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CONVERGED COMMUNICATIONS & MANAGED IT SOLUTIONS |
The SynerTel Sentinel
Online Edition
October 2011 Issue 177 |
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| News you can use! | |
Where did the summer go? My son Noah & I went to Cazadero Performing Arts Camp together and took a Clowning Workshop, culminating in a performance for 300 people replete with a choreographed 10 person pie fight - a definite first for me.
Yes, I'd do it again!
Meet The Carden Academy, whose "Hit the Road, Jack!" letter from the Santa Clara School District triggered a huge "build-an-entire-campus-in-10-weeks' project, with SynerTel literally in the trenches!
Toshiba released its long-awaited IP-Edge all-IP business communications system. Far more than 'just a phone system', it includes collaboration and presence tools, deep software integration with your network, and a very attractive cost of ownership. We'll be sharing more about this in upcoming months. If you can't wait, call us for details!
If you've got better things to do than try to protect, understand, track, and administer and support your network - ask us about SynerTel Managed WorkPlace ... we offload the complexity and risk of maintaining your network and supporting your users - for a surprisingly affordable fixed monthly rate! PS -Did you know "safe" Acrobat documents can carry viruses and malware? Yup - as of May 2011, they can. SynerTel Managed Workplace customers don't have to worry about this. Moving? Expanding? Shrinking? Involve us 70-90 days before the move date to get maximum benefit from our experience & resources. We'll help you get the least-cost carrier moves, guide you to trusted cabling resources if we can't do it ourselves, and ensure your technology move is 100% planned and managed for low risk and high uptime. Need solutions or upgrades, but don't have the cash? We have many financing plans for qualified buyers- and many are subsidized by manufacturers. Let them help you acquire the technology you need to be competitive and successful. Ask us today for details.
Ben Stiegler, CEO
415 746 1811
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| Why are Hackers Targeting Small Business This Year & What Can You Do About IT? | |
 A recent Wall Street Journal article detailed why hackers are focussing on small and medium businesses: Many SMBs have out of date, vulnerable firewalls! Chicago magazine store owner Joe Angelastri was victimized by a data-grabbing virus that took customer credit card info from his cash registers ... and sent it all straight to identify thieves in Russia. Cost to his business - $22,000 - plus a loss of customer trust.
In the time it takes a cyber-criminal to breach one large firm's security, the hacker could instead steal data from dozens of small businesses -likely without being detected, much less apprehended. Often the damage is quick and un-reversible. Green Ford Sales (Abilene, Ks) had its online banking credentials stolen; this led to 9 phantom employees receiving paychecks totalling $63K overnight. By the time the owner detected this early the next AM, some of the funds had been transferred overseas and were lost forever.
Even if you have a box you think of as "the firewall" - it may be out of date - unable to detect, much less stop the cyber-threats of 2011.
What can you do?
Take advantage of SynerTel's October IT Security Audit Promotion!
SynerTel's mission includes building, maintaining, and monitoring comprehensive (but affordable) real-time firewalls that constantly compare inbound and outbound internet traffic to zero-day and zero-hour footprints of current malware. This allows allows fine-tuned control of staff and public internet access - so your staff isn't playing Farmville during work hours -much less exposing your company data to the malware that is often spread through social media and embedded games.
Normally $395 per site, a SynerTel Firewall IT Security Audit is just $295 when scheduled by October 20th, 2011. You'll receive a comprehensive report detailing the strengths and vulnerabilities of your firm's IT perimeter - along with recommendations and a budget for closing any significant gaps. See below to schedule.
We offer other network and information and physical security assessments - too - covering physical access, backups, unmonitored accounts, password security, and more. We can even automatically probe and scan your systems regularly from outside - just like hackers do - and alert you to anything suspicious.
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| Client of the Month - Carden Academy of Santa Clara - concept to school campus in 10 weeks | |
The Carden Academy of Santa Clara offers a unique enriched learning environment (the Carden Method) for ages 3 thru 8th grade. Housed for years on a surplus public school campus leased from Santa Clara Unified, Carden had to formulate a rapid "move quick!" plan when SCU decided it needed the campus back to meet growing enrollment.
