Our Services

Rampart Hosting is a full service company, which means 24 X 7 X 365 managed services. We are the exclusive providers of The Common Sense SLA © Whether you need to discuss internet hosting specifications, management and reporting of your services, plans about implementing emerging technologies, or just need to augment your current development efforts, you will always have a phone number and a name to call, day or night. Full service also means you always have full access to you servers and data, remotely, through physical access, or through one of our technicians.

How Our Services Fit You
As we work with our Clients, we look for ways to improve the following technology segments as the basis for our services recommendations

• Centralization of Resources and Vendor Management
• Local Accessibility to Equipment & Resources
• Technology Planning and Implementation
• Outdated Technology & Business Applications or Processes
• Increasing Efficiency, Capacity & Redundancy
• Flexibility to Quickly Change or Adapt Technology Direction
• Third Party Testing & Security Validation

Those Who Help Us To Provide the Best
In order to provide the best possible technology solutions for our Clients, we maintain close relationships with, and buy almost exclusively from the following well known and respected providers:

• Microsoft - Adobe/Macromedia Operating Systems and Application Software
• Dell - Servers, Storage Solutions and Peripherals
• Cisco, Sonicwall, Coyote Point Systems - Firewalls, Load Balancers, Switches, and Routers
• Time Warner Telecom - Internet Connectivity and Hosting Infrastructure
• APC - Uninterruptible Power Supplies

We also maintain relationships, and contract with other technology companies and consultants locally and across the United States, to make sure that our Clients needs are met 100% of the time.

 

Internet Hosting
Beginning in early 2005, we began executing an aggressive expansion and modernization plan of our internet hosting environments. This significant investment has led to a continuous improvement in uptime which now averages near 100% for our most critical environments.

We are partnered with Time Warner Telecom, in central Ohio, as our internet connectivity and hosting infrastructure provider. Here are some of the key elements that make this an environment that can fit the needs of almost any organization.

• Directly connected to the Time Warner Telecom National Fiber Network.
• Two separate fiber routes for automated failover and redundancy.
• Concrete and steel construction, former fallout shelter, all systems above grade.
• Sustained by two separate AC power feeds, backed up by a 450 KVA generator (tested weekly). Additional power failover to primary and secondary UPS systems.
• Redundant HVAC units.
• FM 200 fire suppression and detection system.
• Lightning protection system and ground field.
• Twenty-four hour, Seven day a week monitoring of environmental conditions.
• Audit trail of all access and egress of facility including video surveillance.

 

Security
All of the infrastructure and network redundancy available to our Clients is of little importance if security is breached in our internet hosting environments. As is well publicized in the media, the primary causes for extended outages these days are related to the various attacks continuously launched by malicious organizations and individuals.

Rampart Hosting take this situation very seriously, employing multiple layers of hardware and software defenses such as virus, trojan and spy ware protection to avoid and stop issues before they become problems. We also use third party consultants to verify the security measures we use work in the real world, making sure that there are no mistakes, no un-expected holes. These measures add a level of certainty in your security that lets you sleep at night.

 

The Common Sense SLA©
Many internet hosting companies create and market an outrageous "one size fits all" Service Level Agreement (SLA), promising 100% uptime for unrealistically low fees. The truth is there are always loopholes, and you will usually do well to get only what you pay for from such providers NEVER any more! While it is possible to achieve independent 100% uptime of the 4 main elements involved in providing managed internet hosting services (Network, Infrastructure, Hardware and Software), the true costs associated with always providing synchronization of all 4 elements is unjustifiable by nearly all companies and organizations.

At Rampart Hosting, we've discovered that we cannot be perfect, but that we can be accountable for problems when they happen, and bear the financial burdens that can result from those problems. We offer The Common Sense SLA © We will always strive to deliver 100% uptime, but also recognize that our Clients will experience unplanned outages that are usually our problems to solve. We won't play the blame game, and we won't give you a convoluted SLA that says you'll get100% uptime, with the intent of delivering something less.

