Complete Systems Design Information Technology Solutions has the expertise to support many operating systems including Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows 2003, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows.NET, and Novell. We create and support entire Internet solutions including Exchange Servers, SMTP Gateways, Terminal Servers, Citrix Servers, Anti-Virus Servers, Firewalls, VPN, RAS (Remote Access Servers) and IIS Hosting Web Servers. We setup and support various e-mail solutions including support for Norton AntiVirus. CSDITS contracts for full Business Continuity/DRP (Disaster Recovery Planning) including UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply), High Availability Cluster Servers, Tape Backup Servers (including Veritas Backup Exec and Arcserve) and Virus Protection. Complete Systems Design will build your entire network infrastructure including database servers (SQL servers), Data Warehouse solutions, file servers, Active Directory for security and password protection, Structure, network printers, wiring, switches (Cisco and Nortel), wireless networks, hubs, routers for your LAN and WAN. CSDITS can monitor your systems via remote monitoring for remote support. Complete Systems Design is located in Los Angeles but supports Orange County, Southern California and offices throughout the country. Complete Systems Design Information Technology Solutions has set up and migrated offices including Telephony systems, CRM (customer relationship management), Linux servers, server room design, data migration, scanning solutions, server upgrades, office moves. We consult on all level of hardware including peripherals, workstations, laptops, HP printers, storage, scanners, hard drives, memory upgrades, motherboard and system repairs Complete Systems Design Information Technology Solutions is located in Southern California. Although our office is in Los Angeles we support clients through Southern California including Westwood, Brentwood, West Los Angeles, Orange County, Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Torrance, Thousand Oaks, Long Beach, Newport Beach, Westminster, Costa Mesa, Ventura, Irvine, San Francisco, Aliso Viejo as well as clients in Dallas, Houston, Jacksonville, Hartford, Danbury, Fairfield, Westport, Stamford, Denver, and Charlotte. Our network consulting has taken on systems contracting opportunities throughout the United States. Network engineering contracts and network support contracts are negotiable in length. Please contact us regarding your network contracting requirements so that we can find the right solution for you. We'll make sure to implement the best system design for your computer environment. ABOUT US Complete Systems Design offers a unique systems consulting service. While most consulting firms sell equipment (using only brands they are authorized to sell) at a significant mark-up as part of their consultative service, CSD stands out from the rest by offering recommendations on the most reliable products and effective equipment models for your unique solution and encourages bidding from your preferred hardware vendors. CSD will recommend vendors and even use our considerable experience to negotiate better pricing on your company's behalf. By offering our consulting service with no equipment overhead, CSD brings immediate savings for your company to the table. All of the equipment Complete Systems Design selects is cutting-edge technology although we prefer to avoid 'bleeding-edge' technology. Products just released on the market may not have undergone sufficient testing for compatibility with enough combinations of software and hardware to ensure reliable performance in your production environment. By selecting products which have been on the market for a few months, adequate testing has typically been performed, corrections have been made to the product, and you can avoid paying the exorbitant prices typical of 'bleeding-edge' components. Your equipment will be selected using a combination of criteria. Reliability is the first priority; components not adequately tested will not be considered. Performance is another top priority. Your system should be optimal from the beginning; starting out with a product which is less than robust will mean a short life cycle and a more expenses. All equipment eventually becomes obsolete but a good investment should last at least two years and potentially three years. Having the ability to upgrade your equipment is essential. To extend the life cycle of your investment, if you start with quality components, frequently a full replacement is not necessary provided the system can be upgraded for a minimal price. Many manufacturers require their proprietary components for upgrades and frequently charge excessive prices for them. CSD selects brands which allow other manufacturers' components to be used to significantly reduce upgrade expenses and offer a broader selection of upgrade solutions. Achieving the optimal price is important as no solution provides a positive return on investment if it costs more than the company gains by using it. CSD however, will not compromise our work or your company's solution by implementing systems using shoddy, 'cheap' products as they end up costing more money and downtime than quality brands in the long term. Our extensive experience and continuous evaluation of new products, brands, models and cutting-edge solutions that are available ensure your company gains the maximum return on its investment with every solution we implement. We take pride in our work and will not implement a solution we cannot stand behind. Your satisfaction with our services ensures our long term relationship with your company. Complete Systems has a broad range of experience in the market including: the private, educational, military and public sectors. Complete Systems Design has comprehensive experience at all levels of systems design and support including telephone, hardware, software and remotely assisted support. The team at CSD has been researching, evaluating, implementing and managing systems for companies like yours for over 15 years. Our team has worked in a wide variety of environments throughout the country. The founder of CSD has lead and managed the information technology functions for multi-billion dollar corporations and served in the capacity of Director of IT and VP of Systems at those organizations. Our considerable technical knowledge and practical business experience can ensure that a solution meets your objectives and allows for your company's growth. Our extensive experience and continuous evaluation of new products, brands, models and cutting-edge solutions ensures that your company gains the maximum return on its investment with every solution we implement. We take pride in our work and will not implement a solution we cannot stand behind. Your satisfaction with our services ensures our long term relationship. ANTIVIRUS PLANNING How thorough is your anti-virus protection plan? As today's business operations become increasingly reliant on the use of emerging technology to improve efficiency and promote growth, virus issues are becoming a growing concern for most companies. It is imperative to devise and