Monitoring and Response

Provides a proactive monitoring of key systems to avert a failure, when possible, along with a comprehensive plan should a threat become inevitable eliminating disruption in network availability.

Key Benefits

• Event filtering
• Application-specific alerts
• Focused on 9-1-1
• Reviewing the Monitoring and Response system

Main software components used to implement Monitoring and Response

• A server Agent application, which monitors events on servers
• A workstation Agent application, which monitors events on workstations
• A Console application, which collects, filters and uploads events

Virus Protection

Virus Protection optimizes system security without preoccupying personnel or compromising call center operations. We have partnered with a best-of-class antivirus service provider to distribute critical updates through the SMC, which eliminates manual delivery of these updates and ensures they are received in a timely, efficient manner.

Key Benefits

• Continuously certifies its products
• Completely automated distribution of antivirus definition updates
• Automatic detection and removal of various computer viruses
• Immediate distribution of antivirus updates

Understanding the Virus Protection system setup

The Virus Protection application suite is loaded onto the Console server by our System Staging. The Virus Protection client software is then deployed from the Console server to each Cassidian Communications server and workstation at the call center. Once this deployment is completed, the Virus Protection service will be activated.

Understanding the Virus Protection update process

Virus definition updates are downloaded to the SMC, which then distributes them to each emergency call center. The Virus Protection client applications will automatically check with the site's Console Server to see if new updates are available, and download them as required.

Patch Management

Microsoft® consistently issues security patches designed to "fix" operating system vulnerabilities. For emergency call center operations, it is imperative these patches be adequately tested for compatibility and quickly implemented for application integrity. Patch Management helps ensure data integrity, software compliance and system security at all times.

Key Benefits

• Continuously certifies its products
• Certifies and evaluates each OS patch
• Assists with setup for managing patch deployment
• Tracks and reports on successful deployments

Understanding the Patch Management system setup

The Patch Management application is loaded onto the Console server by our System Staging. Similar to Monitoring and Response, the SMC initiates deployment of the Patch Management software application from the server to other approved workstations and servers at the site. Once this deployment is completed, the Patch Management service will be activated.

Understanding the Patch Management Update Process

Prior to the deployment of a Microsoft OS patch, we review the patch to determine its relevance to our applications, potential impact to customer networks and testing requirements. Once a patch is certified by our System Verification and Test group, the Managed Services team will create a software package for deployment, which includes the patches to be deployed and applicable deployment rules for each patch. The Console server will automatically check for new patch updates, typically on a daily basis. If new patches are found on the SMC Application Server, they are downloaded to the Console server at the site, based on an agreed-upon schedule. Because many update packages require a reboot, these patch updates will remain on the Console server until an SMC specialist initiates deployment to each of the clients. This deployment is only begun after obtaining approval from your site or the appropriate maintenance partner.

Disaster Recovery

Protection against every possible malware attack or system failure is not always possible. By partnering with a leading disaster recovery software provider, we offer automatic data "saves" and real-time "snapshots" of all remotely monitored systems to a separate backup system that is located at the customer site. This enables quick restoration of workstations and servers enabling operations to continue with minimal downtime, even in the event of a major failure.

Key Benefits

• Continuously certifies its products
• Designs, deploys and configures the solution
• Efficiently utilizes storage capacity by storing only one copy of each unique system file
• Protects valuable data (i.e., call records, configuration files) in the case of a hardware failure or data corruption
• Improves availability by drastically reducing restoration time by eliminating laborious CD-shuffle installation processes

Understanding the Disaster Recovery system setup

The Disaster Recovery application is loaded onto the NMS Server by our System Staging. The Disaster Recovery client software is then deployed from the NMS server to each server and workstation that needs to be backed up.

Understanding the backup process

The Disaster Recovery application is typically configured to perform an automatic weekly backup of each subscribing server and workstation. One of the significant benefits of the Disaster Recovery software is that it supports incremental backups saving storage space and providing for a faster backup and restore process. The status of the backup process is stored in the SQL database and reported back to the SMC. The NMS server is typically configured to store one month of backups (four copies, if backups are being saved on a weekly basis).

Understanding the restoration process

If a server or workstation fails, the most recent backup of the device can be easily retrieved from the NMS server in order to restore the failed device. Utilizing the restoration process is much faster than reinstalling and configuring every application that was installed on each machine. This process also ensures that all application-specific files will be restored, which would not be possible if you were to recover a system by reinstalling and configuring each application.