your application uptime. managed. maximised. guaranteed. · dynamics ax? microsoft dynamics ax is a...

Best-in-class managed servicessolutions for client-ownedinfrastructures

Managed Services for Microsoft Dynamics AX

Your Application Uptime.Managed. Maximised. Guaranteed.

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When it really matters, trust InsiteWhile other Cloud and Managed Service providers only guarantee operating system availability, Insite delivers clear,no-nonsense contractual guarantees of application uptime to meet your business-critical needs.

We offer three levels of application uptime guarantee:

We can work with you to determine which level is most appropriate and cost-effective for your business operations.Please call 01892 686 000 for advice.

Expertly managed solution comprising secure hosting of client-owned infrastructure and a full suite of operational supportand risk management services

Enables clients to focus on revenue generation and competitiveadvantage by managing the risk of application failure

Guarantees application uptime as high as >99.95%*

Cuts the cost and worry of finding and retaining highlyspecialised IT skills

Delivers industry leading application availability

*>99.95% for ‘High Availability’ infrastructures, >99.9% or >99.5% for other infrastructures.**Service credits are part of each customer’s Insite SLA.

Insite Managed Services forMicrosoft Dynamics AXwith unique application uptime guarantee

What are Managed Services for Microsoft Dynamics AX?

The solution is based on quarterly fees, which include24/7 proactive monitoring, a full set of 24/7 operationalsupport services and secure hosting of client-ownedinfrastructure required to deploy Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Insite is unique in guaranteeing application uptime of>99.5%, >99.9% or >99.95% depending on the platformspecification agreed with the client.

Managed Services contracts usually have a minimumduration of three years. Insite takes total responsibility fortechnology platforms on which Dynamics AX depends,highlighted in blue in the diagram below:

The comprehensive scope of Insite’sManaged Services

The client’s AX implementation partner takes care of thecore AX application, while Insite manages the ITinfrastructure and underlying Microsoft technologies onwhich it depends.

In addition, Insite works proactively with the softwareimplementation specialist to maintain optimal application performance.

Insite Managed Services enable clients to leverage the power of their businesssystems and focus on core business activities whilst benefiting from cost savingsand Insite’s unique application uptime guarantee.

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Managed Servicesbenefits

• Guarantees applicationuptime as high as>99.95%

• Clients have peace ofmind and canconcentrate on theircore business as Insitetakes totalresponsibility for theavailability andperformance of theircritical systems

• Clients have access to ateam of experiencedspecialists ensuring thatIT resources neverbecome a bottleneck

• Insite delivers all on-going support asdescribed in detail inour Key Featuressection, pages 6-11.

Why consider ManagedServices for MicrosoftDynamics AX?

Microsoft Dynamics AX is a flexible,feature-rich product, which, if managedand supported proficiently, deliverssignificant business benefits including animpressive return on investment.However, those benefits are quicklyeroded if the system becomes unreliableor fragile.

To get the best from your critical application it isimperative that:

• It is deployed using a fit-for-purpose platformcomprising correctly specified hardware, software andnetwork connectivity

• Those responsible for its support have detailedknowledge of Microsoft technologies on which AXdepends and interacts, for example Windows Server2012, SQL Server 2014 and SharePoint 2013

• A robust SLA is in place, which includes guaranteedapplication uptime (not just OS availability), responsetimes. fix times and problem escalation whennecessary.

Most internal IT departments have the capability todeliver a wide range of general support, but lack in-depthexpertise required to effectively support complexbusiness applications like Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Insite solves this problem and manages business risk byproviding Managed Services.

Confidence in systems “Working with Insite gives me confidence. Theymanage our systems as I would expect, which inturn gives all our 550-plus users confidence in oursystems, our business, and its capability to deliver.”

Mark Skidmore, IT Infrastructure Manager, Tarmac Building Products

Tarmac is the UK’s largest supplier of heavy building products

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Manage the risk of critical system failure withon-premise or off-premise managed services

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Choose our On-Premise Managed Service for Microsoft Dynamics AX for client-owned infrastructure located on the client's premises.

Alternatively, for clients who prefer secure hosting of their infrastructure at theInsite data centre, we offer our Off-Premise Hosted Managed Service forMicrosoft Dynamics AX.

