Managed Services

Server Care

At SLS Networks, we believe that monitoring your network on a proactive basis will benefit your ability to rely on your network and extend the life of your equipment. We offer 2 levels of support for your Windows based servers.

Server Watch

This is a 24x7 monitoring, analysis and escalation service based on alerts and early warning data received from SLS Networks’s SAAZ software. Typically any server monitoring tool generates between 9-20 alerts per day per server. Under Server Watch SLS Networks engineers watch the alerts, analyze them and intelligently escalate issues (with steps to resolution) to your internal IT engineers either by phone (if it is an emergency) or by trouble ticket using the ticketing features within SAAZ. With Server Watch, SLS Networks engineers do not need access behind your firewall or to the servers being monitored. The alert analysis is performed using remote diagnostic software permitting the engineers at the NOC to get sufficient diagnostic information to process alerts being received.

Server Watch covers the following:

24x7 monitoring, analysis and escalation
Antivirus Monitoring
Backup Monitoring
Patch Management
Early Warning and Preventive Alerts for:
Hardware (memory, disk, RAID and UPS)
Microsoft Windows 2000 and upwards
Active Directory
Linux
Microsoft Exchange 2000 and upwards
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and upwards
Citrix Metaframe
Antivirus

Remote Server Care

SLS Networks is a leading managed service provider of network, applications and services with expertise in voice, data, wireless, video, and Voice over IP (VoIP). We assess, design, build, deploy, and manage networks. Our network support capabilities range from simple IT moves, to Call Center application management to remote network performance management. All these capabilities assure that your networks operate at optimal performance with maximum cost-efficiency.

Remote Server Care covers the following:

24×7 monitoring and troubleshooting (on a best effort basis)
Antivirus Management
Backup Management
Patch Management
Service Pack Installation
Early Warning and Preventive Maintenance for:
- Hardware (memory, disk, RAID and UPS)
- Microsoft Windows Server
- Active Directory
- Linux
- Microsoft Exchange
- Microsoft SQL Server
- Microsoft Small Business Server
- Citrix Metaframe
- Antivirus

Monitoring of Network Devices

SLS Networks provides monitoring via SNMP and troubleshooting of network and hardware devices such as switches, routers, UPS’s.

SLS Networks has partnered with a reputable company that has built a variety of technology and processes to provide a high level of proactive maintenance from its NOC. The first being the early warning system and pattern detection engine which is a database of 16,000 different error conditions with corresponding resolutions. When the software detects events from logs, performance counters, and registry values based on the database of such error conditions it automatically creates a ticket for the NOC engineer who will then take action based on the corresponding resolution and escalation matrix. Secondly, the NOC operations system automatically routes problems by engineers and has a SLA tracker which is used by the service managers to deliver timely service and to prevent issues from falling through the cracks.

Engineers performing any troubleshooting or analysis follow a “run book” that defines actions to be taken against different problems and anything falling outside of this run book is immediately escalated to the server expert group for action. These systems have evolved over years of providing service and are being constantly updated to improve the quality of service. All interaction is via a ticketing system except for emergency situations such as server down or disk failure issues where phone calls are made. This discipline minimizes the chance of an alert being missed or a problem not being addressed in time..

Call SLS Networks today and see how we can assist your existing IT staff or provide a complete solution to keep your Windows server working at their peak potential.

Desktop Care

SLS Networks’ Total Desktop Care (TDC) provides all the building blocks for us to provide comprehensive preventive maintenance services remotely for your company’s desktop users. This solution is comprised of the following components:

A desktop/laptop agent within the SAAZ technology platform with all the intelligence built-in to conduct day to day preventive maintenance services
An Anti-virus package bundled with our platform at no cost and support for Anti-virus management for other popular Anti-virus packages
An Antispyware package bundled along with the platform processes through the NOC to clean up temporary files and apply Critical security patches.

