All the necessary technical and administrative duties to support its hosting services, including a unique 8-point service offering that delivers speed, security, and reliability, are provided.
- Network Management/Data Center
The platform for hosted applications includes the following network services: high speed Internet connectivity to the UUNET backbone; redundant, diversely routed bandwidth; 24x7 monitoring of network connection; secure cabinets for equipment; fire alarm, smoke detection, and fire suppression systems; UPS and generator power backup; and physical and electronic security measures.
- Operating Systems/Hardware Maintenance
Experienced maintenance support of Sun servers and the UNIX operating system is provided. Preventive maintenance periods are scheduled at times most convenient for customers. During these times, routine maintenance checks of both software and hardware and application rejuvenation and a preventive re-boot of the system are conducted. Hosted customers are on a routine maintenance schedule designed to minimize or eliminate system downtime.
- System Administration
Customers have a single company as point of contact for all network, hardware, operating system, and database issues. System administrators work with the appropriate vendors to ensure that issues for these components are resolved in a timely fashion. We are responsible for debugging and resolving application problems, including problems between the software components of the solution.
We also perform installation of all hosted solutions, designing and implementing enhancements to the network environment as required to meet the needs of the user community as new users are added. Monitoring information is used to spot system-bottlenecks and insure that the system performs as planned.
- Database Administration
Experienced database administration support of hosted applications in a hosted environment is provided. Our goal is to improve customer satisfaction of application users by ensuring a high-quality environment. Some of the database administration services include software installation, backup and recovery, security administration, performance tuning and monitoring, and troubleshooting and failure recovery.
- Application Administration
Experienced application administration support of its hosted applications in a multi-user environment is also provided. Our goal is to improve customer satisfaction of application users by ensuring a high-quality hosted environment. We install the application, load updated Datastream software versions, loads patches, monitors application performance and tunes the system as needed, saving the customer time and resources.
- Backup and Recovery
Daily full-tape backups of the system are performed using well-defined procedures. Backup logs are collected and reviewed each morning to ensure a successful backup occurred. Backup tapes are removed from the data center biweekly and stored at an off-site location as an added measure of safety.
Restore procedures are performed quarterly on a test system using production backup tapes to ensure we are ready for emergency situations. In addition, retrieval of individual customer information from the backup tapes is available as an optional service.
- Security Management
We recognize the importance of security to its customers and implements applications and procedures to provide a secure environment. Areas addressed include professional firewall systems, periodic testing, intrusion detection logs, emergency response procedures, auditing, and physical security.
- Start-up Services
Start-up services are designed to bring customers online quickly. The services provide everything that is needed to begin accessing the hosted application except the customer-side Internet connection. Services include:
Customer setup and installation at data center
Server and bandwidth resources
Firewall, tape backup, and security setup at data center
Internet testing at data center
Security testing
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