Either way, Insite Managed Services help you mitigate the risk of critical systemfailure through a comprehensive set of platform-level, operational support and riskmanagement services. Our diagram below clearly shows the benefits.

* Depending on the platform specification agreed with the client.

Key features of Insite Managed Servicesfor Microsoft Dynamics AX Expert SupportInsite has a deep understanding and considerableexperience of the technologies on which MicrosoftDynamics AX depends, such as Active Directory, SQLServer, SQL Reporting Services, SharePoint Server,and Windows Server.

As importantly, we have an unrivalled knowledge ofhow Microsoft Dynamics AX interact withtechnology platforms, which reduces incidentresolution times to a minimum.

Service Level AgreementInsite operates a robust, dependable SLA that guaranteesapplication uptime for Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Application AvailabilityInsite guarantees and achieves monthly application uptimeof >99.5%, >99.9% or >99.95% for Microsoft Dynamics AXand companion products.*

Response and Fix TargetsThe table above details the response and fix targets forInsite Managed Services.

Disaster Recovery (Extra cost option)Insite guarantees the following for Disaster Recovery systems:

• Recovery Time Objective (RTO) as low as four hours forour premium service

• Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of less than five minutes.

Issues can be logged by phone, emailor through the Insite support portal.Incidents are prioritised and assigned tothe appropriate resolver group 24/7

24 x 365 Service DeskInsite provides a 24/7 Service Desk where IT-related issuescan be logged. Issues can be logged by phone, email orthrough the support portal. Incidents are prioritised andassigned to the appropriate resolver group 24 hours a day.

the appropriate resolver group 24/7

*>99.95% offered for ‘High Availability’, resilientinfrastructure deployments with no single points of failure.

Priority Definition Response Fix Cover Time Time Hours

CRITICAL Complete application failure or major 30 minutes 4 hours 24 x 365(P1) disruption to normal business operations

HIGH Partial application failure or a fault which affects all users at a single 2 hours 6 hours 08:00 to 18:00(P2) location causing significant disruption to business operations Monday to Friday

MEDIUM A fault that affects a workgroup with little 4 hours 10 hours 08:00 to 18:00(P3) effect on normal business operations Monday to Friday

LOW A fault that affects individual users that does 8 hours 16 hours 08:00 to 18:00(P4) not have any impact on normal business operations Monday to Friday

QUICK Password resets, thin client 15 minutes 30 mins 08:00 to 18:00ASSIST session resets, etc. Monday to Friday

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24 x 365 Monitoring and AlertingAn acute awareness of application and system health isrequired to deliver market-leading standards of support.Insite uses a best-of-breed toolkit to continuouslymonitor application performance and the platforms onwhich applications are dependent.

User Experience Monitoring (Cost option for onpremise Managed Service)Insite utilises Dynatrace Synthetic Transaction Monitoringto continuously monitor application performance andmeasure the end-user experience at 10 minute intervals.

A benchmark is established by measuring the duration ofthin client and application logins. Thereafter, 24/7 alertsare raised if a login process fails to complete or if logintimes exceed the benchmark by 30%.

Server MonitoringInsite employs SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor(SAM) to continuously monitor server thresholds andWindows services on which applications are dependent.24/7 alerts are raised if thresholds are breached or ifservices become unavailable.

SAM is integrated with HP Systems Insight Manager (SIM)and raises 24/7 alerts if hardware components fail orwhen error conditions occur.

Network MonitoringCisco Prime is deployed to monitor Insite’s Cisco Nexuscore switches and edge switches. 24/7 alerts are raised ifoperational thresholds are exceeded or if error conditionsmanifest on any network port.

Windows Event Log MonitoringPower Admin from PA Server Monitor is used to identifyand alert on Windows event log errors, drawing attentionto individual problems before they compound intosomething more disruptive.