implement a virus protection plan that can effectively eliminate all possible virus attacks. Your plan must be continuously updated and constantly monitor every component of your system for virus threats to prevent any possible data loss and prevent any possible downtime. Not only is your company's data and functionality at risk but all of your vendors and clients with whom your company's financial wellbeing depends. Can you afford to have your company's reputation and efficiency affected by undetected viruses escaping or entering your office? An effective anti-virus protection plan takes into consideration the timing and frequency of new virus definitions and updates. This plan evaluates and protects your company from many possible virus intrusion points: e-mail, floppy, zip, CD, web, etc. To effectively handle virus threats, your company needs a containment plan. Every company needs a clear containment plan of action to prevent viruses from spreading within your organization and to your clients. In the event your vendors or clients are infected with a virus; a virus protection server can form a barrier that effectively protects your company. Should an undetectable virus event occur, your contingency plan must provide a quick and successful course of action. ANTIVIRUS SERVERS Could a virus attack put your company at risk? An essential part of any antivirus plan is a system that continuously monitors and resolves virus entries using definitions updated daily to prevent any possible data loss and work interruption. Not only is your company's data and uptime at risk, but those of your vendors and clients as well. Can you afford to have your company's reputation and efficiency affected by undetected viruses escaping or entering your office? Every day hundreds, perhaps thousands or millions of e-mails come in and go out of your office. A percentage of these will be infected. Due to the ever increasing number of viruses, your company must have its virus protection updated daily. Your company can implement an antivirus server that oversees and ensures that all the entry points of your system are virus-free: e-mails, floppy disks, CDs, software packages, VPN, downloads, web servers, file servers, etc. Complete Systems Design can help ensure that your company's virus solution covers your entry points from beginning to end. Central virus protection servers can be set up to prescreen incoming and outgoing messages before your employees and clients ever receive their e-mail. Workstations can be setup to have their virus definitions automatically updated daily from a central anti-virus distribution point. Thus, not only are the workstations protected from infected e-mails, floppies, zips, etc., but your company will be protected from your employees' home machines and potential infected software installs. Your company's virus system can be equipped to handle the scheduling and the scanning for viruses automatically. Complete Systems Design can set up and monitor these solutions, leaving your staff more time to concentrate on productive activities essential to your company's growth. AUTHENTICATION SERVERS How many login IDs and passwords do you have to remember for different applications and servers at work? Since it is impractical to assign each employee different logon IDs and passwords for each server and application, an authentication server can give each user access to all the correct servers and applications upon logon. Access levels for each individual can vary depending upon the security level assigned to that employee. Thus, an authentication server can streamline the administration for setting up a new employee with one ID and password as well as make accessing the system easier for your team. Authentication servers fulfill a number of purposes. Security templates can be set up to give all employees within each department the same rights so that administrative time is not wasted duplicating account privileges repeatedly for each employee. As new members join your team, their accounts can be created in a minute, instead of taking half an hour. While traveling to your other offices, your security travels with you, making a local account unnecessary, giving you access to local printers and resources you need to perform your job. Security is a major concern for most companies. Authentication servers can alleviate some of your security concerns. When an employee leaves, deleting or disabling that one account can fully disable that entire employee's access. Automatic password changes for all employees can be performed in minutes instead of days! Your security audits will no longer reveal dangling accounts with former employees retaining access to vital systems. Authentication servers provide a cohesive employee identification system for your business. Whether you have five servers and one office, or a thousand of each, quick logon and access should be simple for everyone on your team. Complete Systems Design has managed and installed authentication solutions in offices throughout the U.S., and has resolved related issues for companies like yours. BACKUP SERVERS When is the last time your company successfully restored data from tape? As the amount of information companies accumulate continues to expand, the need for data storage is growing exponentially. Yet frequently, data backup solutions fail to grow with the new environment. Companies that a few years ago backed up 20 GIG of data daily, now backup 500 GIG or Terabytes of data daily. Full tape backups that previously could be completed nightly are now only partial backups requiring multiple tapes. As a result restores may take days and should one of those backup tapes fail, the data may be irretrievable. Your company cannot afford to lose valuable data or to spend precious time attempting to recover them when this unfortunate event occurs. An effective backup strategy involves entirely backing up every server with frequent data changes daily. Servers that typically fall in this category are: file, e-mail, web, database, authentication, and intranet servers. Due to the nature of servers that contain databases such as Exchange, SQL and Oracle servers, special backup agents must also be installed and updated frequently on those systems. Quite often even major corporations neglect to update their database backups and consequently can't restore critical systems when a system fails or disaster strikes. A reliable high speed, high capacity backup system is essential for every company that relies heavily on data to compete in today's economy. Complete Systems Design has installed backup solutions for large and small companies, tailoring the solution to meet each company's backup needs for today while anticipating tomorrow's growth. BACKUP PLANNING What were your key considerations when you developed your backup and restoration policy? Implementing the correct data backup solution requires a well-defined process as well as selecting the proper equipment. The critical data required for back up must be identified before considering the appropriate capacity and speed for the backup unit. The correct agents and rights must be implemented for your system to gather the data from other servers. In order to truly verify the