Nonstop Security, Maintenance and Upgrades

In order to provide comprehensive security, maintenance, and upgrade service to all of the clients, the servers are supported through a complex system. It is a combination of software and human manpower that has been a behind the scenes savior of our clients servers. It allows you to focus on building the business. Many of the items that we manage would take precious hours out of your day if you had to deal with them yourself or be very expensive when handed over to an employee or consultant. Some issues could take hours or days to rectify.

Benefits:

• Manages dozens of issues you never even know about
• Servers stay at peak performance
• Eliminates the need for expensive technical employees
• Eliminates the added costs that these problems would incur

The security system is comprised of 3 main programs. All run separately of each other, but working together to give you the highest level of security, monitoring, and updates that you have come to expect when running your business.

Proactive PortStarter

A server “talks” to the outside world via ports. These ports are the only way in and out of a typical server, so they are an extremely integral part of any online presence. Technicians monitors these ports, checking to make sure they are available to end-users, and any legitimate outside consumer. This port monitoring is constant. If any port is closed, the Proactive PortStarter follows an algorithm to decide exactly why the port is closed. It automatically takes proactive steps to stabilize the box and reset the ports. The algorithm is so smart that it knows when it is in over its head and when to send the diagnosis to a support person to intervene. ProActive PortStarter can monitor any ports that you need monitored. The following ports are on by default as they are crucial to your day to day operations and are monitored closely:

Server Stabilizer

This application will monitor all processes running on the server and react accordingly, so as to keep the server running efficiently and securely. It will find runaway processes, which could potentially “lock up” the server, and kill those processes. It will monitor CPU time, hack attempts are located and killed, it will find scripts that may be harmful to the server’s operations, and is also able to reboot the server if necessary.

We also include anti-spam tools that help alleviate the hassles of fighting these unwanted emails. The Spam Scanner will locate known spamware that may be running on the system, it will find CGI scripts that contribute to the spam dilemma, and can even find spamming tools embedded in html!

Server Updates

Nothing keeps the server more stable and secure than keeping the software and Operating System up to date. Data Center engineers work diligently to assess the stability of new software releases and security patches. Frequently, senior staff compiles their own patches and enhancements to open source software. These enhancements are tested by a team of seven Quality Control Engineers on the test network.

After being fully tested and qualified, new software releases and patches are installed on the servers. It is set by default to automatically update the following:

• Apache (Secure and regular)
• MySql
• Perl
• PHP
• Sendmail
• FTP
• Linux RedHat Operating System
• Linux RedHat Kernel
• SSH
• FrontPage Extensions