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Key features continued

Synthetic Transaction Monitoringcontinuously measures the end-userexperience at 10-minute intervals toensure that application performancebenchmarks are maintained

All infrastructure is monitored 24/7 ingranular detail using best-of-breedsoftware. If thresholds are breached orerror conditions are detected, alerts areraised automatically

Security/Compliance

SIEM/Protective Monitoring (Cost option for onpremise Managed Service)Security Incident and Event Management, or ProtectiveMonitoring, greatly enhances an organisation’s awarenessof cyber threat by alerting on attacks in real time. Insiteutilises LogRhythm SIEM 2.0 to provide the followingstate-of-the-art protection:

LogRhythm automates compliance with ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, SOC-2 and IL3 by using a powerful threatanalytics / log correlation engine to audit tamper-proofcopies of security logs, from servers and securityappliances, in real time. Alerts are raised if a suspiciouscombination or sequence of events is detected.

Vulnerability AssessmentsInsite uses Security Center Continuous View from TenableNetworks to provide quarterly vulnerability assessmentsof infrastructure under management.

Malware, out-of-date software, missing updates andpatches are identified and classified as Critical, High,Medium or Low vulnerabilities.

Security AccreditationsInsite is ISO 27001:2013 accredited by a certification body approved by the United Kingdom AccreditationService (UKAS).

Insite is also Impact Level 3 (IL3) certified by the CabinetOffice to host confidential Government systems andapproved for connection to the Public Services Network(PSN). In addition, Insite is Cyber Essentials PLUS certifiedin accordance with the UK Government standard developedas part of the UK’s National Cyber Security Programme.

Secure Infrastructure HostingProduction infrastructure is hosted at Insite’s Tier 3 datacentre located in Kent. The production data centre hasbeen Impact Level Three accredited by the Cabinet Officeto host confidential Government systems.

Disaster Recovery infrastructure is hosted at a Tata Tier 3data centre located in Buckinghamshire.

Secure Internet ConnectivityBusiness-critical applications can be securely accessedusing the Internet. Non-stop Internet access is assured by:

• High capacity, multi-homed Internet connectionsfrom different Internet Service Providers

• Clustered EAL-4 firewalls, which comprehensivelyprotect all infrastructure under management

• Cisco Intrusion Detection Sensors, which protectagainst complex attacks, automatically killingconnections if suspicious activity is detected

• Clustered AEP Netilla appliances, which providesecure browser based access to Citrix or TerminalServer desktops for any authorised user with anInternet connection

• Tenable Passive Vulnerability Scanner, whichcontinuously monitors network traffic to eliminateblind spots by identifying vulnerabilities and threatsin real-time.

Server Patching/UpdatesInsite is responsible for applying hot fixes, securityupdates and service packs within a maintenance windowagreed in advance.

Significant updates and service packs are tested inadvance, using isolated test environments, before theyare applied to production infrastructure.

Feature Threat

File Integrity Monitoring Zero hour virus infections

Registry Integrity Monitoring Unauthorised changes by malware or malicious persons

Security Log Alerting Attempts to gain unauthorised access to systems

Behaviour Anomaly Detection Brute force attacks

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Application Performance ReviewsInsite undertakes capacity planning to identifybottlenecks and to propose system upgrades required tomaintain optimum application performance.

Windows performance counters are used to assessworkload and capacity of server infrastructure. SQL ServerDynamic Management Views are used to identify missingindexes, blocks, deadlocks and slow SQL code.

Insite works with application partners to permanentlyresolve application performance issues.

SQL Database AdministrationInsite is responsible for all SQL database administrationincluding configuration and daily validation ofmaintenance plans and backups. Daily or weekly SQLmaintenance plans manage hourly transaction logbackups, full backups, integrity checks and database re-indexing.

Change ManagementInsite takes responsibility for all changes to productionplatforms. Insite uses ITIL best practice to ensure thatchanges are made in a controlled way to minimise therisk of business disruption.

Change Requests include a regression path and areauthorised by both parties before being scheduled for implementation.

Secure HostingInsite hosts client-owned infrastructure at its Tier Threedata centre in Kent. The data centre includes thefollowing features:

• Partitioned server suites to maintain power, fire andenvironmental isolation

• N+1 power supplies

• N+1 close controlled air-conditioning

• FM-200 waterless fire detection and extinguisher systems

• Grade three Intrusion Detection System, CCTV andproximity detection, monitored 24/7

• Cisco Nexus IP backbone

• Gigabit connections to multiple Internet Service Providers

The data centre is Impact Level Three accredited by theCabinet Office to host secure government systems.

