Los Angeles IT Company Blows The Shutters Off San Bernadino Window Fashions Company

Oct. 21, 2011 - PRLog -- Ontario, California. Jim and Francie are beaming as they show us what’s been done lately to make their computer network sing. “We knew we were ready for a much-needed technology makeover. Things were beginning to slow down quite considerably. We needed fresh thinking, new ideas and a support system that we could rely on. Stuart came in with all of that and more”.

Stuart Le Fevre is the founder of Highland MSP and now the Technology Manager for Yunlong USA. Jim hired HMSP to lead the transition of their ageing systems from old hardware to new. But by bringing in Microsoft’s latest and greatest all-in-one solution, ‘Small Business Server 2011’; they got more than ever imagined.

“Jim’s services were everywhere and out of control. Under-performing POP mailboxes, completely befuddled public domain and DNS structure scattered to the four corners of the Internet. No warranties left on any hardware. Spam and slow performing computers ran amok”. Stuart Le Fevre, Founder HSMP

The main thrust of the project was to install a brand new Dell Power Edge running SBS 2011. This version of SBS has some superb built-in features like Exchange 2010 and SharePoint Foundation. It was the perfect fit for future proofing Jim and Francie’s office network. Stuart adds, ‘Be sure you run it on as fast hardware as you can provide though. It’s a hungry beast’.

So what else happened to get the network to running to the high standard it runs at today? In Stuart’s opinion, it all about fault tolerance and redundancy. Here, he lays bare to what he considers are exactly the right ingredients to get business really moving in today’s SMB world.

HARDWARE
Dell Power Edge Server.
•   Get high (Front Side Bus) speed RAM and SAS hard drives.
•   Get the Dell Enterprise Remote  Access Controller for lights-out management
•   Get the Power Edge pre-configure RAID 1 RAID 5 – this is crucial to drive SBS 2011
•   Built-in RD 1000 removable backup supports up to 1TB per cartridge
•   Dell (or APC Smart UPS) UPS with Network Management Card, again, for lights-out management

Sonicwall Network Security Appliance
•   For gateway security and web content filtering.
•   For redundant broadband accessibility

SOFTWARE
Small Business Server 2011
•   Sharing and collaboration with SharePoint Foundation.
•   State-of-the-art messaging with Exchange 2010 (best run with Outlook 2010)
•   Bare Metal server recovery capability with SBS 2011 Backup Wizard
•   Remote Web Access enables users to access their office PCs, shared folders, email and SharePoint
•   Server 2008 R2 with very useful roles like Hyper-V

Postini Mail Security
•   Inbound message filtering for spam
•   Inbound message virus and threat protection

Backup Exec for Small Business 2011
•   Good all-round solution for backup and disaster recovery protection for data stored on the server, MS Exchange, SharePoint and workstations

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Highland MSP is an IT services company with a mission to provide SMBs in and around Los Angeles and the City of Bristol, with a trusted partner in technology. The company is a Microsoft Certified Partner specialising in Network Infrastructure Solutions. They provide clients with end-to-end IT management services for a fixed monthly cost.

The company's integrated managed IT service plans are a basic package of IT services which ensures that all of the components of your network are maintained and your data is readily available with minimal downtime and minimum exposure to risk. Helping clients grow their business faster with peace of mind, so if something breaks, they're covered!

They're also a value added reseller of the award-winning 3CX voice-over-IP phone system and they carry an 'a la carte' menu of hosted enterprise-class Software-as-a-Service including;

• Highland Hosted Outlook-Exchange Email
• Hosted Blackberry Enterprise Server
• Hosted SharePoint