#system architects

What Is A System Architect in 2022?

A system architect is a professional who helps to design, build and manage systems. System architects work with a variety of different stakeholders, including business managers, software developers, and information technology (IT) specialists. They play a key role in overseeing the development of complex computer systems, from initial planning stages through to final deployment. This typically…

System Architects’ Private Cloud Hosting provide clients with a secure hosted environment. With SA’s two data centres located in the GTA, you are assured your data stays within Canadian borders. Cloud solutions are perfect for small or midsize businesses giving the high availability solutions that was once only affordable for large enterprises. Having a cloud solution allows your business access to a high availability secure environment that grows as your business grows. A big hurdle for a lot of small and midsize company’s growth is upfront cost to build an efficient, versatile and redundant IT environment. SA’s cloud hosting services in tandem with SA’s other IT support outsourcing services gives your business a fully managed end to end IT environment that is cost effective and efficient.

Cost of Creating Your Own Data Centre

Buying enterprise equipment can be extremely expensive and a huge burden to any business no matter the size of your company. Investing thousands of dollars in servers and the additional equipment that is needed for your IT environment not to mention all the licensing is not an option for most businesses. Even if your business can afford the capital expenditure to invest in the hardware there are many other variables that need to be considered. Power outages are one of the biggest issues a lot of companies experience and which companies need to consider. Bandwidth slow down and network outages can also be issues. Having redundancy is extremely expensive, all of these factors must be taken into consideration before making any decisions. SA’s IT consulting team can assist clients with recommendations which can help clients make the right decisions for their business.

Customized Environment for your Business Needs

One of the many benefits of private cloud hosting in Toronto is the ability to see and customize your environment to fit your business needs. When designing your IT environment, you never have to be worried about sizing more than you need. SA’s team will size what are your requirements and based on this your cloud environment is created. Using SA’s Managed IT Support services can also assist in supporting your environment. An additional benefit of utilizing SA’s IT outsourcing services allows your company to be more agnostic when it comes to technology. Expanding the type of hardware and software you can utilize may save money and also increase efficiency and flexibility. Leveraging SA’s many vendor partnerships such as VMware, Veeam and Microsoft allows clients to utilize these technologies which normally may have been too costly in an on premise solution.

Hybrid Solutions

Depending on your company requirements System Architects’ Managed IT Support in Toronto can meet with your management face to face and provide the expertise and recommendations that are cost effective and in line with industry standard best practices. Hybrid solutions can be a mix of private, public and on premise environments. System Architects certified staff works with our clients to find what works best within the company’s budget while providing the performance and efficiency needed in the fast paced world of technology. Redundancy, performance, up-time and cost are the main factors that are considered when designing a custom solution. Knowing where to leverage all options is key to cutting cost without the loss of performance or up-time.  

Results

The best part of having a cloud hosting solution there is little to no upfront cost and with a partner like System Architects, your company is not tied to any long term contracts. A good example is if you need a test environment for a few months it is a very simple process to create your cloud environment. Once the testing is complete you can basically turn off the server. Adding and removing servers has never been easier.

Written by:

Justin Roopnarine

Creating a business continuity plan is vital for any business large or small. Having a comprehensive plan can be the difference for a business recovering from an interruption or not. The numbers are staggering when it comes to companies experiencing unforeseen interruptions. Here is a compilation from several sources of what happens when a business experiences an interruption in service.

94% of companies suffering from a catastrophic data loss do not survive - 43% never reopen and 51% close within two years. (University of Texas)

30% of all businesses that have a major fire go out of business within a year and 70% fail within five years. (Home Office Computing Magazine)

77% of those companies who do test their tape backups found back-up failures. (Boston Computing Network, Data Loss Statistics)

7 out of 10 small firms that experience a major data loss go out of business within a year. (DTI/PwC)

96% of all business workstations are not being backed up. (Contingency Planning and Strategic Research Corporation)

50% of all tape backups fail to restore. (Gartner)

25% of all PC users suffer from data loss each year (Gartner)

Just like property or commercial insurance your business needs to have insurance for its data. As the numbers above state many companies who suffer some form of interruption never fully recover. Creating a plan that meets your budget and criteria can be a very daunting task and understanding what needs to be done is not as simple as one might think. A comprehensive plan will have to include the business and technology sides of your business. There are several things that need to be considered before designing a comprehensive plan.

