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Application Management

Server Estate & Applications Management

Improved performance and availability of the server estate through server management means that users can access the systems they need to perform their roles. Management and diagnostic tools provide huge reductions in expensive and damaging downtime through pro-active monitoring and faster fault finding and resolution.

SaintGroup Managed Services monitors customers estates with a 24/7 service, ensuring that any issues are identified, escalated and rectified as quickly as possible. SaintGroup also provides engineering resource, negating the need for customers to train multiple staff to deal with server management or to provide cover for absence.

Server and Applications Management includes Change Control (making updates and configuration changes to the system at agreed times and after testing), Capacity (predicting the growth needs of the infrastructure and planning for them), Continuity (ensuring in the event of a failure to a component the service is restored as designed) and Availability (ensuring that the service is working optimally as much as possible), with SaintGroup providing recommendations and transition management.

Anti-Virus Management

Virus threats and malicious code pose a constant security risk to every user in every business. All devices that potentially can come into contact with these threats most certainly require a dynamic Anti-Virus system that continually looks for these exploits and mitigates against them. The more efficiently the platforms are able to interrogate systems, accurately recognise how to nullify risk and then provide protection via updates to all devices the more effective it is at protecting the business.

SaintGroup, on the customer’s behalf, manages the deployment, updates and policy changes within the chosen technology such as McAfee and Symantec etc. The key objective is to ensure that the user’s devices are regularly updated and therefore protected as soon as possible. The management of the Anti-Virus is designed to provide an effective protection against known virus threats for all contactable devices within the infrastructure. SaintGroup also provides Cloud based threat management systems from our partners to further enhance security.

Organisations need to have proactive Anti-Virus protection on PCs, servers and network devices. As part of a managed service the status of the estate protection is provided, and the responsibility for the administration, management and monitoring of this process can be transferred from the customer to SaintGroup.

Application & Patch Management

Software security patches and updates are regularly released by the all vendors to fix known bugs, combat new threats or provide additional functionality. Applying the most up to date patches and updates to the operating system and application software the estate is less vulnerable to security breaches and malicious code.

In order for organisations to keep abreast of these updates, requires control and management. SaintGroup can manage this process following ITIL guidelines and processes, ensuring safe deployment and management of the estate. SaintGroup will review information regarding both security issues and patch releases prior to advising the customer; verifying the requirement and potential impact before managing the deployment of the approved updates or patches into a customer’s live environment.

Customer defined devices are updated at agreed intervals to the latest revisions available and include servers and networking devices, making this a scalable service, and SaintGroup provides patches for all major vendors including Microsoft and VMWare. With SaintGroup applying the patches and updates in a known environment, the customer is assured of the outcome when this is rolled out to their infrastructure and reduces the likelihood of vulnerability and unexpected downtime.

Build/Image Management

Organisations often find it difficult to keep track of all the assets they have and their status; particularly if records are maintained on spreadsheets or reliant on individuals’ accuracy and availability. By having a service that dynamically detects these assets, their locations and software levels, for example, IT managers gain greater visibility of their entire IT asset estate. Pieces of equipment can often be reused elsewhere in the estate, and laptops can be reassigned. Asset Management not only keeps accurate details of devices on the network but also stores records of those devices that were once part of the estate but no longer connected.

Detailed reports can highlight minimum specifications, age and installed software without the need to visit the items individually. For compliance, SaintGroup is able to provide configurable queries for software applications and operating systems to ensure that all software in use is identified and compared to current licensing levels. This can either help ensure license conformity or identify excess licenses that aren’t being used. An accurate asset inventory will allow customers to get exactly the right level of maintenance cover they require avoiding paying for assets that are no longer present.

Asset Management is provided by SaintGroup through an approved software management tool. A discovery appliance is deployed to make contact with manageable devices and identify the assets. Both software and hardware items are audited and results recorded in the discovery tool and Configuration Management Database. This is done on a continual basis allowing additional, upgraded or moved assets to be automatically discovered. When used with Application and Patch Management, this provides a reliable verification that any update has been successful.