The platform also provides for generating detailed inventory reports and reports related to all the preventive maintenance activities conducted through the NOC. The platform comes with a built-in Scripting engine and can also be used to deploy software applications remotely. Let us look at each of these components and their unique features more closely:

SAAZ Technology Platform

The SAAZ platform provides a completely secured environment for managing desktops and laptops and conducting preventive maintenance activities remotely.

Intelligent Desktop Agents

SAAZ desktop agents come pre-built with jobs to update Anti-virus signatures, delete temp files, scan and remove Spyware, etc. Each of these is a pre-scheduled activity that is run automatically in low priority mode whenever the machine is available, whether it is connected to the LAN or to the internet.

White and Blacklisting of Patches

Our NOC service provides a list of White and Blacklisted patches (Critical security patches for Microsoft OS and applications) after conducting Internet research and testing patches on test beds. We can choose to apply these patches ourselves or have the NOC deploy them on the your network

Highlights

A Network Operations Center (NOC) that provides 24×7 visibility of Windows-based desktops/laptops for all businesses. Proactive service is provided with preventive maintenance scheduled at specified intervals.
Reduction of your operational costs are achieved because you have a staff of hundreds of SLS Networks engineers supporting you, who carry out the day to day work of checking Anti-virus signatures, scanning and removing Spyware, updating critical security patches and cleaning temporary files on a regular basis.
Provide comprehensive reports on inventory and preventive maintenance activities.
Provide comprehensive tracking of all software and hardware on each desktop/laptop. Changes are also tracked and aid in quicker problem resolution.
Improve quality of life for you and your staff by having more time over nights, weekends and holidays without the headache of desktop support.

Today's IT Infrastructure Management Challenges

Most IT infrastructure vendors started their services by providing services focused around Servers. Desktops and laptops were ignored or were not covered under a flat fee based Managed Service do to the inherent myriad of problems that can evolve due to lack of maintenance. Selling blocks of time or working on a Time & Materials basis are still among the most popular methods to address desktop/laptop issues.

There are many reasons why this could have happened – desktop hardware is low cost compared to Servers, and most businesses don’t budget for any preventive maintenance activities. Servers demand more attention and are allowed to eat up more of the maintenance budget as they host business critical applications. We believe scheduled maintenance for desktops/laptops was ignored due to lack of sophisticated technical solutions to effectively address challenges posed by their roaming behavior.

Desktops/laptops outnumber Servers by 10 to 1 in a typical SMB environment. One can start with a new client with the most basic desktop support service, which in turn can lead to projects to standardize the entire desktop environment by supplying OS upgrades, hardware or other applications and services around such projects. SLS Networks’ Total Desktop Care (TDC) solution provides you with an opportunity to increase your share of the IT budget by providing preventive maintenance services for desktops and laptops remotely.

Remote Control solution

SAAZ platform provides an efficient remote control solution that works over the WAN. Our advanced provisioning system enables us to control the access of remote control tools to ‘ NOC for your sites.

Comprehensive reporting

SAAZ platform provides a comprehensive reporting engine to capture information related to hardware and software inventory. It also provides executive reports detailing preventive maintenance activities such as patches applied, Anti-virus updates done, Spyware instances removed, temp files deleted etc.

Anti-virus package bundled

Currently we bundle an AVG Anti-virus package along with our Total Desktop Care package. The SAAZ Desktop Agent can also manage signature updates of other Anti-virus packages like Norton, Symantec, e-Trust etc. The signature files are updated once every four hours.

Anti-spyware package bundled

Currently we bundle CounterSpy from Sun Belt Technologies along with our Total Desktop Care package. The Anti-spyware scans are done every day.

Ticketing System

SAAZ platform comes with a built-in Ticketing System. This system communicates between the our NOC and our service technicians on issues such as the failure to update Anti-virus signatures on machines, machines not reporting for the most recent 3-day period and whether or not a preventive maintenance activity has been carried out.

Primary Benefits

Reduced investment in infrastructure

Eliminates the need for building and maintaining infrastructure for providing comprehensive desktop/laptop maintenance services.

