Solutions

HSIA NETWORK DESIGN & DEPLOYEMNT

Why Guarded Systems!

Guarded Systems has emerged as a premier IT solutions provider for the hospitality industry over the last five years. We have set us apart by consolidating “Integrated Information solutions” concept under one roof. Our distinction is our ability to constantly embrace new technological developments, software as well as hardware, with respect to hospitality industry, and design custom-tailored solutions as per the unique needs of our valued clients.

How we got so unique!

We forged partnerships with the best vendors in the industry. We crafted and perfected our own web-based Access Management Software, Guarded XcessProTM, to do necessary back-office tasks to operate and manage HSIA. We pooled and nurtured the best talent as our engineers and designers. We trained and groomed truly world-class, in-house, technical support team to be available 7/24/365. The result! Technology solutions that are robust, flexible and scalable, that not only integrate with your existing infrastructure seamlessly but also grow with your organizational needs and are iron-clad secure.

Guarded Systems Advantage!

• Our HSIA solutions meet or exceed, all brand and industry standards by a wide margin
• Our designed HSIA solutions are technically sound and complex and yet so simple to use that even the non-technical hospitality staff can use them with utmost ease (Pug-n-Play)
• We blend the best of the best hardware/software applications available in the industry to create these open market commercial solutions and still they are not proprietary in nature
• We provide complete project management with single point of contact for your “total” HSIA needs. It allows you the luxury of spending your precious time and resources to more important responsibilities, like taking care of your guests/customers instead of wasting time in search of different vendors for every single IT project
• Thanks to our in-house Advanced Support Team, our support average call resolution time is 7 minutes, whereas industry standards consider 10 minutes as excellent.
• We are one of the only few companies in the industry that enjoys the capability of providing on-site support and service anywhere in the country, through our MSA agreements in place.

Wireless

Wireless Network Infrastructure Consulting

Wireless networks are the future backbone of hospitality networks infrastructure. There are only two kinds of organization in this sector today, ones that have already deployed wireless networks and the ones that will deploy wireless.

Wireless networks have come a long way, and continue to evolve into a viable alternative to the conventional networks as we know them today. Today's wireless networks are smarter, faster and more secure than ever, however the wireless infrastructure design requires consideration and techniques that do not apply to conventional networks.

GUARDED SYSTEMS offers wireless consulting services geared to address unique needs of our hospitality clients. Our wireless consulting services are of highest technical and professional caliber, where the emphasis is on security, availability and seamless integration into your existing network.

Wireless Network Design

Wireless network designs consist of several stages listed below; GUARDED Systems offers services for all phases of wireless communications.

Site Survey & RF Study

Site Survey is the most important phase in wireless network design. Wireless network performance is mainly depended upon the environment where wireless is deployed. Most of the wireless network shortcomings are due poor placement of Access Points and uncontrolled RF distribution.

RF Spectrum study helps better understand the WiFi feasibility for any proposed wireless network site. RF study provided us with crucial data such as channel availability, SNR ratios and other spectrum related information.

Capacity Planning

Wireless networks are not designed for coverage only; density plays an important role in the availability of your wireless network. Capacity planning is performed by analyzing the usage pattern of wireless network. Applications that will utilize the network play an impotent role in the planning as well. For example you may utilize VoWiFi or WiFi surveillance, RFID or wireless biometric security application in future. Any network designed today to address the future expansions, can save serious investment or short comings in the network tomorrow.

Wireless Network Deployment & Integration

Wireless Network integration into your existing corporate network is more than just physically connecting an Access Point to your network. Integration of wireless network into an existing corporate network is a tricky task. If the integration is not performed carefully, your corporate network can be compromised and become an open heaven for War Drivers. In order to get the most out of your wireless network, you have to employ certain policies during your wireless integration, like QoS, and the list goes on. In short, wireless Integration should not be taken lightly; it's a complicated and tedious task and if not performed by skilled engineers, can lead to a disastrous situation.

Wired

Wired Network Consulting

Network Design

The ability to run a business is provided by a network, which is much more than a complex arrangement of hardware. It requires many protocols and features to allow scalability and manageability without constant manual intervention. The design of a network and the selection of technology used to build are solely dependent upon a company's business objectives.

