ES3 system administrators and technical support staff provide a host of services to ensure that a business enterprise functions smoothly. Information systems are maintained for high availability and optimal performance. Data is maintained to have the highest levels of integrity and recoverability. Users are supported to ensure their productivity with the information systems needed to perform their jobs.
An operating enterprise cannot function properly if the computers—including network access, e-mail, and all custom software applications—are not running smoothly. Network communication is vitally important. ES3 Network Administrators can establish and implement appropriate network and security procedures to ensure optimal network speed and secure communication. Our staff has assisted in the establishment and migration to fiber backbones, sub-ITNs and VLANs.
We support Windows NT Server domain systems, Windows 2000 active directory structured networks, Novell networks,and Appletalk networks. ES3 support staff personnel have installed and managed print services that include HP JetDirect TCP/IP printing, NT print services, Novell print services, and Appletalk printing services.
ES3 staff has qualified systems through the DoD Certification and Accreditation process for more than three years. We are well acquainted with the process and security requirements as determined by the type of server being run (e.g. file server, domain server, application server, data server, web server) and its operating system.
In order for web-based or client/server software applications to function optimally and with good reliability and availability, the ES3 system administrators maintain, upgrade, and optimize the network hub equipment and network interface cards in user machines. ES3 staff is currently under contract with some of our customers to provide around the clock support, with ES3 staff reachable by phone, email, pager, or cell phone 24-hours a day.
ES3 staff performs much of the infrastructure work and maintenance during off-hours so that the user’s daily work can continue uninterrupted and that work stoppages are avoided. In the event of a virus attack or infrastructure failure during these off-hours, ES3 will work to ensure network availability before the user work force arrives. ES3 support personnel understand the importance of network access during work hours, and will work to maximize network performance during this time.
ES3 system administrators support such e-mail systems as and Microsoft Outlook/Exchange Novell GroupWise. E-mail is extremely critical to a business enterprise. E-mail systems are often targeted by viruses and file corruptions which destroy desktop computers, damage the integrity of information systems, and cripple a business enterprise and its network infrastructure.
ES3 network staff quickly and efficiently resolve e-mail problems. We immediately locate and implement fixes to new software viruses. We notify and warn users of anticipated problems and if software and hardware damage has already occurred, we promptly rectify these problems and get the user operational as quickly as possible. We implement and maintain virus protection schemes. We perform daily virus scans of all machines on a network and verify up-to-date virus signatures. Our scans “capture” and quarantine viruses infiltrating a network by way of e-mails, floppy disks, worms or network break-ins.
Backups are essential for minimizing loss of work and data. Products such as NetBackup or BackupExec from Veritas and ArcServe from Network Associates are backup software application commonly installed and implemented by ES3 system administrators. These backup applications along with standard backup procedures and policies provide a robust and easy to use environment for both Windows and Unix operating systems.
ES3 has taken the approach that not only server backups are required, but depending on the situation, it may also be necessary to backup user desktop computers. This enables the support team to quickly rebuild a desktop computer if a disk drive failure or accidental file deletion occurs. Full system backups (of the entire computer file system) are performed monthly and differential backups (new data since the last full system backup) are performed nightly. Differential backups should not be confused with incremental backups, which only backup the new data from the previous incremental backup. During a computer system restoration, an incremental backup system requires reading the full system backup tape and each incremental backup tape that was written since the full system backup. This may require the restoration from numerous backup tapes to bring the system back to a condition just prior to its failure. Relying on multiple media for full data recovery is dangerous, not to mention the failure rate is high. In contrast, a restoration from differential backups requires the full system backup tape and the last differential backup prior to the computer failure, only two tapes and a much shorter time to get a system back into operation. The disadvantage of the differential backup is that, as time increases since the last full backup, more and more tape is necessary for each differential performed, but this is a minor cost compared to the time savings gained to get a user back into operation.
ES3 system administration also implements and maintains mirrored servers or clustered servers where appropriate. Server mirroring or clustering provides redundancy of data across multiple servers, guaranteeing 99.9% server and data availability.
ES3 database administrators typically maintain Oracle databases by spreading the Oracle control files, used to rebuild the database in case of corruption or deletion, across several Veritas RAID Volumes. In the event of hardware failure, the Oracle database can be quickly brought back online on new hardware or repaired on existing hardware when the failure is corrected. This type of support ensures crucial data and application availability and reliability.
ES3 understands that as backup and recovery technology improves and changes, so must our efforts in keeping up with the technology. The staff will improve and integrate new methods as needed or required to ensure the availability, reliability, and integrity of the data they provide and support.
For come of our customers, ES3 provides a Software Support Help Desk and web site. Our Help Desk is staffed during our customer hours of 5:30am to 5:30pm. ES3 staff uses physical network and functional network monitoring hardware and software.
ES3 user support staff makes user training a highest priority. A well-trained user community is much easier and less costly to support. We provide and encourage group training sessions and one-on-one training. We develop and provide practical user manuals and single page cheat sheets for quick and easy user reference.
| 
