Get Answers for Common IT Questions.

Organizations that choose to shift to the cloud do so for several reasons. There are benefits related to flexibility, scalability, cost savings, etc. However, it is crucial to evaluate if the cloud is right for you from a strategic and operational perspective. You can evaluate your current IT set-up to understand the benefits of moving to the cloud, especially answer the following questions:

• Is your current solution meeting your needs, and if there is room for improvement?
• Do you want to collaborate with different lines of business?
• What is the geographic distribution of your user base?
• Do your employees require frequent remote access?
• Are the costs to scale up, upgrade services or to move to the cloud acceptable?
• When did you last invest in significant capital expenditure?

Answering these questions can give you an idea if the cloud is a good fit for your business or not. If you still have some doubts, you can contact our team to answer your queries. We can discuss the scope of your migration project as well. 

Preparing to shift to the cloud is simple, and we can help you with the smooth transition. The one thing that we'll be mainly looking at is your network bandwidth. Cloud computing can strain your local internet connections. So, consider upgrading your bandwidth or investing in SD-WAN technology to increase connectivity.

Cost depends on use. Usually, cloud service providers calculate bandwidth and storage usage. There are different components such as data storage, network usage, operations usage, retrieval and deletion fees that make up your cloud costs. We partner with various cloud providers to offer deep-dive consulting, and a set of tutorials to help you get very accurate cost estimates.

There are numerous security parameters in place. In the event of an attack, business continuity plans utilize redundant hardware, backup generators, and other measures to prevent downtime. Physical resources reside in secure facilities, with independent auditing practices followed by the cloud vendors. Data is encrypted, and even as cloud hosting partners, we do not have access to those encryption keys. Customers manage access through user identities and access policies.

No, as your cloud service provider, we'll handle the ins and outs of your cloud migration. You don't need to hire additional staff to manage the cloud. Someone with cloud expertise in-house can always make the transition smooth. However, consider us your cloud support for all your questions and dilemmas. We'll help you take advantage of the services that cloud offers and provide comprehensive guidance and training.

There are many options. But, it'll mostly depend on your business and cloud strategy. You may choose to slowly move your complete IT environment to the cloud or just one task at a time. Most businesses use the cloud for short term and long term data backup. You can move application-based workloads such as CRM, Marketing Automation, etc. The huge appeal to the cloud comes with the ability to scale resources up or down on demand, and access data from anywhere.

Managed IT service providers are 100% responsible for the safety, security, and reliability of your IT infrastructure.  Managed IT Service providers are not only your trusted IT consultants, they also provide proactive Managed IT services using a host of tools to ensure your organization is receiving immediate IT support and consistent network up time on a fixed-fee basis that meets the budget.

As a Managed IT service provider, our corporate commitment is to proactively prevent problems and not reactively fixing problems.  A Managed Service Provider’s (MSP) business model is built on network up time, not downtime.

If you relate to 4 or more of these categories, you can benefit from a managed services approach:

• You just want it all to work!
• You did not choose your career to monkey with IT issues.
• You understand what it costs your company for you to not focus on your top priorities.
• You do not want to be in the IT business.
• You do not want to deal with IT.
• You are done trying to get techies to understand what you really need.
• You realize the hourly cost of downtime and business interruption is so much more than a technician’s hourly rate.
• You are finished with trying to manage depreciating assets.
• You are done with finding, hiring, and managing IT staff.
• You realize your business depends on IT technology and IT technology cannot be avoided.
• You never want to deal with Technology vendors blaming each other while you pay their bills.
• You put up with IT support issues because you do not want the trouble of changing to another support provider.

Yes. All GRIP I.T. support team members are certified in major technology platforms. To name a few, we are certified with Microsoft, VMWare, HP, CISCO, DELL, Watchguard, Juniper.

Please ask us for a full list of vendor certifications.

Managed IT Services complement businesses by allowing them to operate more strategically than reactively in order to prevent problems and to keep things running smoothly. This IT support model also rewards both the client and the Managed IT Service (MSP) provider when things go smoothly.

This is true win-win relationship as our business model is built on network up time. This IT support business model also provides fixed IT costs with allows for proper budgeting and the client will never receive surprises from a billing standpoint.

Your IT network is the back bone of your business.  Regular maintenance keeps the network running efficiently and securely.  Our Managed IT Services provides proactive IT support and proactive IT maintenance therefore reducing IT systems failure and downtime.

Our team of IT support specialists monitor the health, performance and security of your IT network 24/7 ensuring security and stability.

The NOC, or Network Operation Center, is usually a physical location where a MSP delivers their managed services. The NOC is the heart or nerve center of the MSP operation. Originally used by telecommunications companies, the NOC was used as a centralized place where service technicians could safely and securely work, without having to worry about disruptions of power, Internet connectivity, or other disruptive occurrences, whether caused by natural or unnatural events.

In the early days of managed services, MSPs would build a NOC because it was a necessary component of their business model. This central monitoring location was often a key selling point for MSPs. Customers who outsource their IT management want to feel safe that their IT assets are being accessed by qualified people who are themselves located in a safe and secure location. This is why the NOC exists and is so important to the business model of a MSP.

In recent years, the term Virtual NOC has come into common usage when describing a MSP that either uses another MSP's NOC, or themselves do not have a physical location where the NOC technicians work. Instead, the technicians work remotely and collaborate in a virtualized environment. Ultimately, there are several forms a NOC can take, each one aimed at servicing a type of customer need.

We provide guaranteed response times based on the Service Priority of the issue. The service priority levels are based on an ITIL framework and range from Informational, Standard, Urgent, and Critical.

Yes, as a Managed IT Service customer we provide unlimited remote and onsite support for a fixed monthly cost.

Grip I.T. will manage your IT environment from initial conception through to expansion or contraction of your business. Strategic decisions are handled through our consultations with your designated team. Grip I.T. is available to you at any point in time to discuss new IT needs and strategic changes to the environment.