Network Planning

The network-planning phase for a successful business is crucial; being that proper and careful planning technologically elevates a network and accommodates future applications. At GUARDED SYSTEMS we are able to help you solve critical technological problems of today and tomorrow with the advanced technology that we build into your network. We analyze your business model, synthesize gathered data, and consider variables such as flexibility and scalability to create an appropriate network that will easily accommodate a wide range of current and future applications.

Network Integrations

Integration is the key to change the bits of data into useful information. By integrating your existing network with your remote locations, you not only increase productivity but also bring order to the IT nuisance.

Whether you have legacy systems, multiple UNIX platforms, or latest windows based server farms, GUARDED SYSTEMS can efficiently integrate them. Our philosophy is not to change your existing platform, but to build better support for the existing networks.

Network Security

Network Security Consulting Services Overview

Wireless network security is most controversial topic in the IT world today. Wireless network security is not same as wired network security. Placing a simple firewall and IDS system does not offer the level of protection required to maintain a wireless network. Wireless security is a process not just a complex array of security hardware.

Wireless Network Intrusion Detection

WiFi access points are inexpensive and easily available to the general public, it is essential the enterprises have the ability to detect when any unauthorized, unsecured wireless access points have been connected to their networks. Threat of wireless attacks (DoS, Probing, Impersonation, etc) from the parking lot, lobby (war driving) or from inside your office (espionage) makes WiFi IDS a requirement in any wireless network. Some of the common threats GUARDED SYSTEMS designed wireless networks are able to detect and respond are:

• Probing and Network Discovery
• Denial of Service (DoS)
• RF Jamming
• Spoofed deauthenticate frame detection
• Broadcast deauthenticate attack detection
• Null probe response detection
• Fake AP detection
• Rogue Access Point
• EAP Handshake
• Ad-hoc Network
• Network Bridges and many more

RF Management

Once a threat is detected, next step is to respond to that threat. It is very important to have access to the entire wireless network spectrum from a single location, in order to successfully stop any intruders or even accidental interference from other legitimate wireless networks. All of GUARDED SYSTEMS designed wireless networks can manage all the Wireless Access points from a single screen. Making wireless spectrum management a reality and manageable. GUARDED SYSTEMS has vast knowledge of wireless security systems. Our extensive field knowledge has leaded us to develop a solution which offers a great balance between security, availability and performance.

Network Security (Firewall and IDS Designs and Response)

In today's business world, not only are businesses continuing to recognize the need for risk management, as well as insurance to protect their physical and financial assets, but they are rapidly becoming aware that there is the need to protect “virtual” assets as well (information systems, databases, networks), which ensures that privacy of business partners and intellectual property are protected.

One must understand that security is not just placing a firewall or IDS or DMZ at the perimeter of your network. Recent studies show that most of the network security breaches occur because of user errors, corporate espionage or poorly designed networks.

• Security must be an integral part of a network design.
• Security requires you to adapt certain policies for your users (employees, partners, etc)
• Security required you to distribute network recourses on requirement and users rights basis.
• Security required constant updates to Security policy, Updates and Assessments.

There are many security vendors and products available now to address variety of security needs. However in security world, one solution does not satisfy every network or business requirement.

GUARDED SYSTEMS has extensive network security background that extends from CLEC’s, ISP's to LAN. GUARDED SYSTEMS security solutions are customized to business needs and are constantly tweaked to provide the best possible network security from the users within the network and from the users outside the network perimeter.

VoWIFI

VoWiFi Overview

Ordinary WiFi free users from their wired data network connections but not their telephones; VoWiFi completely severs users from their desktops. It's made to order for workers who are incredibly busy and are always moving about (warehouses, retails stores, doctors, temporary military communication facilities, Emergency response centers etc).

