
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is meant by Anti-Virus Management?
Under Anti-Virus management Zenith performs a daily Anti-Virus check to insure the Anti-Virus has the latest signature files, the Anti-Virus is healthy and not corrupt, the Anti-Virus is installed and has a valid license. This also covers virus removal on a best effort basis should an end user machine be affected by a virus.
Q: Our contracts with our customers do not permit us giving access to a sub-contractor.
Which service plan should we use?
For performing the activities mentioned under Total Desktop Care and Server Watch Zenith engineers do not need any access to the servers or workstations. All work done under these plans is through a list of pre-compiled remote diagnostic scripts, which cannot be modified.
Q: How do you address the issues of non-compete and confidentiality?
We sign a standard confidentiality and non-compete agreement with our partners which prohibits Zenith or its employees from disclosing any information related to the partner or the partner’s end-users and also forbids Zenith from directly marketing to the partners’ end customers.
Q: What are the platforms and applications for which support is provided under the Virtual NOC program?
On desktops the Virtual NOC service is available for Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista and commonly used desktop applications such as Internet Explorer, Outlook, Word, and Excel. On servers, we have expertise on the entire Microsoft “stack” such as Exchange, SQL Server, Sharepoint, as well as packages such as Veritas BackupEXEC, ARCServe, Citrix Metaframe, Symantec, Oracle and Linux.
Q: What methods of communication do you support between your partners and the NOC?
We use phone and tickets to work and collaborate with our partners in delivering a managed service. Our partners can use our built-in ticketing system (which supports e-mail to ticket functionality) or Connectwise. Phone calls are made for emergency alerting such as server down, application failures or any event that would result in end-user downtime or a possible security breach/loss of data.
Q: What level of control and visibility does a partner have on the work performed by the engineers at the NOC?
Complete visibility of work being done by the NOC is provided to partners via the dashboard in the SAAZ software, be it alerts being processed, patches deployed or service tickets being worked on. Secondly, all remediation done by the NOC is only performed after receiving approval from our partner. For example, should we see a server condition that needs us to defrag an Exchange Server, a ticket asking for approval will be sent to the partner and only after such approval has been received will the defragmentation be completed.
Q: What are the security and control measures taken to minimize the risk of data theft, loss or breach of privacy?
Zenith has built many controls into its software as well as employing security review processes with its NOC based on industry best practices (we use the CoBIT guidelines). Some (not all) of the security measures and features are as follows:
- Our partners define the level of access given to Zenith on the customer machines.
- Every logon/logoff activity to the customer’s network is audited by the SAAZ software and reviewed by operations staff in the NOC against the reason given by the engineer and is available for review by our partners in real time
- Communication of passwords via the Password Vault technology
- Screen capture of maintenance activities done
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