Professional IT Services that Andromeda Provides for Saint Charles, IL Businesses:

Managed IT Services
Saint Charles,IL

Andromeda offers a range of IT support plans—anything from month-to-month "time & materials"-based assistance to fixed IT service contracts that permit "no-brainer" conformance to an annual budget. Beyond the functions you would expect from a full-service MSP, you'll have a dedicated C‑CATs team that includes an Account Coordinator directing the same field and remote technicians day-to-day, month-to-month, and even year-to-year to manage your IT network needs.
This isn't simply a glorified Virtual CIO offering. Imagine the cost of hiring your own CIO AND tech team for this same level of customized service and knowledge of your particular (and evolving) network setup!

Cloud Services & Migrations

Typically, the biggest issue you'll face when initiating Cloud IT services is not the services themselves, but rather the proper migration of your existing IT services to the Cloud without loss of functionality, downtime, and scores of other details that could undermine the whole process. Andromeda has a long history of expertise in physical on-premises systems. Don't make the mistake of turning all your current systems over to a "Cloud expert"; we'll save you from a lot of heartache and pain with a virtually seamless Cloud migration from your current setup— whatever it is.

Data Backup & Recovery
Saint Charles,IL

It's a crazy world. Literally thousands of people you don't even know attempt to break or steal from systems like yours every day. Good 24/7 monitoring is a first line of defense, of course. But no matter how great and state-of-the-art your defenses are, you'll almost certainly succomb to a successful attack in time. That's why advanced data backup and data recovery need to be tools that you and your IT partner have at the ready from Day 1. Don't be tempted to "shortcut" this element of your network in the name of expediency or to save a few dollars. Ultimately, you'll lose out on both counts with that thinking. You need a complete and integrated solution that addresses every contingency as well as IT professionals who know how to make that happen.

Cyber Security

Not only do we provide multi-tier approaches to your network security, but Andromeda also provides built-for-you solutions for disaster recovery and business continuity devices. We provide, manage and monitor a variety of devices including physical hardware, Cloud-based and hybrid options. Our team actively monitors over 403 servers and 101 physical backup devices in the field. All with 100% local engineers and technicians.

Onsite/Remote Support
Saint Charles,IL

Andromeda's team is completely staffed by local technicians near Saint Charles,IL. No matter the hour, your issue is resolved quickly and professionally. In fact, 68% of incoming calls are connected to a live technician for immediate response. When a technician isn't available, our average response time is less than 30 minutes. And if that isn't impressive enough, emergency after-hours support response times average less than 10 minutes!

IT Network Management

IT networks are our bread-and-butter. We have provided these services to clients since 1994. Some have continued to rely on us for their evolving network needs since the very beginning. We stand behind our work day to day and year to year because we foster relationships with our client-partners that absolutely demand that of us. It's in our DNA and how we prefer to do business.

AndroPedia Tech Library

As part of our service, it is important to keep our client-partners well informed on IT developments, news, and best practices. Here is just a sampling of typical items from our AndroPedia^SM library archive:

Co-managed IT service (CoMITS) is a rather new idea that creates a partnership between an internal IT department and an external service company like Andromeda.  Co-Managed IT Services are essentially meant to help you get more done by augmenting specific elements of your IT Service and infrastructure with a professional outsourced IT team. The best part about it is the CoMITS relationship is fully customizable so you get what you need without paying for what you don’t. 

Who is it for? 

The co-managed IT service structure is built to be a partnership between an internal IT person/team and an MSP. It takes cooperation between the two to give an organization the best service, security, and maintenance possible.  

Co-Managed IT is a great fit for:  

• Your IT department that may be overwhelmed with tasks and may need some support.  
• Your internal IT support that may be lacking in one or more specific skillsets.  CoMIT services will fill in that gap. Andromeda provides the specialists in all fields and lends them to your organization.

How does It Work? 

As stated above, the co-managed IT partnership is fully customizable, so it can mean different things to different organizations but here are a few solutions to think about: 

1. Internal IT handles everything with workstations & users with Andromeda handling your servers & infrastructure. 
2. Basically, the opposite of #1. Andromeda handles workstations & users, while you handle servers & infrastructure. 
3. Andromeda handles emergencies. We offer tools and best practices for your internal IT and may also do the monitoring of systems. When anything outside your internal IT departments scope of expertise comes up, we are here to support them and handle any issues. Basically, Andromeda becomes familiar with your systems, then waits on the sidelines until you need us. We have the familiarity to handle the situation quickly and painlessly. 
4. We are your specialists. This will seem similar to #3, but it really isn’t. When you are making hardware purchases, we can offer our advice, do the purchasing for you and also installation. Any time the internal person/team has a question, our specialist are available for consult. This includes training, monitoring, best practices and procedures, access to tools, support, management, back-up and recovery, among many other services. 
5. Some subset of services that is customized to fit your needs.