process, significant testing, including a full restore of those systems must be performed. The means by which your company stores and archives backups is as important as the device and software by which it backs up data. Should an event occur which precludes you from gaining access to your servers; your backup tapes must be available off site. A method for obtaining them from an alternate site must be documented. In the event the team member originally in charge of the tapes is unavailable for their retrieval, alternate staff members with authority to access to those tapes are critical. The process by which your company cycles tapes is also crucial. Tapes wear out and eventually fail. Your business must conduct quarterly tests to verify that critical data can be retrieved and restored. Frequently core data changes location and/or name; this requires regular updates of the backup definition to ensure accuracy. Complete Systems Design has the experience and the project management skills required to completely restore critical data should a restore be necessary. CSD will streamline the process, minimize potential data loss and ensure that normal business activities resume quickly. DATABASE SERVERS Does your database give you the speed and reliability you require? Although many companies have implemented new database engines such as SQL 2000 to improve speed, functionality, and rock-solid performance, they leave their old database server hardware in place with the hope that it can handle the demands of the new database engine. They soon realized that it takes the combination of the new database engine and the appropriate hardware to receive a significant boost in performance, not just one or the other. Optimizing the hardware and the engine settings of a database engine can mean a time savings of minutes or hours on every query! As increasingly more companies need instantaneous responses to their queries to meet the needs of their clients, they recognize the importance of the implementing the right solution to satisfy those requirements. Frequently a businesses' database requirements needs stem the from clients' need to access data on line with real time responses. Quick response time is indicative of good customer service; no client wants to run a request for data and wait patiently for the results. Complete Systems Design has the expertise in selecting the optimum hardware at the best prices. CSD has extensive experience in migrating databases from one server to another allowing for smooth transitions with minimal interruption. DATA MIGRATION Can your company afford to have significant down time or data loss during a system changeover? Data migrations are a complicated process whether they involve a change or transfer of OS, database, web, e-mail or hardware. To reduce the risk of data loss or extended down time, a system changeover requires significant planning and effort. Reasonable preliminary planning requires setting up the new equipment in advance with a standard 72 hour burn-in period to test for potential hardware defects. During that period, it is essential that security functions specific to the new hardware are thoroughly investigated. Although most security should be assigned via an authentication server, previous administrators may have used machine-specific security policies, which will not transfer to the new hardware since most machine-specific policies are rarely documented and poorly implemented. A backup should be performed on the old system as well as a full restore of the data on the existing server before the migration is ready to be implemented. Just before the new machine is installed, a new backup should be performed for any last minute changes that may have occurred during the testing. Complete Systems Design is thoroughly experienced in planning and performing the critical procedures for a data migration to transition smoothly. Multiple precautionary measures will minimize the risk of data loss. CSD has implemented migrations from OS on groups of servers and workstations, database migrations and e-mail migrations. Complete Systems Design has also performed countless application migrations and can assist you with your next migration project. DRP How current and complete is your company's Disaster Recover Plan (DRP)? Most companies' IT departments don't have the manpower or the experience to create a comprehensive DRP. While this is like an insurance policy; only valuable when disaster strikes, no one should risk forgoing this protection. A Disaster Recovery Plan sometimes referred to as a Disaster Resource Plan is more than simply ensuring some servers, backup devices, workstations, and software are available at an alternate location. An essential component of the DRP is the system documentation and recovery strategy ensuring critical business functions can resume as quickly as possible. A good DRP also implements preventative measures to eliminate potential system disasters before they occur. In the event you are denied access to your building or the equipment therein, your company must have a 'hot site' available for continuing business. Most companies are completely dependent on the Internet for e-mail, web services, ftp access and other means of data communication with clients and vendors. Companies with more than one office frequently require direct WAN connectivity to those sites. Should those remote sites' Internet connectivity go through your headquarters, they will require an alternate means of gaining Internet access in the even your headquarters is the disaster site. WAN and Internet installation typically takes 35 days from the service provider; with high expedite fees for emergency installs, and 45 days without the additional fees. Most companies cannot wait 35 days for that installation to resume business. A sound DRP covers a strategically placed hot site, how much equipment of what type and capacity will be required, as well as priorities for key systems and dependencies. The specifications of critical equipment include: processing power, memory, storage, IP addresses, DNS links, MX links, and potential NetBIOS linked databases. Disaster Recovery Planning must cover enough detail in case your personnel maintaining the current site are unavailable during a disaster recovery. During the DRP assessment process, air conditioning, uninterruptible power supplies, virus protection, fire suppression systems and other measures should be evaluated for their effectiveness in preventing disasters. Disaster Recovery Plans are time consuming and require a great deal of high-level and detail planning your team may not have the resources to complete. Your company can leverage the experience of Complete Systems Design to implement a DRP that will allow your business activities to quickly and efficiently resume in the event of an incident. E-MAIL SERVERS Do you sometimes wonder why your e-mail doesn't always arrive reliably? We are more dependent on this form of communication than ever; reliability and capacity can no longer be ignored. Companies no longer use e-mail just to distribute memos to their employees. Almost every form of critical message to employees, as well as vendors and clients is now distributed through e-mail including