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I’m Phillip Rogers, CIO/CTO at Protocol Networks. Schedule a call with me so we can discuss your tech issues and needs.
Managed Services FAQs
At Protocol Networks, our Managed Services allow clients to confidently move forward with their business, knowing they have a partner monitoring their networks and ready to respond to any disruption. When new clients begin to consider our services, however, we do encounter some common questions. Here are our answers to some of the inquiries we receive most often.
How is your engineering staff structured?
Protocol Networks got started as an IT engineering and architectural organization, and we still maintain the benefits of that starting point. Within our organization, our business is very flat, with a server team, a cloud team and a network team, each headed by a leader to whom the engineers report. Our senior staff members remain intimately involved in projects, allowing for quick and efficient decisions. Our structure keeps our clients up and running.
Do you have a Network Operations Center (NOC)?
Yes, we have a Network Operations Center established within a TierPoint facility, which provides us and our clients with these advantages: space, reliability, connectivity, security, product availability and compliance.
What can I expect when partnering with Protocol Networks?
You can expect a transparent relationship dedicated to helping you align your IT with your business strategy. We regularly communicate with clients outside of potential alerts and issues. Our conversations help us understand your business and infrastructure. We use insights from these conversations to offer recommendations and insights based on your strategic goals. If a problem arises, you can count on our experts to resolve the issue and get you fully operational.While we have professionals who respond to crises, that is only part of the relationship. We build a relationship based on supporting the direction that you want to go with your business.
What are the benefits of Protocol Networks’ Managed Services?
At Protocol Networks, our primary monitoring tool is ScienceLogic, an enterprise-class monitoring application used by Fortune 100 companies. With it deployed in our environment, even smaller companies can take advantage of this more robust technology. We have also built our business as an engineering and architecture organization. When a problem escalates, our professionals bring together their in-depth knowledge of the involved systems and the strategic direction of your business. The result: the problem is not only solved, but also with your business goals in mind.
Do you have any Managed Services clients I can speak with?
We always have organizations you can talk to. If you want to speak with those who use our services, please reach out to us for a recommendation that aligns with your organizational goals, size and vertical so you can get the most accurate representation of how we can serve you.
What are the benefits of Protocol Networks’ Managed Services?
AAt Protocol Networks, our primary monitoring tool is ScienceLogic, an enterprise-class monitoring application used by Fortune 100 companies. With it deployed in our environment, even smaller companies can take advantage of this more robust technology. We have also built our business as an engineering and architecture organization. When a problem escalates, our professionals bring together their in-depth knowledge of the involved systems and the strategic direction of your business. The result: the problem is not only solved, but also with your business goals in mind.
Do you have any Managed Services clients I can speak with?
We always have organizations you can talk to. If you want to speak with those who use our services, please reach out to us for a recommendation that aligns with your organizational goals, size and vertical so you can get the most accurate representation of how we can serve you.
What kind of network and server technology do you support?
We support any commercial off-the-shelf products that are within their usable lifecycle. We have experience with most network and server technology, and we will be happy to review your technology and make recommendations based on industry best practices.Note, however, that we are not developers and do not support applications developed internally.
What if I already have an internal IT staff?
Most of the clients we work with already have an internal IT staff, so that can be the optimal arrangement. We don’t want to replace the internal IT staff you have, but instead, provide managed services that allow these individuals to focus more time on IT tasks essential to the organization and less time on maintaining and monitoring the existing infrastructure they have built out. We appreciate working with IT staff that operate close to the business infrastructure in place.
What does Protocol Networks’ Managed Services offering include?
We respond to alerts that come into your business across multiple platforms, apps and devices, helping you minimize downtime and respond to potential threats as they emerge. Each alert goes into our network operation center, where professionals triage it and then hand it off to the appropriate group to get it resolved efficiently. Our business keeps yours running smoothly by managing each alert and providing services until those alerts go back to clear. For example, say you have an “unavailable” server alert. This signal gets fired off to the network operation center, where technicians attempt to log into the server and evaluate the problem. If they need to troubleshoot it, they do so to try and rectify the situation. If they can’t, it will escalate to the network engineers.
What certifications or accreditations does your company have?
These are some of the certifications held by members of our engineering teams: Networking CCIE Routing & Switching x3 CCIE Service Provider CCNP CCNP Voice CCDP CCNA CCDA JNCIA BCNE HP MASE HP ASE HP AIS CCSA Meraki CMNA Security Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Administrator (PROTOCOL NETWORKSCSA) Check Point Certified Security Administrator (CCSA) NGX R65 CCIE Security CCSP Cloud AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate AWS Certified Developer – Associate Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals Microsoft Certified Azure Network Engineer Associate
What regions do you service?
While most of our customers are in New England, we have worked with organizations worldwide.
Should my organization partner with someone for 24/7 services or only 5 days/week for business hours?
We offer both 24/7 services and business hour services. However, we find that 24/7 services are significantly more cost-effective for businesses. The difference in cost is minimal, particularly when compared to the benefit of having someone monitoring your network when you and your IT staff are off the clock. Only having monitoring or help desk services during business hours leaves your business open to risk, and problems could potentially go unidentified for an entire weekend.
What is another benefit that monitoring programs provide?
Our monitoring services not only protect you in the present, but they also provide support for the future. We look at your current infrastructure and point you in the directions you should consider as an organization. We can provide those project services as needed, but the conversations about business direction and suggestions for development are part of our standard services.
Do you do project work?
Yes, we are happy to do project work for clients, even for companies that are not existing clients.If an existing client hires us for a project, we also come with the significant advantage of already having a good understanding of their infrastructure and business operations. Dissecting and understanding this part of a business is a substantial part of the tasks performed by an outside contractor.
How do you handle access to my organization?
Protocol Networks strives to monitor infrastructure using the least level of access required to provide you with quality services. We will only ask for privileges and access that are absolutely necessary to monitor your system or complete our tasks.
Do you provide cybersecurity services?
No, we do not offer security services directly. As we often build the network and infrastructure, we find it works best when we partner with quality organizations we trust to do security services.