Managed Solutions

Introduction

Not just an IT infrastructure service provider

We will put the service back into the web services industry. Resources are priced not on hardware but on cloud instances and traffic units. Customers enjoy a truly full service environment complete with system architects, security specialists, and custom programming solutions. All technology is refreshed in a timely manner, and multiple solutions are always presented with any challenge that may arise.

Revolutionary business model

You deserve non-technical answers to complex questions. If a client cannot fully understand the problem, they cannot make an informed decision. Wildcard takes ownership of the data hosting environment. Challenges are met head on, and a customer is never told that it is somebody else’s problem. Engineers will respond to problems and find solutions, then present those solutions to the customer. Information Technology services have become a reactive industry, Wildcard is going to change that by showing a customer how easy things can be with a proactive, find the problem before it exists mentality.

Government IT Gap

The primary reason for the founding of Wildcard is to better serve and integrate government contract services. Companies would win contracts and give initial support, but then fail to continuously serve the customer. Customers were left with a lack of understanding and sense of helplessness as the companies took advantage of the government process. After working in the sector for over a decade, the founders came to the realization that a service provider that puts the customer first was needed.

Solutions

Wildcard provides enterprise engineering solutions to fully encompass your entire web presence. Our core belief in ownership and responsibility of our clients' environments show our unique approach to providing solutions and resolving problems. Wildcard is happy to manage your entire web presence. This includes, but is not limited to, hardware, software, applications, network communication, security, and much more.

Wildcard is an I.T. consulting firm and government contractor. We specialize in managed services and partnering with our clients to provide effective and efficient solutions. Our services utilize and support a large variety of technology initiatives including; programming services, cloud computing, virtualization, content management, Plone, Zope, and SharePoint.  Regardless of whether you need a processing intensive Linux configuration or a simple web hosting setup, Wildcard can easily customize a solution for you. Our managed services include everything that your system requires in a data center, from concept creation to operations and maintenance of those mission critical systems.  Day to day support, administration, server configuration as well as system troubleshooting, disaster recovery site and contingency of operations planning is all included.

Wildcard doesn't focus on the problems, we focus on the solutions. We look forward to becoming your technology partner.

Service Description

We define Managed Services units in a whole new way providing leading edge solutions. We don't believe in breaking services into granular items like power strips and copper connections. Wildcard Corp. works within it's own private logically separated and secured cloud for it's Federal Customers. Wildcard Managed Services includes all the following items. All of which can be scaled or combined to your needs based on the units ordered below. If service for 5 machines is ordered each with 100gb, 1 x 2.2ghz processors and 1gb ram these resources could be combined into 2 machines having 250gb drives, 2.5gb ram and 3 processors for each system. We want to be as flexible and configurable as your needs demand.

At a minimum, our WCR-3 & WCR-4 unmanaged offerings have the same systems capabilities. Additional programming, systems management, ownership, and responsibility are not contained within the unmanaged services offering. These are ideal for processing intensive servers as needed for weather models or scientific calculation.

Our Managed Services offering takes ownership and control of your environment to the greatest possible extent that you, the client, allow. We will manage the environment from inception and creation to technology refresh, operation, and maintenance. We will take care of new programming efforts, new technology integration, OS patches, application patches, security reporting, Disaster Recovery (DR), and Contingency of Operations Planning (COOP).

Security Services

Security is first and foremost to us. Security is not only physical and logical security but security in your backups and up time of the systems. In order to facilitate this we provide the following, but this is only a high level view.

• Unified Threat Management

  • Gateway Anti-virus Inspection - virus definition databases are updated immediately after a release

  • Web Traffic Inspection - including SSL Inbound and Outbound and blocking of web traffic for surf control for unauthorized sites

  • SMTP SPAM Control

  • Anti-virus: to provide constant protection against all computer malware

  • Layer 7 and Deep Packet Inspection - data traffic is inspected at the firewall down to the most intricate levels to assure no harmful content is embedded.

  • URL Filtering - complete threat management URL filtering including dynamic redirects.

• Intrusion Detection - repetitive scanning for SQL injections, 0day attacks, Cross server scripting, directory crawling and other computer hacking technologies.

• Disaster Recovery Site / Failover

  • Multiple sites 50+ miles apart and far away from urban centers

• SAN/NAS storage mirroring and replication

• Content Delivery Network - security through layered access

• Vulnerability Assessment - consistent monitoring of IT based vulnerabilities and their effects on operational environment.

• Two Token Authentication - provisioned and managed authentication methods.

• Public Facing Read only Web Servers (Managed Services only) – custom architected solutions for static external user interface insures maximum security.