messaging to pagers and cell phones. E-mail is a fast, reliable, verifiable, and a clear means of distributing data to people throughout the world at any hour of the day. E-mail is especially effective for distribution of multimedia and visually dependent data; allowing it to be understandable to every person in a quick and efficient manner. Although faxes still are being used by some companies, the current trend is to have faxes sent directly through the e-mail system to ensure that the fax does not get lost in the delivery or have the flow of communication interrupted by low ink cartridges, empty paper trays or paper jams. Your company's e-mail system can be configured for greater ease of use, more remote accessibility and more reliable distribution of data. Company e-mails can be accessed by authorized employees from any where in the world at any hour of the day. Off-site employee can access their individual calendar and contacts at any time in order to make critical sales calls no matter where they are. The right e-mail solution makes group calendaring easy and an efficient way to schedule or meeting or reserve time for resources such as conference rooms. Complete Systems Design has installed and migrated e-mail solutions for nearly 10 years including solutions with built in faxing capabilities, instant messaging, forwarding, out of office replies and remote access via client software or web browsing even when your office PC is turned off. CSD can configure mail systems to restrict potential virus attacks and material that might be inappropriate for business activities. Complete Systems Design is experienced in scaling unique e-mail solutions for each company which is critical for reliability, performance, and lowering costs FILE SERVERS Are you constantly deleting archived reference files in order to make space for new ones? Years ago, when files consisted of simple text content, data storage was simple and fast. Now files frequently contain far greater amount of data due to more sophisticated formats such as pictures, audio and video content. File servers need to be far more robust and expandable to allow for quick access and growth so you don't have to replace your server investment every year. Finding the right balance of speed, reliability, growth and price can be quite an involved process. Many considerations must be taken into account such as the size of your current file server, the types of files you currently store, the types of files you plan on storing in the future, the frequency with which new files are created, possible needs for redundancy, planned company growth, and the length of time archived data needs to be available online. These are just a few issues that may determine your hardware selection. File servers usually must also perform as the control gateway for networked printing functions. The right combination of network controllers, and a well-implemented file server, can reduce common printing issues. Choosing a good network printer significantly reduces equipment costs and time delays between each print job. Fortunately, Complete Systems Design has significant experience selecting, building and installing numerous file servers for many types of companies over the years. We have built multiple server environments from scratch and migrated existing server environments to their new platform. Our background experience and expertise helps make your decision much easier. FIREWALLS Could hackers gain access to your network? If well thought out and correctly implemented, firewalls help protect the data and finances of a company. Firewalls offer protection against protocol and port scanning, ID hacks, vulnerability attacks, and other potential threats. However, to effectively defend your network, a comprehensive understanding of your unique network environment needs as well as potential exploits is necessary. Companies may not be aware that they have many resources on their network which attract hackers. It is common that knowledge companies that transact financial matters on line are a frequent target; however, less common knowledge is that a company's high speed connection to the Internet can provide violators with additional bandwidth for their personal needs. Your company's storage space is valuable to hackers as well. Another common hack is sending spam e-mails from a company's e-mail gateway so that the source can't be tracked. Complete Systems Design has experience working in diverse client environments and understands your complex firewall needs. We can assist in preparing and implementing the correct security for your firewall. SERVER HARDWARE Was your most recent server purchasing decision based on price, a company brand, performance, redundancy or expandability? Although servers are the backbone of your company's data structure, you don't have to pay exorbitant prices just to acquire a fast and reliable server. At Complete Systems Design, our focus is on selecting the best equipment from multiple vendors at the lowest prices for you. Our concern is in implementing the best solution for your company; CSD doesn't sell hardware so you aren't paying for our equipment overhead. We analyze your company's needs and selects from reliable vendors. Then we implement fast, expandable, dependable, non proprietary solutions will accommodate your company's growth. Complete Systems Design has been negotiating prices for over a decade. On average, CSD has saved companies 20% on all hardware purchases. We are comfortable in working alongside your company's purchasing department, delivering product brands, models and specifications and assisting in bidding and ordering efforts. Our goal is to make ensure your company obtains the right solution at the lowest possible price. CSD continuously researches technological developments to ensure what you acquire is not only fast and rock solid, but remains a current technology for as long as possible. Current technology ensures reliable update availability, replacement component options, and compatibility with software and operating systems - present and future. All hardware has the potential for failure, however by selecting reliable companies that continue to support their products, selecting solutions with redundant power supplies, clustering solutions and storage solutions such as raid 5.1 and beyond, mitigates the chances that simple mechanical failures or software and OS crashes will bring your system down. At CSD, we know your satisfaction with affordable, effective solutions ensures our long-term relationship. INTERNET Is quick, reliable and secure access to the Internet available to everyone throughout your organization? To stay competitive in today's information-rich business climate, nearly all workstation in an organization need Internet access. Every day your company is purchasing supplies and equipment, considering various service-providers for a variety of tasks and finding new ways to offer more to your clients. Using the Internet, companies can find more competitive pricing and keep their prices more attractive to their customers. With Internet access, new product details are available are available instantaneously from your vendors on-line; no need to wait for new catalogs by mail any