Is Co-managed IT For You And Your Organization? 

If you have an IT person or team, then the answer is yes! Because this solution is completely customizable for your organization, there is no scenario where we can’t partner for the best results. We would both be looking out for the ultimate success of your business.  

Because of the customization of the partnership, we are flexible to integrate our services with your needs. We don’t force our way on your team. We don’t step in and take over. We do work together and share responsibilities and knowledge. 

Our ultimate goal is to support your organization. Our main focus and expertise as an MSP becomes a tool to use for the success of your business. This collaboration gives your team whatever they need to do the best job possible. 

 If you have any questions about CoMITS, then our team is here to answer them. Let’s start a conversation. 

The post What is the Co-Managed IT Services model? Your Top 3 Questions Answered appeared first on Andromeda Technology Solutions.

Microsoft Teams helps professionals connect and stay productive by bringing all documentation, communication and collaboration into one space. If you are like us, most of your day-to-day communication and activity is somehow tied to Microsoft Teams.  Like many other software as a service programs, Teams users benefit from real-time product updates and feature rollouts. That means that the software responds to user needs and is constantly being updated with new features.  

Here are the awesome new features that have been added to your Teams app that you might not have heard about. 

1 New Meeting and Call Pop-outs – When you join a call/meeting in the desktop app, it will pop out into a secondary window instead of confining your meeting to the main Teams interface. This allows you to have a meeting on one screen and the full Teams app open on another screen etc.   It should be noted though, to use this Teams setting, you must turn it on in your general settings.

2 Book appointments with Bookings. The Bookings app inside Teams is an easy way to schedule virtual appointments. You can manage multiple calendars, as well as communications with internal and external attendees, from a single source. The virtual appointments are then held via Microsoft Teams Meetings.

3 Raise your hand in a meeting. This is especially handy when you have a large gathering and don’t want to interrupt the speaker. You let people know you have something to say with the new raise hand feature in Teams. While in a meeting, select the hand icon in your control bar. This will highlight your hand icon on your video feed to let the rest of the attendees know that you’d like to speak. Once you have been allowed to share, you just click the icon again to lower your hand. 

If your team is ready to start using the full Office 365 suite of products and you need a partner to help implement it at your office, give us a call and we can help manage the process and installation.

The post 3 Teams Updates You Might Have Missed & How To Use Or Access Them appeared first on Andromeda Technology Solutions.

Luxottica is the latest company to fall victim to relentless hackers.

Even if you're not familiar with the name, if you wear glasses or contacts, you might have dealings with the company even without realizing it.

As the world's largest eyewear company, they produce all the best-known brands, including:

• Ray-Ban
• Oakley
• Oliver Peoples
• Ferrari
• Michael Kors
• Bulgari
• Armani
• Prada
• Chanel
• Coach
• And many others

In addition to that, they work closely with all the biggest names in eye care, including EyeMed, LensCrafters, Target Optical and others.

Unfortunately, if you've gotten your eyes examined at any of the places just mentioned, or if you own a pair of glasses bearing one of the brand names mentioned above, you may have reason to be concerned. The recent hack exposed personal and protected health information for patients utilizing the care centers we mentioned above.

According to the notification the company sent out last week, hackers were able to breach the company's defenses by way of their appointment scheduling app.

Once in the system, Luxottica determined that personal, protected customer information may have been compromised. The data potentially included the full name of the patient, any contact information saved in the system, appointment date and time, the patient's health insurance policy number, and any notes your doctor may have entered into the system relating to prescriptions, health conditions or recommended procedures.

In addition to that, if you had saved your payment card information or social security number in the system, those items are also at risk. At this point, the company has provided no specific information about the scope and scale of the breach, so there's no way of knowing exactly how many patient records were compromised. Out of an abundance of caution, if you get your glasses from any of the companies mentioned above and you scheduled your eye appointment online, the safest course would be to assume that your data has been compromised and proceed accordingly.

It's unfortunate, but this will certainly not be the last high profile attack we read about this year. Stay vigilant out there, and stay safe.

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