may need someone to perform a
security audit, implement a firewall solution, perform a Network Operating
System migration, lend extra help to an existing project, or just fill in
while Human Resources finds a replacement for someone that just left the
company. Usually enterprise customers are interested in a contract
arrangement, but consulting often takes place as well. More
Consultants
& "Out-of-Town" firms receive the following priority
services:
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A FREE on-site
evaluation at the clients site
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A detailed cable
installation proposal describing the work to be performed
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We can deal directly
with you or your client for payment terms
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A commission to
consultants for referred projects or clients
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Priority
assistance with cabling problems at client sites
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Joint sales calls at
client sites
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