more. Internet access has helped many companies to grow in a variety of ways. Should your company wish to host its own web servers, the proper bandwidth makes sure your current clients and potential customers aren't left wondering if your organization considers their time valuable. With the proper Internet connection, your company can quickly and efficiently upload or download vast amounts of data. Having your employees web-enabled allows your entire staff quick, in-depth research for their projects. E-mails with large attachments can be delivered without the delays. Today, many companies are so Internet-dependent, secondary Internet connections are required, with bandwidth sharing and failover capabilities should a connection go down. Complete Systems Design has been involved in numerous ISP (Internet Service Provider) installations and switch-overs. Coordinating equipment, installations, testing and rollouts can often monopolize your IT staff's resources, and prevent them from supporting your team. We are ready to undertake these projects so that your IT team can focus on your existing customer support needs. MONITORING Did you ever arrive at to work and learn from a colleague that a critical server had been down all night? Although employees leave the office at the end of a work day, your servers must continue to function 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This is particularly critical for companies that have offices or clients in multiple time zones. Maintenance issues such as tape backups and other critical network functions are typically performed in the late evenings during low network traffic hours. By selecting the most dependable brands and correct configurations, system failures can be significantly reduced. No matter the brand of equipment, or how much money is spent, computers are susceptible to 'glitches' in the operating system, software or hardware which may cause them to stop working. Regardless of their size, many companies require their critical systems be available 24/7. Should one fail during the evening hours, lunch or at any other time when staff may not be physically present to watch the equipment, establishing an instant notification system allows the critical systems to be placed on-line quicker and more efficiently to reduce down time. Complete Systems Design has implemented monitoring systems that can immediately notify designated contacts via pager and cell phone of hardware or software failures. Systems that can be monitored include: networking, Internet, WAN, server, application, e-mail, disk space, power, and processing concerns. CSD has the experience to implement the right monitoring solution requiring minimal. NETWORK PRINTING Have you ever been late for a deadline because of a print job that is stuck in a network printer queue? Organizations can effectively reduce equipment, toner and electric expenses, space requirements and lengthy wait times by selecting the appropriate network printer solution. Should a large print job tie up a network printer, switching print jobs from one printer to another is a simple task. Some companies opt for purchasing individual printers for each workstation to avoid setting up network printers and diagnosing printing issues even though they know they are spending much more money. Selecting the appropriate combination of printing equipment and implementing it properly can eliminate those concerns for most organizations. Complete Systems Design has been selecting, evaluating and implementing networked printers for many years. We will use our expertise to quickly establish solid network printer solutions at your company so you can begin to save time, money and effort. OFFICE MIGRATION Are you dreading your next office relocation? An office move is a major project which most companies do not dedicate adequate personnel to organize. Typically, a combination of the company's key employees must work closely together to ensure a smooth and timely transition. The information technology component of the move is a significant component of the process. Most office moves will require a minimum of sixty days advance preparation time. Leases, contractors and red tape can make that time period insufficient. Getting the IT team involved from the start will greatly improve the likelihood of a smooth transition. Preparations for the move begin even before the final location has been selected. Inspection of potential new office must be conducted by qualified IT personnel to identify major structural and electrical issues, which unchecked, may translate to increased expenses and delay the move. After the new server room location has been identified, it is important to examine the air conditioning unit to confirm that it is 24/7 and will support the current server room components. The electrical system must have sufficient capacity for your equipment's load, have the right voltage/amperage and have adequate surge protection. The data and electrical wiring must be well-suited for the number of workstations, printers, and other devices attached to the network. A detailed examination of the data wiring is required to verify the integrity of all the connections. The flooring in the server room must be antistatic and grounded. The security must ensure the safety of the server room equipment. The fire suppression system must be evaluated to ensure it has the ability to suppress a fire without damaging electrical components. Complete Systems Design realizes that every company's needs are unique and very few offices selected will be ready as is. Usually, major tenant improvements are necessary to support the servers, workstations and networked equipment. Complete Systems Design has the experience to check for often overlooked items such as wiring cores for centered desks and conference tables. CSD has managed numerous office migrations and knows that thorough preparation can make the difference between significant disruption or a quick and efficient office move with minimal downtime and reduced expenses. POWER PLANNING What critical systems need to remain online at your office in the event of power failure? Power protection not only keeps equipment running during power failure but protects your equipment from power surges that can cause thousands of dollars in damage. Equipment damaged by power spikes can keep systems down until replacement parts can be ordered and installed. Uninterruptible power supplies can be programmed to gently shut down your equipment before their batteries are depleted, preventing operating system failures and data corruption. If absolute uptime is required, a backup generator can be implemented to take over for the batteries after the power failure has occurred. This means zero down time as the batteries keep the systems running before the generator goes on line. Your company must decide what critical equipment should remain in operation during a power failure. Routers for WAN and Internet connectivity can potentially lose their configuration profile requiring a restore or reprogramming. Service providers frequently place lines in loop-back mode for testing in a power outage in an attempt to figure out why they lost their connection to your equipment. When power returns, your