Step 1: Establish a contingency team (Include all Departments)

Step 2: Identify all core services/functions of the business

Step 3: Identify all other services/functions of the business

Step 4: Calculate hourly cost associated with each service/function

At this step you have completed the first phase of building your continuity plan. At this point we will discuss the disaster recovery portion of your plan. You may have difficulties on the identifying aspects in the first three steps. System Architects IT Consulting team can assist with the technical and business requirements which is essential in creating a comprehensive plan. Engaging with an experienced Outsourced IT Service provider like System Architects can help with identifying what needs to be achieved in an efficient and cost effective manner. Going through this process is not static either, your plan will always be growing/changing over time and must be managed, reviewed and if needed modified.

If the contingency team is able to accomplish the first three steps you about a third way completed. The steps below you will probably need assistance and if you haven’t already engaged an Outsourced IT Service provider it is probably a good time too to so. System Architects’ Disaster Recovery Services which is based in Toronto has the expertise required to ensure your comprehensive business continuity plan is implemented, managed and tested. Working with the clients and understanding their business requirements is key to designing a comprehensive that not only works but is cost efficient. Some of the key steps continuing from step 4 where System Architects team can assist.

Step 5: Identify potential issues

Step 6: Identify required skill sets and staff reallocation

Step 7: Prepare a plan for each essential service/function

Step 8: Compare with "Preparedness Checklist"

Step 9: Review with the emergency preparedness team

Step 10: Implementation of your Disaster Recovery Plan

Step 11: Revise, test and update if needed

Step 12: Ongoing management

Step 13: Revise, test and update if changes have been identified to your business

Step 14: Annual audit of your procedures by a third party

Each step listed is vital and can’t be overlooked. Within each step there are probably several steps that need to be completed as well. While a lot of companies may offer a cookie cutter solution, System Architects’ Disaster Recovery solution engages our clients’ individual business needs and designs a solution that is built from step 1 all the way to step 14. Having a well-designed Disaster Recovery solution can never be taken lightly, the numbers don’t lie. Companies that don’t have a plan have a high probability of going out of business. The hardest part is understanding that this is a function of the business and having your data backed up offsite while being a very important practice should never be considered as a Disaster Recovery solution.

Simply consider if you have a backup solution and you have a disaster, how long would it take to firstly get the replacement hardware, rebuild and configure your solution and lastly reinstall your data from your backups. The first step is to ask this very important question can your company withstand a month maybe two months of downtime?

 Written by:

Justin Roopnarine

Many companies are in a dilemma regarding if they should replace their aging equipment or take the next step and embrace the cloud. Regardless of what is decided the first step is to virtualize your environment if it is not already virtualized.

What are the things you need to know when deciding if to purchase on premise equipment? There are many things that may seem minor or abstract when thinking about a new server but you have to make sure they are all covered when deciding or comparing cost.

So you decided to replace your server with the newest model, what’s next?

First you will need to size your server based on your company’s growth and the number of years you plan on keeping the equipment. You may not need to buy all of the disks and RAM etc. initially but you have verify the equipment is capable of handling the projected upgrades.

How about the surrounding infrastructure? If you are replacing the server what about the Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) or the Cooling unit do they need replacing? Probably they do, what about licensing? I have heard great things about the new Microsoft Windows Server OS but does your IT department have the training to work within the new OS environment? Oh, I almost forgot who is doing this migration are you equipped to take on this task by yourself? Are you going to virtualize the environment? You probably should but what are you going to use to virtualize the IT environment? VMware is very popular but the licenses are pretty pricey or do you go with Hyper-V which is cheaper but is relatively new. These are just a few of things that you need to thing about when you are deciding on getting a new server.

What about the benefits? One of the benefits your company may enjoy depending on your budgetary model is your OpEx cost may reduce but your CapEx will take a hit when procuring the new equipment. Depending on your company’s business model this can be a good thing. In general, the latency is smaller connecting to a server would be faster with on premise equipment. You own the equipment and there is no shared infrastructure.

Going to a Private Cloud solution is probably the step most companies would decide to take. It is a bit more expensive but the security and management is far superior to a commodity cloud. Firstly, if you decide to go this route what would you need at the office? There is little equipment required and you should have most of it in place already. What is needed at your office, a Firewall which you should have already for network security, a VPN, probably already in place if you ever tried to connect to the server from home. A switch is standard for most businesses as well as a Static IP. Lastly of course you will need a high-speed internet connection.