The Main Components of The Common Sense SLA©

• We both agree that it is more important to fix an unplanned outage, and then discover the cause and financial impact/responsibility for that outage. This always provides an open, collaborative opportunity to learn how to avoid the same mistake twice, and a consistent way to be financially accountable for an unplanned outage.
   
• We both agree that we must fully communicate and coordinate planned outages in advance, minimizing potential losses to your company, and eliminating any financial penalties to us for a planned outage in excess of 10 minutes.
   
• We both agree that any outage of 10 minutes or less is unlikely to cause a level of end user dissatisfaction that warrants either reportable responsibility from us to you, or financial penalties to us.
   
• We both agree that from the moment it happens, it is the responsibility of Rampart Hosting to know when an unplanned outage of the Network, Infrastructure, or a piece of Hardware is occurring, and to notify you as soon as possible that the "outage clock" has begun, along with what actions are being taken. With the exception of circumstances beyond our control, we begin crediting your account as soon as the 11th minute of these types of outages occur.
   
• We both agree that shared knowledge and responsibility for the vast possibilities of Software operating systems and application configurations, coupled with their data sets, is at the heart of true managed services. This type of understanding means we are both willing to combine our resources for a more rapid software based outage resolution, and that a combined determination of the source of the outage will dictate who has the financial responsibility for the outage. If a Software based outage responsibility belongs to us, we begin crediting your account as soon as the 11th minute of these types of outages occur.
   
• We both agree to a specific schedule of penalties to us, up to and including a penalty of the full monthly fee, based on the total duration of any unplanned outage(s) in each calendar month.

 

Environment Management & Reporting
With professional managed services comes 24 X 7 X 365 management, monitoring and support of your environment. We are constantly pro-active in keeping your environment up to date, and monitoring your server and network devices for signs of trouble, before they mature into an outage.

• Hardware, Operating Systems and Applications - Patches, hot fixes and updates are tested in a virtual environment before implementation. This ensures that there are no surprises when systems need to be updated.
   
• Multiple internal and external monitoring systems watch network traffic, server and device status, and key applications, databases and web services. When trouble is detected, our technicians are immediately notified, and we go to work.
   
• Instant Notification - Rampart Hosting, will email, page, sms, IM or email you on a standard that we develop with you. We will work to match your needs, and desired level of involvement in the day to day management or your environment.
   
• Answers - Rampart Hosting uses web based systems to deliver reports about your environment's performance, down to the level of application reporting for parameters such as CPU usage, update and patch history, failures, communication alerts, and the like. These reports are easy to read and include the information you need to make management decisions. Rampart Hosting uses industry standard applications to provide a monthly overview that fits your specific needs.

Our managed services provide a unique support system that includes 24 X 7 X 365 owner accountability response to all support needs. This leads to faster resolution of support issues stemming from the continuity and familiarity an owner will have with systems and personnel:

24 X 7 X 365 Internal and External Monitoring and remote restart of all systems
24 X 7 X 365 Live Support by Phone
24 X 7 X 365 Support Ticket System

In addition the central location of our facility allows for rapid on-site response for all Rampart Hosting personnel.

 

Backup & Disaster Recovery

No internet hosting environment is complete without backup and disaster recovery. All backups are done to a hard disk based Storage Area Network (SAN), which is fully redundant and helps to ensure the safety and reliability of your data. This SAN also greatly improves the restoration process if an emergency does occur, as there is no waiting for tapes to rewind while wondering if they still hold the priceless information that was recently being served from your environment.

Finally, we maintain extra, on site warm servers to take over the load for a server that might fail. This allows Rampart Hosting to quickly retrieve your data and place it on a functional server, immediately instead of waiting for the repair of failed hardware.

 

Consulting & Development Support
In addition to the many services already described, the diversity of our team affords us the opportunity to provide the following services and more:

• Technology Infrastructure Planning
• Security Assessment
• Load testing
• Web, application, and business process application development
• Web, application, and business process application product testing and troubleshooting.