Infrastructure

• System Storage, RAM, Processor and OS

  • Typical configuration is for current technology 1 x CPU, 1 GB RAM & 100 GB drive

• Internet Network Connectivity

• Content Delivery Network high availability, reporting and caching

• Virtual Private Network Connectivity both Web based Application VPN and SSL/IPSEC are supported as required by client SOW

Consulting Services

Find the problems before the customer does; find solutions to those problems, present several courses of action to the customer. Wildcard has dedicated resources that examine existing environments and look for ways to improve those environments. These can include; finding a new piece of hardware, or software that matches a client’s mission or custom programming solutions if none exist. Whether the system calls for COTS, GOTS or Open Source Software, thinking outside the box for our clients is something at which we excel.

Managed and Unmanaged Solution Mode

Wildcard wants to manage your environment for you, we want to use Plone to engineer a custom site for you; however, we will also allow you full control of your environment, these are your servers that you are paying for and we are more then willing to act in a purely advisory role should the need arise. What follows is a description of our managed services solution.

With our WCR-1 & WCR-2 Managed Services offering, we take responsibility and ownership. We provide the entire hosted environment as a combination of Platform as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service, and Software as a Service. This typically referred to as Cloud Computing, or IaaS, PaaS, SaaS. These are bundled to provide:

• Professional Consulting Services

  • Programmers in Python, .Net, Java and others as needed to custom create software and solutions is all part of the packaged service.

• DNS Hosting

  • DNSSEC compliance using industry standards

  • Hosted DNS records internally - as required by client SOW

• Backups

  • Management of application, database, OS and system backups - In the cloud this happens at multiple layers including Snapshots, Mirrored systems and Replication of resources.

• Multi-tiered Analytics and Reporting Management

  • Content Delivery Edge

  • Internal Logs (Firewalls and Servers)

  • Third party hosted Analytics services

  • Typical solutions include open source solutions such as Awstats or paid solutions like Google Analytics or Urchin.

  • Firewall logs can also be aggregated and shipped to you via hosted storage from the Content Delivery Network or from firewalls and servers.

• Plone & Zope Replication for Disaster Recovery

  • Plone & Zope application server is replicated and secured via a custom designed Zope Replication Services architecture.

• SSL Certificates Management and Procurement

  • One per group of five units

• Content Management - site management based on Plone from concept to implementation, operation, and support.

• Multi-tiered Infrastructure Troubleshooting

• SMTP mail transfer - as it relates to web site traffic, or form submission

• Multi-tiered Infrastructure Troubleshooting

• Data Center Load Balancing - between servers and between data centers

We also work with leaders in the industry for support and programming services. If you need an iPhone or Android app we will recruit and acquire the resources to provide the solution. If you require custom Plone modules we will work with leaders in the Python and Plone community to make it happen.

Competition Analysis and Comparison

The old approach:

While the competition does offer many, if not all of the services core competency is usually held at specific areas, without a clear defined focus or intent. Whatever name they may give it, Dedicated Hosting, Managed Hosting, or Co-location, they fall short of an A to Z solution. Every additional resource or function is classified as 'custom' or 'additional charge' for services and usually all subcontracted out, with no responsibility taken. This is evident whether it is traditional physical machines or cloud computing services that are offered. This model can be seen easily in the diagram below, red indicates items that are 'custom' or not included.

A new approach – Managed Services:

It's more than just the cloud. The new approach is to offer all the same services and more. Wildcard core competency is contained in the responsibility and ownership it will take over your systems. Although various resources are used they are procured for special projects or specialized areas, none of which perform on the day to day, engineering, operation and maintenance of the systems. Wildcard provisions the services by processing unit per month. Any resource can be consolidated into larger amalgamation of resources. For example if a client procures the 5 unit package, this package could be combined into 2 large machines at 3x CPU, 2.5GB RAM and 250GB a piece or kept at 5 machines each having 1 CPU, 1GB RAM and 100GB drive space. The configuration is all dependent on the project at hand. We will work with you to make sure the package is sized correctly, and resources allocated sufficiently to meet the demands of the environment. Where the competition is 'extra' or 'additional cost', Wildcard is included with it's customizable boutique service.

Managed Services Architecture

With the Managed Services architecture from Wildcard we take ownership and responsibility over the environment, from Data Center to Content Management System.

The Wildcard Cloud

Overview

Located below is a basic overview of the system. Multiple data centers are in use that have replicated data for DR and COOP. While this overview shows the replication and connectivity the next snapshot shows a more in-depth preview.

Example Managed Services 5 Unit Deployment

In order to understand a more granular view of a managed service deployment, see diagram below.

What is next? Wildcard will submit itself to be a Government Services Administration (GSA) approved contractor for all Local, State and Federal clients under the GSA Schedule 70 program. We hope to offer Plone managed services explicitly to government clients.

All Information here is Copyright (c) 2010 Wildcard Corp.