It doesn’t matter what the final decision is as long as it makes sense for your business. SA clients are varied in size and structure, some have on premise equipment, other clients IT environment are in SA’s cloud and others have a hybrid solution. System Architects’ Private Cloud Hosting and Outsourced IT Services can work with you to decide what is best for your company and also help design, migrate and manage whatever solution you decide.

 Written by:

Justin Roopnarine

Find out why CARSTAR an industry leader in collision repair with a nationwide network selected System Architects’ IT services.

Apple Expands Renewable Energy Goal

Apple is setting an ambitious goal to create enough energy through renewable sources to power its global operations and also do the same for its manufacturing supply chain. 

For more click here: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/05/10/apple-expands-renewable-energy-goal-to-cover-supply-chain/

Verizon is buying AOL for $4.4 billion Verizon is making a play to crack into the ever growing online market. It announced Tuesday morning that it is planning to buy AOL for $4.4 billion.

For more click here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2015/05/12/verizons-buying-aol-for-a-reported-4-4-billion/

Security Vulnerability Discovered In Millions of Business Computer Systems -- Here's What You Need To Know

VENOM is especially scary because it is cross platform, exploitable in default configurations, and allows for the execution of code by an attacker. It is also not necessarily solvable by disabling the vulnerable code: on some platforms it was found that an unrelated software flaw caused disabling the vulnerable driver code to create other security problems.

For more click here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/josephsteinberg/2015/05/13/major-vulnerability-discovered-in-millions-of-business-computer-systems-heres-what-you-need-to-do/2/

Samsung launches Artik chips for the Internet of Things

Samsung revealed a new chip family to power the Internet of Things, putting it in more direct competition with Intel, Qualcomm and others in the quest to connect everything.

For more click here: http://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-launches-artik-chips-for-internet-of-things/

AT&T-DirecTV deal unlikely to be blocked

AT&T Inc's $49-billion bid for DirecTV is unlikely to be blocked by U.S. authorities, the Wall Street Journal reported. Regulators at both the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are nearing a decision that is poised to clear the deal with some conditions, people familiar with the review had previously told Reuters.

For more click here: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/12/us-dirctv-at-t-m-a-idUSKBN0NX25120150512

Apple delays HomeKit launch for some devices

Apple fans awaiting the company’s home automation platform, HomeKit, may have to wait a few months longer than expected for some of its features to appear on select partners’ devices.

For more click here: http://fortune.com/2015/05/14/apple-delays-homekit-launch/

Microsoft Announces the Windows 10 Product Editions

Microsoft announced the various Windows 10 product editions that it will sell to end users directly and with mainstream personal devices such as phones, tablets and PCs. But the software giant is inexplicably expanding the number of product editions for Windows 10, which could lead to some confusion.

For more click here: https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/3422/microsoft-announces-the-windows-10-product-editions

Green lights for our self-driving vehicle prototypes

When we started designing the world’s first fully self-driving vehicle, our goal was a vehicle that could shoulder the entire burden of driving. Vehicles that can take anyone from A to B at the push of a button could transform mobility for millions of people, whether by reducing the 94 percent of accidents caused by human error (PDF), reclaiming the billions of hours wasted in traffic, or bringing everyday destinations and new opportunities within reach of those who might otherwise be excluded by their inability to drive a car.

For more click here: http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/self-driving-vehicle-prototypes-on-road.html

Reddit, under Ellen Pao, launches harassment crackdown

Social news site Reddit has launched an anti-harassment policy that allows it to ban users who bully others.

For more click here: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32749408

Microsoft HoloLens may react to stress levels

Microsoft is exploring ways to make its HoloLens augmented reality headset respond to users' stress levels.

For more click here: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32736627

FireEye Falls after Cisco Slaps Down Buyout Rumors

Wednesday wasn’t the first time that rumors have swirled that the computer security company FireEye was the target of a buyout offer by networking giant Cisco Systems. And it probably won’t be the last.

For more click here: http://recode.net/2015/05/14/fireeye-falls-after-cisco-slaps-down-buyout-rumors/  

Sharp Gets $1.9 Billion Bailout, but Restructuring Steps Disappoint

Japan’s Sharp said it had secured a $1.9 billion bailout, its second major bank-led rescue in three years, after falling deep into the red as its smartphone display business was battered by competition from Asian rivals.

For more click here: http://recode.net/2015/05/14/sharp-gets-1-9-billion-bailout-but-restructuring-steps-disappoint/

Autotask Community Live!

Autotask Community Live is in Florida for a second year in a row. System Architects is at the Autotask Community Live! Worldwide User Conference Miami 2015. #CommLive