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Technical Info



Server Management

This is a complete, 24/7 server monitoring, remediation, maintenance and management solution. Typically, a single server generates between 10-20 alerts per day. Our engineers watch the alerts, analyze them and intelligently escalate issues. Our engineers will monitor and troubleshoot server problems based on alerts and early warning information received. InhouseCIO provides 24/7 advanced remote monitoring and management of windows servers - including applications designed for small and medium sized businesses. InhouseCIO troubleshoots alerts that arise while monitoring these systems. InhouseCIO also checks for viruses and event logs to identify and resolve these issues. InhouseCIO covers the following and more:

Support

  • Unlimited Support
  • 24/7 monitoring and troubleshooting
  • Windows 2000/2003/2008 Server support
  • Windows Small Business Server support
  • Microsoft Exchange Maintenance and Administration
  • Backup Monitoring and Administration

Maintenance

  • Event Log Monitoring
  • Drive Space Monitoring
  • Log File Maintenance
  • Microsoft Patch Management
  • Service Pack Installation Early Warning and Preventative Maintenance

Security

  • User Account Administration
  • File Sharing Permission Administration
  • Security Administration
  • Anti-Virus Management


Desktop Services

InhouseCIO provides a complete solution for managing, maintaining and supporting desktop computers throughout your organization. InhouseCIO ensures that your computers are functioning properly, protected and secure. We'll keep your computers operating at peak performance so your employees can do the same. InhouseCIO regularly deploys patches and updates virus definitions. Other services are included such as performing desktop tunings like Defrag, Scandisk, Paging file optimizations, bottlenecks, etc. InhouseCIO also deploy updates to software and service packs and supports off shelf products and third-party applications.

Preventative Maintenance Schedule

  • Spyware deletion every day
  • Asset Data collection every Monday and Thursday
  • Temp File deletion every Tuesday and Friday
  • Anti-virus updates every four hours
  • Patch Assessment every Wednesday
  • SMART check every Monday and Thursday


How our platform works:

InhouseCIO proactively monitors your network devices. Devices such as computers, servers, firewalls and more. So even though we are not always at your location, we are proactively monitoring your network ensuring that your IT operations are running smoothly. At InhouseCIO, we emphasize both people and technology. We know that it requires the watchful eyes of our engineers and automated tools to proactively monitor your network to keep your IT operations running smoothly. Here's the step by step process highlighting how this works:

  1. InhouseCIO installs a small program on your computers and servers.
  2. Your computers securely communicate with the data center.
  3. InhouseCIO monitors a broad range of network devices such as computers, servers, firewalls and more.
  4. InhouseCIO proactively manages these devices. This includes management of your antivirus, antispyware, patches, backup and more.
  5. Your InhouseCIO team notifies you of any potential issues and fixes many of these problems before they even occur.   
  6. If you encounter a problem, you can contact our help desk or one of the engineers on your assigned team.  With your permission, your InhouseCIO engineer can immediately remotely access your computer and resolve the problem immediately. 

For a visual diagram, click here



Network Security

Firewalls, biometrics, authentication, ssl, vpn, ipsec, 3des, encryption, viruses, spyware, web attacks, content filtering. Does all this confuse you and cause you to scratch your head?

Don't worry, your InhouseCIO team will not intimidate you by using technical terminology. We understand that your core competency may not be technology. Not only will your InhouseCIO team take care of all of this for you, but your team will use every day common language so you have a good understanding of these services. IT security is one of our strongest areas with extensive background and knowledge in this arena. We will work closely with you to determine the best security strategy for your company to minimize your risk. If you are interested in learning more about IT security you can also read below on some of the basic definitions of the different security technologies.

Firewalls and VPN
Encryption
Content Filtering
Authentication
Intrusion Detection/Prevention
Penetration Testing and Vulnerability Assessment

Firewalls and VPN:
Firewalls and Virtual Private Networks protect your organization's digital assets from external threats while providing secure access. InhouseCIO will work with you to find the right solution for your organization. Our firewall partners also offer VPN solutions as a dedicated appliance or as part of the firewall. Organizations using VPN extensively will want to look at a dedicated VPN appliance. IPSec VPN has been the technology of choice for most organizations. Many are beginning to embrace the newer SSL VPN technology for secure remote access.

Encryption:
This is the process of encoding information in such a way that only the person or system with the key can decode it. The product suite we provide protects data and communications with strong, proven security. These solutions are used to secure emails and attachments, files and folders, and entire hard drives.

Content Filtering:
Uncontrolled web access can have a negative impact on individual productivity, network performance and your organization's bottom line. With web filtering you can actively monitor network use and abuse in your organization. These solutions include more than limiting unauthorized web surfing. These solutions will also protect your network from being exposed to Web based email, file downloads, IM, and P2P. More importantly these solutions decrease your organization's legal liability and significantly increase network and employee performance.

Authentication:
Traditional password authentication requires one factor to gain access to a system. With multi-factor authentication you are required to use multiple forms of authentication to gain access to a system. This can be in the form of biometrics, tokens, or smartcards.

