Who is supporting?

The Managed Desktop staff maintain certifications from Microsoft, Symantec, Citrix, Cisco, and other industry leading companies. All of the Managed Desktop's staff are encouraged to look for any opportunity to improve our service to you. Positive Impact Corporation will continue to be your point of contact and will provide your support for this solution.

Who Sees My Data?

Your data is fully protected from access by anyone not authorized by you and provided with an access code by you.

Specifically identified Managed Desktop technical staff will have access in order to manage your data effectively and securely and to provide reports on use of the system by your employees.

What happens when The Internet Is Down?

If your access to the internet fails you would not be able to access the applications and data on our servers. Such occurrences are usually of a very short duration.

Our own internet connection has a permanent back-up so that failure of the primary connection can be compensated very quickly.

If your computing activities are such that you cannot risk any down time you could also have a redundant internet link. An individual dial-up connection will suffice for single user emergency access.

Even if internet connectivity is lost for a short time, employees can still work at another location or at home. Or they could work on any applications that are retained on their individual PCs and transfer the files to the hosted servers when the internet connection is restored.

Remote Access while I'm on the road?

You can access your applications at any time and from any location using an Internet browser.

What if I get disconnected?

If you are temporarily disconnected, all you need to do is sign on again using your assigned password. There will be no interruption to your work as our servers will retain the point at which you were working at the time of the disconnection.

Who owns the software?

You own your application software, and it is your responsibility to maintain all necessary licenses. However, as a part of the hosting solution, we manage that software for you, including implementation of patches, upgrades and version changes.

Bandwidth needed?

We recommend a minimum of 50k per user in the office environment.

The hosting solution will work over a dial-up connection even at 28k. However, at this speed you would notice a slowing in performance and such a connection would only be recommended for occasional on the road access.

Who supports my software?

Managed Desktop carries out any management of the hosted network that is required for your applications. However, for routine operating questions related to our application software you would call the relevant software provider or reseller.

What guarantees do I have if my system goes down?

Our contract with you guarantees 99.8% uptime of your system on a 24/7 basis. This is a remarkably high performance guarantee.

If, in any month, the up time is less than this, we will give you a refund for lost time, in excess of the guarantee, at a rate equivalent to 4 times your normal user fees for the lost time you experienced.

Operating systems supported?

We support Microsoft platforms as well as Unix, Linux and Macintosh.

Eliminate software upgrades?

You will still need to keep up to date with software changes. However, with our hosting solution you do not have to do anything as we will carry out all necessary upgrades on our servers.

How secure is my connection ?

You will decide which Internet Service Provider to use. One of the criteria will be the reliability of their service. If it is absolutely critical that you do not lose connectivity, you may consider having a permanent backup internet connection in place as we do at our data centers.

Can use our existing PC's?

Yes. In fact one of the advantages of our service is that you do not need any particular level of technology on your client PCs. Consequently you can extend the life of otherwise redundant PCs or utilize thin clients which are much cheaper than fully functional PCs.

Can we still run local applications ?

Yes. You can choose which applications you wish to retain on your local PCs as well as or instead of transferring them to our hosting servers. Your employees can work on any application locally and later transfer the data to the hosted environment.

Monitoring and reporting you provide?

We monitor the uptime of the system and will report to you any events which cause a break in service even if they occur out of your working hours.

We monitor your employees usage of the system including the number of users at any time. We can provide you with information on usage as requested.

Installation charges?

Yes. When you initiate the hosting service there are setup fees for the company and users.

Per month/per application cost?

Please contact us to obtain a customized quote.

Contract terms, if any?

There is a requirement to sign at least a one year contract. Longer contract periods are also available and these can result in reduced monthly charges.

Must we use Managed Desktop for our LAN integration needs?

You are encouraged to use your current system integrator for all of your LAN needs.

Difference between redundancy and backup?

Redundancy refers to the provision of supplementary equipment which can be immediately activated in the event of the failure of critical elements like data servers.

Back-up refers to the protection of data using disk or tape back-up so that your data is not vulnerable to the failure of a single disk and so that you may recover historic data.

If remote users do not have access to a broad-band internet connection, how can they connect to the service ?

The service may be accessed using any dial up internet connection via a web browser. Although it is possible to use a 28kb connection there will be a noticeable loss of performance and it is recommended to use not less than a 56k connection.

Remote user connects to what?

All remote users connect to the Hostwindow servers. This is where all your applications and data will reside. Since this is where all your home office employees will also access, the system gives all employees, local and remote, full functionality and interactivity.

Effect on speed - Managed Desktop and local network?

None, unless you have so many users browsing that you are using up all the available bandwidth.

Do I need to tell my clients about the move?

You will need to decide what you tell your clients. However, the fact is that their data will be better protected and more secure than when it resided in your office.

Can I Print to my home printer while there?

You can print locally whatever your location. However before first using a remote printer you must have it properly configured into the system by our technical staff.

Down time due to technical failures?

Our entire system is designed with reliability as the top priority. All our data centers are equipped with power generators in the event of an electrical failure, as well as fire and flood protection.

We maintain constant back-up of data both to file and tape to protect against disk failure. Tape backups are routinely kept off-site.

We maintain equipment redundancy to protect against failure of an entire system component such as a server.