No matter how well designed and carefully conceived your network is, the stresses of adverse demands coupled with the constant prospect of component failure necessitates continuous monitoring and maintenance to ensure service continuity and avert commercially harmful downtime. Our network care plans are designed to help you minimise disruptive events by avoiding them in the first place through proactive monitoring. When such events do occur, you can rest assured that the effects will be minimised, and every step will be taken to avoid a repeat occurrence.
Getting Started
Stage 1- Network Discovery
As a network evolves over time, with components continuously added and withdrawn, the perception of the network often strays somewhat from its actuality. Therefore, it’s necessary to perform what we call a ‘Network Discovery’ – essentially a full network audit – before we can make any changes or begin implementing a care plan.
The audit consists of 3 layers:
- Layer 1 – we Look at how users gain access to the internet and other services.
- Layer 2 – We review the network layout and identify the critical hardware necessary for network function.
- Layer 3 – We review all services and how they are implemented.
Stage 2 – Implement quick fixes and present the audit’s findings
The Network Discovery acts as a stock-taking exercise that allows us to identify the quickest and easiest fixes that might improve network functionality. For example, at this stage we can identify redundant components that may be posing unnecessary security risks. We can identify services that are underutilised and could therefore be removed to make efficiency gains. We can also look for areas where complexity can feasibly be reduced and identify corners of the network that might benefit from increased resilience.
At this stage we can also contrast the findings of the Discovery audit with the aspirations of the client and suggest any changes to the network that will allow it to evolve in line with future business strategy and demand expectations.
Stage 3 – Our Care Plans – Long-term support and maintenance for your network
Once we understand your network and the ‘loose ends’ have been tied up we can consider a strategy for ongoing monitoring and maintenance. We offer 4 levels of care plan depending on the level of support you require, ranging from supplementary support through monitoring designed to keep your internal IT team informed, right through to complete management of your network – our most complete offering whereby we assume a network management role.
We implement network monitoring at device/port level while also considering where the device sits in the broader context of the network. This lets us consider dependency relationships – ‘which services require this device to operate?’ However, we can go further than monitoring alone, as several of our care plans also offer device maintenance. Our maintenance involves ensuring device configurations and software are up to date and maintained to reduce vulnerabilities, maximise resilience and guarantee the best possible quality of service.
Introducing our Care Plans
Monitor – The Tools you need to monitor your Network
Our entry-level plan gives your team the tools and insights required for proactive network management. This plan puts your team in charge of monitoring and maintenance, but our network support team can be on hand if you need them dependent on your service agreement. Monitor+ Offers the addition of device configuration backups.
Essential – We monitor, you remain in the driving seat
The ‘Essential’ plan involves our team performing the monitoring of your network while your team retains ultimate responsibility for maintenance. We keep an eye on all network devices and actively get in touch when we encounter insights that require action – we’ll let you know about security vulnerabilities immediately and where you should perform patch updates. We log all changes so you can quickly revert to previous settings following erroneous alterations to your network. Our monitoring platform features over one thousand modules that enable automated configuration and application-level monitoring.
Preferred – We monitor, we maintain
The ‘preferred’ plan incorporates all the features of the ‘Essential’ plan only this time we take a more instrumental role in maintenance. We will work more autonomously to keep your network functioning at its best. Instead of you getting in touch with us for support, we’ll contact you when issues arise and give you status updates as we take immediate steps to remedy the situation.
Elite – We monitor, we maintain, we implement changes, we manage your network
This is our most extensive care plan. This plan features all the features of essential and preferred, but with Elite we can also adopt responsibility for routine network administration tasks as well is the implementation of changes and upgrades. Elite lets you outsource network management to a degree that suits you – we can supplement, partially replace or even fully replace your service team and allow your personnel to focus on other matters.
We’re ISUMO
We design, build and support complex network infrastructures that deliver the security, scalability and availability that your organisation and users demand. Working as part of your team, supplementing their skills or leading them to achieve exceptional results.
Contact us or give us a call on 0207 871 1476.