connection remains down until your service provider is called and notified of the issue and begins to investigate the reason your connection is not enabled. Complete Systems Design has the experience and expertise to implement the right solution for you. CSD understands the importance of your system uptime and will knowledgeably determine the correct capacity of the battery or backup generator solution that will best suit your business needs. REMOTE ACCESS SERVER Is your company reliant on an application that only performs well in the office where the data is housed? Many applications and databases that perform quickly in the central office could be readily accessed from remote offices, at home or on while traveling. A terminal server provides access to systems with speeds comparable to those achieved directly at the central office where the application is running. Redesigning certain databases is cost prohibitive, making remote access a much more affordable and attractive alternative. No longer do remote offices have to wait endless minutes for their screens to refresh waiting for database access; now they can be given nearly the same speed as local employees. Most companies employ a sales force that travels frequently and requires quick access to real-time data to effectively close deals. Authorized employees could have secure remote access to client data, e-mail, databases and the same sources of data available to those working in the central office. Complete Systems Design understands that the work week often carries over to late nights and weekends, and that today's business if often conducted out of multiple office locations. CSD can help implement a solution that can effortlessly increase your productivity while reducing your costs for business conducted away from your central office. SERVER ROOM Is your server room a tiny, cluttered, overheated room with equipment scattered about? Since office planners are often unaware of the importance of a server rooms design, that room is sometimes neglected during the site review and negotiation phase. Server rooms house some of the most critical equipment and data for the entire company. Server rooms require many special considerations to ensure that your system stays online and can support your company's growth and changing data needs. Servers require a low-temperature environment to prevent overheating, system crashes and potential hardware damage. Since many servers draw more power than most other appliances, they require dedicated isolated ground interrupt outlets to prevent surge damage. Although these outlets may reduce your surge risk, an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) has superior surge suppression technology to further prevent any possible issues and allow for gentle shut downs of valuable equipment in the event of a power failure. UPS's require planning for amperage and voltage requirements as well as the proper electrical outlet interface or direct wiring. Since server rooms house expensive equipment and core data, adequate security and surveillance equipment should be installed. As your equipment is susceptible to electrical damage from shocks, the correct antistatic flooring should be installed. Server rooms should have dedicated 24/7 air conditioning of the correct tonnage to support your current and growing needs (ideally with a backup unit in the event the other fails or is down for maintenance). The fire suppression system should be able to prevent fire damage without damaging the equipment and data it is protecting in the process. Advance planning and consideration of the amount of space allocated for on-going server maintenance, air flow, new server installations and server migration will all affect your company's up time and ease of transition. Complete Systems Design has specified and coordinated many server rooms making us an ideal source for your next office move or restructuring. CSD will handle the task to allow your IT team to concentrate on supporting you. SWITCHES Are there times when it seems like it would be faster if you literally carried a file to the server yourself? An extended pause that occurs when save is pressed and when the document closes often results from bandwidth issues. Companies that remember to upgrade their servers sometimes forget that the backbone of their network may be stifling the performance gains they could be achieving. The text-only files of yesterday have been replaced with rich content and frequently with multimedia files that can expand the files' sizes a thousand times or more. Outdated hubs and maus will not support heavy throughput efficiently. Switches provide fast and reliable transport for vast amounts of simultaneous data transmissions. It is not surprising, that access to the network is considerably faster while everyone is at lunch. The reason is that the data transmissions are not longer competing with the flood of other transmissions from the rest of the company during that time. Switches give direct data transmission between each person and their destination. Imagine the network traffic as a four way intersection on congested two-lane roads. By rerouting the traffic with an overpass or a highway with 20 lanes and bypassing the stop-and-go congestion, the commute time is drastically reduced. Complete Systems Design takes switches seriously as they are the backbone of your network. CSD has had experience with implementing some of the very first switches on the market 8 years ago, and we have kept abreast of current new developments with the very latest cost effective switch technology. We can estimate the correct backplane size for your company giving you the room for growth you need while making sure you don't purchase more or less than need. TELEPHONY SERVERS Is your company currently using or considering the use of computer equipment for automated telephone dialing or response? In a global economy the ability to quickly and efficiently communicate with thousands or millions of customers without significant manpower presents a substantial challenge. Companies are finding solutions that utilize computers to ease this burden. Implementing the right solution, allows for predictive dialing, call routing and automated responses. Telephony equipment can be a sizeable investment particularly if inadequate components are chosen. Selecting the right equipment and implementing it correctly is a challenge, even seasoned IT professionals. Configuring T1s or DS3s to match your software and hardware requirements is a time consuming and arduous task. Fortunately, Complete Systems Design has the experience of implementing telephony systems capable of supporting over one million calls per hour. CSD can bring that experience to your company so that you can focus on making your company grow. VPN Does your team travel for sales, conferences or vacation related trips? During those trips, access to updated files, contacts, applications, e-mail and network resources would often help out-of -the office transactions go smoother and assist quickly finalizing. Virtual Private Networks can allow your team remote access to critical systems securely and easily for those needing to conduct business on the road or from home. The right e-mail solution