Amazingly, Carden chose SynerTel in May 2011 for this rapid deployment project before they had even met us in person- based on our reputation and our website.
An existing church campus would be transformed by adding 18 modular buildings to form a complete Carden campus including a library, computer lab, and 24 classrooms.
SynerTel was to design & implement two discrete campus computer networks, a phone system, campus bell system, and all the inter-building cabling needed to make everything fly - while getting TelePacific and Comcast live to campus in just weeks.
SynerTel's Ben Stiegler with Dick Ries, Carden's Principal since 1990
The scheduled construction start was delayed due to the permitting process ... and the entire project from trenching to going live for first day of school occured in under 10 weeks! In fact, the administration team was live on the new system in temporary quarters in just a few weeks. Working closely with the construction manager and general contractor, we accelerated the design process, refined construction specifications, and adapted to an ever-changing schedule and final layout. School opened on time August 31st!
Thank you, Carden, for entrusting SynerTel with your future!
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Ethernet Over Copper - Better than T1!
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You may be hearing from us or one of our carrier partners in the near future about Ethernet Over Copper (EOC) for delivering your voice, internet, and fax services. EOC is the next evolutionary step in service delivery that will benefit the majority of small and medium sized businesses.
EOC is:
- inherently built with redundancy - shielding your business from a "one circuit outage takes you off the air" situation. EOC is installed with N+1 circuits. If it takes 5 copper pairs to deliver 6Mb of Internet and 16 phone lines ... 6 pairs will be installed - so there's a spare right there, waiting to leap into service at the first sign of trouble. EOC is an important step forward in having a "soft-fail" business continuity plan.
- less costly than T1 circuits. This means you can have much faster (and redundant) service for the same $s you spend today - or turn up new locations for less $ than you'd expect.
- simple to provision. If you are a T1 or bonded T1-based services customer today, the EOC conversion will be transparent - no changes of IP addresses or phone numbers.
- distance-sensitive. If your office is more than 16K cable feet from the central office or point of presence, EOC may not be available for your location. Fortunately, this is true of only a small fraction of customers in urban areas.
SynerTel is working with our carrier partners to systematically convert T1 customers to EOC delivery whenever possible - but with 10s of thousands of customers, its a slow and steady process. If your business is moving or has other impending events or a need for add'l internet or inter-site bandwidth, give us a call and we'll try to move your conversion to the top of the list.
Still using ATT or Verizon analog (POTS = plain old telephone service) lines? Call us right away to learn how much you can save by converting!
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| Welcome -- New Clients! Thank you Existing Clients for new projects! | Thank you for entrusting us with improving your IT and business communications!
Carden Academy of Santa Clara
Harbor Point Swim & Tennis Club - Marin
Friends of the Urban Forest - SF
Dr. Frank Ferrell, MD - SF
Western Hyrdro - Sacramento
Public Profit - Oakland
Direct Dental Administrators - Marin
Golden Bear Sportswear -SF
TV20 - SF
Walden House - SF
Aduro Biotech - Berkeley
CreaTV - San Jose
Dryden, Margoles, Schimaneck & Wertz - SF
CreaTV - San Jose
Chase & Associates - Marin & Dallas
David Rio / SOMA Beverage - SF
Scheer Law Group - San Rafael
DZH Phillips - SF
Trucker Huss - SF
California Academy of Family Physicians - SF
Olofson Environmental - Berkeley
My Dutch Uncle - SF
The Graduate School - SF
Margolin & Biatch - Oakland
Crone Law Group - SF
Giampolini & Co - SF/Emeryville
For a complimentary assessment of your organization's IT and Telecom spending, practices, and resources, call Ben Stiegler at 415 746 1811 or email sales@synertel.com |
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| Save $100 |
off a SynerTel Firewall IT Security audit when scheduled by October 21, 2011. Ensure your network is not leaking data to outsiders! Must mention code SAFER NETWORK. Call 415 746-1800 or email sales@synertel.com to schedule.
| | Offer Expires: 5pm October 21, 2011 |
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