Manpower (help desk, dispatcher, onsite visits by an engineer to clean virus & Spyware).
Building processes for carrying out preventive maintenance activities 365 days a year.
Your own investment in a Ticketing System.
Shopping for Anti-virus and Anti-spyware packages, remote control tools, reporting engines, script engines.

Selective provisioning per site

Online provisioning system enables SLS Networks to build in our operational workflow per site and keep control of the situation. We can inform whether we would like the NOC to take remote control of your users’ machine or want to keep that control to ourselves, or provide these rights to the NOC on approval basis. You can select from a number of options on how you would like to proceed with patch management.

Proactive approach

SAAZ Desktop Agent carries out pre-scheduled preventive maintenance activities regularly, reducing chances of downtime.

Less work for internal staff

Zenith’s Patch Management Team researches and does all the testing required on latest patches released by Microsoft before releasing White and Black lists. If we agree, the NOC team completes the process of applying the patches and provides us with a comprehensive report.
Zenith’s NOC Team looks at reports that provide information on failure of preventive maintenance activities and takes prompt action to fix the issue: e.g. if for some reason the Anti-virus signature on a few machines is not updated at intervals prescheduled in the platform, our team will attempt to update the signature remotely and analyze the problem. If the signature cannot be updated, we are alerted immediately through our Ticketing System.
In the unlikely event of virus breakout on a client network, the Zenith NOC team can provide services to scan the network and clean up the viruses on best effort basis.

Improve quality of life

You can rely on SLS Networks and can experience better quality of life during weekends, holidays, office and non-office hours.

Increase profitability

Add new revenue stream to your business that was ignored in the past by adding desktop/laptop maintenance services for your IT maintenance schedule.

Refocus your high-priced staff to higher profit opportunities.

Virtual Server

At SLS Networks our aim is simple; to provide you, our customer, with End-to-End Networking Solutions offering Cisco products as an option to provide the securest network infrastructure while providing the best customer service.

Today, networks are an essential part of business, education, government and home communications, and Cisco Internet Protocol-based networking solutions are the foundation of these networks. Cisco hardware, software, and service offerings are used to create Internet solutions that allow individuals, companies, and countries to increase productivity, improve customer satisfaction and strengthen competitive advantage.

Improving operational efficiencies with server virtualization

CIOs and other key technology executives at large companies increasingly recognize that their state-of-the-art servers are powerful and versatile, woefully underused, and very expensive.

In short, servers can do much more than they’re currently doing. That’s why large businesses have begun to appreciate the necessity of server virtualization — a way to put tremendously powerful, flexible, agile resources to fuller use. It’s done by implementing specialized virtualization software that lets a single physical server host multiple virtual server instances.

Transitioning to a server virtualization solution requires careful planning and execution. SLS Networks identifies key areas for companies to consider when addressing the challenges of implementing and managing a transition to a virtualized environment.

Find out how SLS Networks can help you implement a virtualized environment.

Hardware & Software Support

Maintaining your IT infrastructure can be a full time job without knowing the current technology standards. At SLS Networks we are familiar with the best practices and current technology standards. We can assist you in the everyday maintenance of your equipment or aid you in the procurement of any new equipment that your organization needs.

The information technology revolution in business is as cruel as it is kind. With the existence of today’s technology, you can operate an international business from anywhere in the world, at any time. This powerful ability comes at a price — without a top-notch IT infrastructure, no business can hope to compete.

Fortunately, with a little strategic planning and the foresight to spend money where it matters most, a growing business can build the infrastructure they need without having to attempt to replicate the mega-million dollar technology budgets of the Fortune 500 companies that have the finances to develop the dream infrastructure. When you stop looking at your IT as a monster in need of constant care and feeding, and start thinking of it as a critical business service, the path to streamlining your IT spending becomes clear.

Whether yours requirements range from the installation or to the upgrade of your hardware or software infrastructure, SLS Networks can assist you to make sure that the monster you were afraid of, is tamed to the bodyguard you can depend on.