Shared Storage and BackupInsite provides shared storage required by highavailability SQL database clusters. Shared storage isprovisioned using high performance 3PAR 7440 arrays,configured with solid-state disks drives (SSD). Storagearrays are connected to servers using fibre channel toguarantee consistent, optimum application performance.

Insite’s Enterprise backup services utilise HP DataProtector and high capacity Ultrium tape libraries. Tapelibraries are connected to storage arrays using fibrechannel to facilitate high-speed ‘fabric’ level backups and restores.

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Insite undertakes applicationperformance reviews and capacityplanning, and also works withapplication partners to permanentlyresolve application performance issues.

10 reasons to engage Insite

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Ownership - Insite takes total

responsibility for application uptime and

performance enabling its clients to focus

on revenue generation and competitive

advantage by leveraging the power of

Microsoft Dynamics AX

Business-critical ethos -

we understand the need for critical systems

to be constantly available; highly pro-active

support is focused on application uptime

as well as infrastructure maintenance

European MicrosoftDynamics AX leader - Insite is

a Private Cloud and Managed Services

specialist, and a European leader in the

operational support of business-critical

applications

Guaranteed applicationuptime of >99.5%,>99.9% or >99.95% - Insite is

unique amongst Cloud providers in

offering this SLA-bound guarantee

Secure - ISO 27001:2013 accredited by

the United Kingdom Accreditation Service.

IL3 and Cyber Essentials Plus accredited by

the Cabinet Office and UK Government

Deep skills and matureprocesses - highly demonstrable,

market-leading pedigree with SunSystems,

Microsoft Dynamics and other business-

critical applications dependent on

Microsoft SQL Server

Trust, continuity, success… “Our services operate seven days a week and have40 million visits per annum, so we need IT servicesthat are responsive and robust. Our chosen partneris Insite and they have been an important andtrusted part of our business continuity and success.”

Peter Bundey, Deputy Managing Director, GLL (Greenwich Leisure Ltd)GLL is the largest operator of public sports and leisure facilities within London,managing over 130 centres across the region

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State-of-the-artinfrastructure - consisting of 3PAR

high performance storage arrays supporting

a hybrid of physical and virtual servers

dedicated to the exclusive use of each client

Stress-free support -

Insite Managed Services ensure that IT

personnel never become bottlenecks and

clients do not have the bother of recruiting,

training and retaining expensive IT resources

Cost effective - compared to

procuring infrastructure and retaining skills

in-house, Insite Managed Services can

provide costs savings of up to 30%

Passionate and effective -

Insite is an agile business with an

exceptional pool of technical talent. We are

passionate about what we do and take the

utmost care of our clients. Most importantly,

we do not suffer from the apathy often

associated with our peer group.

Insite Ltd.

Insite Data Centre,

Unit 21, Chapman Way,

Tunbridge Wells,

Kent TN2 3EF

www.insite-europe.co.uk

Telephone+44 (0)1892 686 000

[email protected]

Copyright © 2016 Insite Corporation. All rights reserved. Issue 2016-06

Get to know Insite, theapplication uptime people

Why Insite? It all comes down to a single word: trust.

Major organisations trust Insite to guarantee the availability of themission-critical ERP, CRM and Finance applications on which theirreputations, revenues and profits depend.

That’s because we guarantee application uptime - and we alsomonitor and measure application performance and the userexperience 24/7. And all as part of our standard solution. (OtherCloud providers typically guarantee operating system availabilityonly as part of their standard offer and charge a considerablepremium when an application uptime guarantee is required.)

With our 20-plus years’ experience, expert teams and our ownstate-of-the-art UK data centre, you can trust Insite to maximiseapplication uptime for your business-critical systems. Guaranteed.

Call us now on 01892 686 000.

*>99.95% for ‘High Availability’ infrastructures, >99.9% or >99.5% for otherinfrastructures. **Service credits are part of each customer’s Insite SLA.

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ISO27001:2013

Member of SN Registrars (Holdings) Ltd

your application uptime. managed. maximised. guaranteed. · dynamics ax? microsoft dynamics ax is a...

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