Everyday at SAGE, we face many of the same problems our clients do in managing and getting the most out of technology, how to be more productive, or just to work smarter.  For us, the success of our OnSight Managed IT Service created a challenge: how to perform daily checks on over a 100 servers initially, with scores more to follow. We needed a way to quickly determine a server’s health at a glance, especially when it is one of hundreds of servers being watched. To meet SAGE’s high quality of customer service, we needed verification of daily checks for OnSight managers and clients. When other solutions in the marketplace didn’t meet the challenges we were facing, we developed our own: Sentinel.

Sentinel is lightweight agent technology with a dashboard web interface that allows us to remotely perform daily server checks on scores of servers throughout our client network. This not only saves significant time but it improves our ability to spot potential trouble before it results in downtime. Our engineers can quickly discern a server’s health based on 6 indicators and log entries, without the laborious task of remotely connecting to the server and navigating through countless administrative screens. Furthermore, Sentinel collects data throughout the day, displayed day and night on a web

interface for our engineers and managers to monitor regardless of location. So even if after the daily check has been completed, should a drive suddenly fill up or an Exchange mail queue grow exponentially, SAGE will be aware and respond.

When we began offering OnSight service, SAGE President George Nicholson demanded we exceed our already high standard of service. Daily server checks are crucial to maintaining a well managed network, and since putting an engineer at every clients site wasn’t realistic, Engineering Services Manager Lisa Johnson needed a way for SAGE engineers to check servers without physically touching each one. SAGE’s Chief Engineer, Doug Daniel, and head software architect, Matt Daniel, (yes, they are related) teamed up to develop a small footprint software agent that resides on a host server to handle the monitoring. The agent uses secure protocols to communicate with the client’s servers, and then passes that...

:: continued

SAGE provided valuable input to the benchmarking study “Best Practices in Public Website and Client Extranet Design” by ITSMA, the Information Technology Services Marketing Association (May 2006). Along with four other companies, SAGE was interviewed for its insight into best practices for professional service firms' use of extranets and web sites in their marketing efforts. Much SAGE wisdom has filtered through the report, including the need for extranet tools to integrate with the normal workflow of users, and using extranets to build strong bonds between the client and firm.

SAGE develops and sells MindPort, an advanced extranet application that makes sharing documents and collaboration simple through tight integration with common desktop applications like Outlook and Word. Organizing information in a MindPort project is simply managed using familiar, customizable folders and flexible tags. Best of all, MindPort is built around the person: easily survey the newest documents across all your projects, plan your day, and stay current on the latest developments.

:: continued

New Partner:
DS3 Datavaulting

SAGE is partnering with DS3 DataVaulting to bring our clients into the future of network back-up, recovery and archive services: online and offsite back-up solutions. SAGE chose to partner with DS3 DataVaulting over other online back-up providers for their first-class mix of service, reliability, usability and value add. “DS3 DataVaulting is an excellent complement to our OnSight Managed IT Services solution,” says SAGE President George Nicholson....

:: continued

At Sage, we are dedicated to doing all we can to protect the integrity of your systems, at every level - from the individual workstations to the servers and the network. The Internet has come of age as the ultimate tool for tasks such as marketing, communications, and global commerce. But with all the good comes the bad: malicious parties abusing the system for their own gains. Studies show that new and more complex threats are constantly emerging.

The financial implications of this “malware” can be staggering. The costs due to damage and recovery for every outbreak within the office can be high —well into the thousands—depending on the severity of the infection. Below I describe some common and new threats lurking on the Internet, and helpful preventive measures for both administrators and users to safeguard their computers and network from these threats.

From advertisers selling their life-enhancing schemes to criminals intent on stealing bank account numbers and other sensitive data, life in cyberspace is far from safe. Password stealers and worms have replaced file infectors and script viruses. Spyware and adware programs hide in website pop-up ads or seemingly innocuous downloads. Unsecured network shared folders, the wide use of P2P (peer-to-peer) applications (Kazaa and BitTorrent clients), and instant messaging programs typically account for 15 – 20 % of threats to networks. Recently, unsuspecting IM users were surprised to learn that while chatting from their...

:: continued

Following are some of the recent projects SAGE has completed. Please click on the links to learn more about the products and services mentioned.

SAGE MindPort: new MindPort ASP clients added.

SAGE OnSight: new SAGE OnSight clients added.

Technology Migration/Document Management. For a Washington, DC law firm with about 200 users, we upgraded the image on their workstations to Windows XP, including integration with Interwoven’s Worksite document management system.

Wireless Network: SAGE has completed the design phase of a Wireless Network Design and Implementation project for a large firm of over 1200 users.

:: continued