IT Help

[ChrisN.Lewis]

I have a small company in Singapore. Our main server and IT support was in the US. Due to the time differences and unavailability of IT support I want to move everything to Singapore. Does anyone know a good IT support company/person?

[Strong Eagle]

Are you talking about hosted services? If not, why would you host your own server?

[ChrisN.Lewis]

I'm no IT guy. We had a secure server in the states that our office server talked to. All computers world wide were backed up to the main server. We are splitting from the US operation so we need to reconfigure our sever and add an means to back it up.

[Strong Eagle]

OK... I get that you are not an IT guy. Here are the essentials that you need to consider.

a) What applications are you running on your server? For example, do you have server based accounting systems? Where is your email being hosted?
b) What services are you running on your server? For example, are you hosting websites? Do you need to use Microsoft SQL server? Are you running in a domain that requires user authentication?
c) How much downtime can you sustain before your business is impacted? Half hour? Three hours? All day? What do you have in mind for disaster recovery if your server is stolen out of your office?

You have three basic choices for setting up a new server. You can buy a box and put it into your office. You'll need space, aircon, and if you are hosting websites, robust communications. You'll need software, licenses, and someone to set it all up. I know of one firm that caters to small business... no doubt there are others... and be cautious of whom you select because far too many server vendor's sphere of knowledge is rather limited. Be aware that building redundancy into your hardware adds expense... but if you are concerned about uptime, you may wish to consider a much more expensive server with dual power supplies, etc, or dual servers such that if one fails, the other carries on.

Or... you can have your server hosted at a mega datacenter in Singapore... there are several, and usually you choose an ISP who works with the datacenter. In this case, you have your own dedicated server in a server farm that is managed by the datacenter. They handle updates for the operating systems, and they handle hardware failures. You are still managing your server in terms of users, permissions, software, etc... it's just not in your office.

Or... you can rely on cloud services. Amazon web services, Google, and Microsoft Azure, amongst others, offer you computing that is virtualized... you pay for CPU cycles, for memory, for storage, for backup... you see a single computer in your office, and the cloud provider handles everything behind the scenes.

You can see that you have not asked a simple question. I don't know enough about your operations and computer usage to provide a definitive answer, but I can give you the name of the company I have worked with in Singapore.

[x9200]

I'm no IT guy. We had a secure server in the states that our office server talked to. All computers world wide were backed up to the main server. We are splitting from the US operation so we need to reconfigure our sever and add an means to back it up.

Are you in any conflict situation with the US counterpart because of this split up? If not, talk to the US IT guys to arrange it for you. They know best what is needed. Let them find the right SG based company or arrange it the way acceptable for you. Surely it can be arranged from the States. Pay them for it - you will have to pay for it anyway, and again, they are those who know your situation and your needs.

[ChrisN.Lewis]

We are just running Microsoft applications. We have a Dell PowerEdge T100 Server in the office. The IT people in the US are useless due to the time difference and I have no idea what my US counterparts are telling them. All I know is that for the past two weeks every time I ask them to fix something I have more problems. I believe we'll retain the US structure for E-mail and web-site. CLewisworldwide.com. Because we have to sign Non-disclosure Agreements, (NDA's), I'm not to keen on the cloud or offsite data storage. I think we have the basics, just some help in setting it up and assisting us in maintaining it. What is the name of the company you suggest?

Thank you for your help.

Chris Lewis

[x9200]

Sorry, I can not recommend anyone - I am normally doing such things by myself and I am not for hire, but why not to try, or at least enquire, what the bigger guys can offer? I mean Dell, IBM, HP. They do this type of work. The only question is whether it is the most optimal solution for a small company.

[ecureilx]

We are just running Microsoft applications. We have a Dell PowerEdge T100 Server in the office. The IT people in the US are useless due to the time difference and I have no idea what my US counterparts are telling them. All I know is that for the past two weeks every time I ask them to fix something I have more problems. I believe we'll retain the US structure for E-mail and web-site. CLewisworldwide.com. Because we have to sign Non-disclosure Agreements, (NDA's), I'm not to keen on the cloud or offsite data storage. I think we have the basics, just some help in setting it up and assisting us in maintaining it. What is the name of the company you suggest?

Thank you for your help.

Chris Lewis

I did PM you some info.

There are quite a few local companies specialising in SME support, and sell service by hours.

[Strong Eagle]

These are the people I worked with quite a few years ago... it has been quite some time... do your homework... http://www.pasr.com.sg/

A Dell PE T100 is absolutely the lowest end, entry level server you can buy from Dell. It has zero redundancies built into it. You have to pay to have Windows server. You need to consider backups.

Your NDA's and fears of the cloud are unwarranted. Your best best is a hosted virtual private server with someone like Singtel (probably via an ISP), or get your own in-house server setup with virtualization so that you can replicate in the cloud for disaster recovery.

You do not want to have everything onsite with an entry level server that is little more than a desktop computer. You must consider what you are going to do about uptime and data loss.

[ChrisN.Lewis]

Thanks all

[Strong Eagle]

ChrisN.Lewis... just so you know... I used to manage large scale infrastructure projects in Aisa... my last was the rollout of 17,000 PC's in 17 countries along with call center support in Manila and onsite support in more than 200 offices.

Now, I am the IT grunt for an accounting office of 25... downtime means the loss of billable revenue, and the potential for penalties for failure to file returns on time. I have experienced both ends of the infrastructure environment. The choices I have to support these users are amazing.

The landscape has changed dramatically for small business in the last few years. Whereas your choices a decade ago were to have your own server inhouse, or rent time on an ISP server, your choices have exploded. If you're not an IT guy, then the best I can recommend is "get an IT guy"... and not a techo nut who wants to talk to you about technology... but one who will talk to you about your business needs and how best to satisfy them.

You haven't mentioned your budget... and that does play a role in what you can get.

[Strong Eagle]

ChrisN.Lewis, after sleeping on it, and since you are only running Microsoft applications, your best bet is to get all your users onto an Office 365 Business Premium subscription.

This gets you Exchange email which integrates seamlessly with your mobile devices for calendar, contacts, and email. It also lets you easily wipe a mobile device if it is lost, and of course, your email is archived in the cloud.

You also get all the Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc) automatically delivered to up to 5 devices for each user. The software is installed locally (no cloud access required) and automatically updated. You also get quite of bit of storage for each user so that documents can be stored in the cloud.

I don't know who supplies such services in Singapore but you can see an example at this website. https://products.office.com/en-us/busin ... &WT.srch=1