Intrusion Detection/Prevention:
This is commonly referred to as IDS or IPS (Intrusion Detection/Prevention System). This technology detects all types of malicious network traffic and computer usage that can't be detected by a conventional firewall. An IPS is typically composed of three components. First, there are sensors that generate security events. Second, there is a console that monitors events and controls the sensors. Third, there is a central engine that records events logged by the sensors. IPS can be network based or host based. Network based IPS monitors network traffic while host based IDS consists of an agent that monitors all activity on that host.

Penetration Testing and Vulnerability Assessment:
Security attacks can come from anywhere - outside hackers, internal users, branch offices, remote users, or business partners. Can you honestly determine how solid your existing security infrastructure is? Would you like an objective assessment of your company's security? The purpose of this is not to sell or recommend a security solution. The purpose is to provide an unbiased, impartial and updated report on your organization's vulnerabilities. To uncover any bugs, configuration changes, vulnerabilities or human error that could expose your network to hackers.



Backup and Recovery

As a small business your data are as important as the data stored by large enterprises, however your information is likely at far greater risk. Without the time to routinely back up your data, you are just one virus way from major data loss. Studies have shown that 65 percent of businesses that lose computing capabilities for over one week are never able to recover, and subsequently go out of business. The bottom line is that it's not the size of the organization that determines the value of the data. Mission-critical data is mission-critical regardless of who produces that data and it deserves appropriate protection.

One of the things that InhouseCIO can do is back up both your servers and computers to an appliance on your local network. We then also securely back that up to an offsite data center. So you have a local back up in the event that a computer crashes, and you can instantly recover that computer. You also have an offsite backup in the event of a disaster such as a flood or fire. Your team at InhouseCIO will manage and monitor this entire process for you.



Data Center

Introduction:

InhouseCIO uses industry leading security engineering practices and processes in this platform. This document provides an overview of the security engineering practices that have been incorporated into this platform.

InhouseCIO uses a software originally designed for banks and commercial applications. During this time this platform has undergone intense scrutiny from all types of security experts - both within and outside our organization. We applied this experience and security practices in this platform. This software is used by governments, financial institutions, and other security conscious organizations. We apply industry best practices when making decisions about security - this includes techniques used in engineering and QA, as well as the way that we have implemented our organization and our processes.

Data Center:

The data center is hosted at Hurricane Electric's state of the art facility in Fremont, CA. Hurricane Electric is rated as one of the top ten data centers in the world with amenities including a 24/7 onsite staff, HVAC environmental systems with up flow air conditioning units, conditioned uninterruptible power and back-up generators to prevent energy surges or loss of power, a high-tech security system with digital video surveillance custom designed to monitor every entrance, exit, and hallway, and a high-security card key system that monitors and limits access to certain areas within the facility. We have three dedicated OC-3 connections providing Internet connectivity to the server farm. Only a select few individuals have administrative access to the SQL Server databases. All other access is at the application level. Information being sent to the databases are first processed by a forwarding server then imported into the database. The databases are not directly accessible from the Internet.

Firewall:

We are using state of the art firewalls and only allow incoming traffic for ports 80 and 443. The firewalls are multi-threat security systems which enable secure communications and deliver the best security and performance.

Communication:

This platform operates entirely over secured 128-bit encrypted connections. The agents send only asset data and performance data to the data center. Confidential information such as user's passwords does not leave the user's machine. The agents send this information over outbound port 443 (SSL). There is no threat of a virus spreading or hack over the Internet due to this outbound connection. Client side firewall configurations are not needed with this platform as it operates entirely over outbound connections to the data center. This allows the agents to work in any network configuration without introducing vulnerability to inbound port scans or network attacks.

Agents:

The Desktop and Server Agents are responsible for collecting asset data and performance data. The agents themselves run using the local system account. The Desktop Agent sends a keep-alive request to the data center every 30 minutes over port 443. The server agent sends a keep-alive request to the data center every two minutes over port 443. Only the Registration ID, which is a unique 128-bit code is sent over port 443. There is no information in the keep-alive packet that identifies the machine or that would enable a hacker to identify the machine.

Encryption:

We protect against third party attacks by encrypting all data sent from the agents to the data center. All information is first compressed at the client side using a compression key then encrypted and sent over a secured 128-bit encrypted tunnel. Once the information reaches the data center it is first decrypted then uncompressed by using a compression key. The information is then imported into a database which is not directly accessible from the Internet.



Help Desk

In addition to your assigned team, InhouseCIO provides you with help desk service which allows you to be more productive by quickly resolving technical problems. We provide you with an 800 number and this becomes your company's IT help desk. This service operates Monday thru Friday between the hours of 8am-5pm central time. Our help desk's goal is to emphasize a first call resolution. You can choose to contact your team directly, enter requests online or call us at the 800 toll free number for immediate support.

How it works:

  1. Your employee calls the 800 help line or enters a request online.
  2. The help desk engineer answers the phone and asks for your employee's contact information.
  3. The engineer creates a service ticket, identifies the problem and takes care of the critical issues over the phone.
  4. Non critical issues that are beyond the scope of the help desk are forwarded to the Network Operation Center (NOC) and are resolved within a day.
  5. For issues that require hardware installations or an onsite visit, we will dispatch your assigned Field Engineer to your office.
  6. Once the technical issues are resolved, the service ticket is marked as work completed.