does not require an additional VPN(VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK) environment fore remote access; however the combination of VPN and terminal servers give your employees the ability to work from any location as if they were directly on the network! Terminal servers allow multiple employees simultaneous access to a remote desktop. The remote desktop is a window of all the resources (e.g. applications, databases, e-mail and files) available at the office. Employees can have access to all the critical information that allows them to be productive even when they are not physically present in the office. Complete Systems Design has coordinated the implementation of numerous VPN and terminal server solutions, tailored to the individual needs of each company. At CSD, we have the expertise to assist you with the planning and implementation of your solution. WAN Would you like to facilitate better communication between all of your remote offices? These days, as business structures become more complex, Wide Area Network (WAN) communications support far more activities than ever before. Previously, a WAN's primary function was for distributing e-mail to branch offices, now however, a WAN can be used as cost saving measure. For example, a WAN can be used as a single point of access for the Internet distributed from your headquarters to remote. This solution requires only one firewall reducing your internet expenses significantly. Applications run from the main office may be client-server based or for performance reasons accessed via a Terminal Server over the WAN. If your company has one or multiple remote offices you may have or are considering a implementing a WAN to save your company money and increase functionality in those offices. However, coordinating and implementing the right WAN solution can be confusing and challenging particularly if IT support is not available at those remote offices. While VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) may not perform dependably or quickly enough for some companies to fully rely on at this point, it is a could save your company thousands of dollars monthly on your telephone bill once the technology improves. Selecting the right equipment can ensure your ability to use this feature rapidly without replacing your current routers. Complete Systems Design has the expertise in selecting the right bandwidth and equipment to support your present and future needs. CSD can undertake this challenge and design the right solution so that all your remote offices can run efficiently. WEB SERVER Do you consider your company's web site as one of the most direct means of access for your current and potential customers? Web sites no longer only supply a company's phone number and address. Many web sites include detailed information to attract potential clients regarding a company's products, services, and also provide existing customers with on line account management features. As more and more offices and homes gain high speed Internet access the days of only static web sites are disappearing. Imagine commercials on TV trying to sell products using only static pictures and no sound. Ideas sometimes are best conveyed with visual examples. A web server must have several major components to effectively benefit a company. It must be reliable, expandable, protected from potential hackers, and be able to perform well in heavy traffic conditions. Your potential and existing customers' impression of your company and its client services will be enhanced by effective planning on services multiple clients simultaneously via your web site. If your equipment cannot handle the load, how will that reflect on your team's capability? Complete Systems Design has set up multiple web servers in various environments and will use that experience to give consumers more direct access to your company's products and services. Your web site is a 24/7 informational advertisement for your potential clients. A reliable web server informs potential buyers about your products and services and gives your existing clients access to resources even while you team is not on the clock. Can you afford to have a web server that is available only a part of the day? WIRELESS Have you ever needed access to the Internet or your network where there is no data or telephone jack available? The right information can make or break a deal; access to the Internet and your network can allow your team research to make informed decisions, improve your sales presentations, and close more deals. As major sales are often made at a client's site, the sales force may spend a great amount of time traveling and waiting at the airport. Fortunately, with wireless technology, the sales team can research their clients, prepare a sales analysis and figures during waiting periods, giving them the edge over the competition. Demand for wireless technology depends on an individual company's needs. Some organizations prefer not to rewire their conference rooms so wireless standards such as 802.11x or Bluetooth are potential options. Some clients need access to their network while they are traveling and but are unable to connect to a phone jack near their airport terminal, on the train or in the cab making dialup through 1xRTT a possible solution. There are many forms and standards of wireless connectivity including: Bluetooth, 802.11a (WiFi5), 802.11b (WiFi), 802.11g (soon to be released), and 1xRTT which are current leaders. The right choice for your company may be based on price, security, upgradeability, future validity, ease of use, speed, distance from the source, and exactly where users need to access data. Keeping abreast of these current technologies and the emergence of new features and standards can consume a great deal of an IT department's time. Complete Systems Design has the experience to analyze your needs and present you with solutions to meet your current and changing needs. CSD presents 'the big picture' so you can make an informed regarding the appropriate wireless technology for your company's future. WIRING How often does your network crash as a result of the 'rat's nest' your company calls a wiring closet? All too often, the last item considered in a networked system is serves as a physical conduit for all of network traffic within your company. Wiring installed many years ago may no longer be adequate to carry the bandwidth-intense data files used in today's business environment. Files containing pictures, sounds, or movies can bring a network to its knees if the required level of bandwidth isn't available. Faulty wiring, wiring installed over fluorescent lights and damaged wiring are just a few issues that can cause network slow-downs and crashes. Years ago companies installed token ring wiring hoping to get better bandwidth and performance. Today token ring is no longer a viable solution, as it is fraught with beaconing issues (causing network crashes), expensive wiring and exorbitant switch and network card expenses. Today the solution may involve implementing category 5e, or category 6 wiring, fiber or very likely, a combination of wiring and fiber. Each network platform has advantages; the key is to find the best combination. Selecting the right solution depends on your company's needs and goals. Complete Systems Design has coordinated multiple wiring projects and knows wich type of solution will be advantageous to your company's environment. CSD has the experience to know where and how many outlets would be required for telephone and data within your current or new office. Complete Systems Design plans for the future by making sure adequate conduit diameters allow for sufficient growth and changes. WORKSTATION HARDWARE Are you often frustrated by how much your system slows down when you open more than one application at a time? On average, a client has at least 6 applications open simultaneously although some may be running in the background and may not be noticeable. When you open up Windows, you are typically using at least 64 MB (megabytes) of RAM (Random Access Memory - a computer's main memory source). With a standard virus protection, firewall, instant messenger service and web browser running, an additional 64 MB of RAM is required. Another 64MB of RAM is consumed when Outlook and Word or Excel are opened. So before any of your documents are even accessed, at least 192 MB of RAM has been taken up! Once your computer runs out of memory to handle the open applications, the computer uses hard disk space to run the open applications. Hard drive performance is typically at least 1000% slower than RAM, making your applications running from it crawl when they could be running much faster. Once more than 50% of the hard drive's space is filled, the computer will begin to deliver notably lower performance. Newer versions of Windows and the newer software are more visually intensive, requiring improved video processors with more memory. Typically on board video cards do not deliver the performance your system would require for smooth multimedia applications such as dynamic web pages and video playback demand. Another major component in good multimedia and database performance is a reasonably adequate processor. Most companies are still using Pentium IIs even though adequate coding and processing power were not implemented until the Pentium 3 processors. It is not necessary to upgrade every time a new processor becomes available, but as software and operating systems change, it is usually best to be no more than three years behind the technology curve. Complete Systems Design realizes most companies only switch out their hardware every two to three years. CSD's goal is to help make sure your company implements the right hardware solution so that you can get good performance from your investment for the longest period possible. All too many companies, without sufficient IT experience with a long term vision, purchase the latest advertised special believing that may save money. Quickly however, they realize for the entire length of time they own that equipment, their employees suffer with tiny screens, slow processors, slow hard drives and inadequate disk space and soon they must replace their recently purchased equipment. CSD will ensure that you make the best equipment investment with the vendor of your choice. WORKSTATION OS How important is the operating system (OS) to your workstation's functionality and performance? Microsoft Windows has gone through many changes over the past several years -- although it has been our experience that the latest version is not always the greatest. Typically, with the release of a new operating system, service packs become available months later to correct 'glitches' in the program. Although some glitches should be corrected before the software is released, it may not be possible to correct all the glitches since an OS must be compatible with millions of possible hardware combinations and thousands of applications. Before implementing a new operating system, significant testing is required to make sure the OS is compatible with an organization's internal applications, software and hardware. Implementing it solely for the workstations that can support it results in the IT staff supporting multiple environments, which increases maintenance time, manpower requirements and expenses. Ideally, a company will have one operating system for all the workstations. This may require an upgrade or replacement of the older equipment, as it would be foolish to be running DOS or Windows 3.1 on the newer computers. One bit of analysis often overlooked is determining how well the new operating system can perform in a networked environment with networked applications. Frequently, companies fail to understand why an operating system or software that works fine at home doesn't in the work place. Networked environments significantly change the dynamic of an operating system as well as the numerous hardware combinations your company may have implemented over the years. Complete Systems Design has years of experience working with every version of Microsoft Windows. We have the experience and knowledge to select the set of parameters that will optimize your systems performance and reliability. CSD will make sure your hardware and software and internal applications will perform at their optimum level before implementing any solution. WORKSTATION SOFTWARE Have you received file attachments via e-mail you can't open? Often companies don't realize that failure to upgrade their word processor and other software reflects on their image. You send a negative impression of your company's commitment to current technology and business methods when you call your partners or clients and ask them to send the file in an older format because your system cannot open it. Not all software requires a purchase for use. A workstation should have a copy of Acrobat Reader, a zipping application, Internet Explorer 6 (with the appropriate security patches), DirectX 8.1 or 9 and the most current media players such as QuickTime and Windows Media Player. All of these applications are free of charge and allow your company to view documents on the Internet as well as documents from your potential clients and partners. Many companies do not patch their existing software even though those application patches are available at no cost. The software patches add to the stability, security and functionality of the applications your company has already purchased. Selecting the right applications to enhance your company's efficiency and image is a challenging task as there are thousands of software vendors, each with numerous revisions of their own software on the market. Complete Systems Design understands the importance of selecting the right software that complements and interfaces with your unique existing set of applications. We will assist you in selecting and implementing the best solution for your company's continued growth. Complete Systems Design has the experience implementing the right solutions for a wide variety of business needs including: accounting, antivirus, contact management, databases, e-mail, faxing, graphics, multimedia, optical character recognition, personal firewalls, project management, scanning, spreadsheet packages, voice recognition, web development and word processing. CSD can help your company avoid unnecessary purchases and select the products that are the most beneficial to your company.