VoWiFi usefulness increases greatly when PSTN integration is possible. An IP PBX or a conventional PBX connected to the LAN/WLAN via an add-on telephony gateway can translate a conventional digital/analog phone call into packets and send it over the LAN/WLAN as a VoIP stream, where the VoWiFi phone (or soft phone running on a PC, laptop or voice-enabled PDA) reconstructs the voice. Making a call reverses the process. When a PBX is added to the mix, WiFi phones can emulate the functions of many digital station sets, which allow you to enjoy your accustomed style of call forwarding, call waiting, paging and conference calling. Moreover, VoWiFi software can in many cases integrate with Outlook for automatic phone dialing.

New development in mobile communications has led mobile phone manufacturers to add VoWiFi functionality to their next generation of mobile phones, where your mobile phone detect the presence of trusted VoWiFi network and jumps from public cell towers to internal WiFi network.

GUARDED SYSTEMS team has designed various VoIP systems that expand from US to South America and Asia. Our WiFi experience has given us a unique ability to design and deliver complete converged communications systems. Our VoWiFi systems are secure, reliable and cost effective solution, especially in temporary network deployment scenarios (Military deployments, Emergency Response Command Centers etc).

Advanced Network Monitoring & Support

Remote Management & Network Monitoring

Once the network is designed, deployed and properly integrated, it needs a careful eye to watch over its performance and operation to ensure operations continuity. Unlike other IT companies who outsource system monitoring services to outside companies who on average service multiple clients, GUARDED SYSTEMS’s has its own Advanced Monitoring and Support Department that keeps a close eye on your network and performs audits to identify any rogue elements, potential bottlenecks and questionable behavior in your network to identify issues before they become problems.

We stand by you when you need us the most, in the event of a network component failure it is crucial to have a highly motivated and skilled team working to get your business back on line.

At GUARDED SYSTEMS we are available to our clients 24/7/365, with commitment of excellence. Using SNMP based advanced management & monitoring suites, GUARDED SYSTEMS can remotely perform majority of the functions an engineer can provide onsite, except for the situation where it is required to physically touch the equipment. In those cases, we utilize our client's staff or one of our many partners to assist us on client site.
GUARDED SYSTEMS's In-House Remote Network Management & Monitoring services include:

• System Administration - Configure and manage network equipment and components
• Hardware Maintenance - Remotely troubleshoot and resolve hardware problems 24/7
• Coordination of vendor maintenance and repairs for critical events 24/7
• Firmware Upgrades - Perform proactive firmware upgrades as required
• 24/7 Operational Support - Troubleshooting, escalation, and resolution of network problems 24/7 including Level 1 support
• 24/7 Technical Support – Technical support services for our clients for general network issues, support for hospitality clients guests etc.
• Network Monitoring - 24/7 monitoring of all network components and communications circuits for errors and alerts.
• Automated Alert System - Paging and e-mail notification of alerts to pre-determined escalation contacts by monitoring system.

Advanced Network Support Desk

Our Motto revolves around “Total Client Convenience” standards

(TCC = to get what you need, when they need it, without surprises)

Businesses don't want to be bogged down by their IT systems - they need them to evolve and grow in line with their business needs. Guarded Systems ensures that your IT network is going to work consistently and effectively, and grow with your business without a glitch.

Our Advanced Network Support Team is designed to reduce downtime, increase responsiveness and provide the highest level of flexibility and cost effectiveness.

In-house Tier I, II, and III Engineers

This should be the number one criteria for choosing an IT support company. We have in-house engineers who will be able to provide hands-on support. Unlike others, we do not outsource the support issues to third parties. This enables us to avoid delays in support response time. It also ensures direct communication between the two parties, client and our Network Support Team. Having in-house engineers help prevent problems becoming critical issues.

Skills and Experience

Our Advanced Network Support Team has necessary skills and years of experience in handling all your IT support needs. We have a group of experts that specializes in providing support to Hospitality clients. They have vast experience in every facet of HSIA network architecture, from initial design to its deployment; therefore they are well-equipped with necessary knowledge base to provide support in case of problems and glitches.

Response Time

IT support is time sensitive. The longer the problems remain unresolved, the more it affects productivity across the organization. This is especially true for mission critical services like networks, hardware as well as software. If your networks serviced by us are down, our support team will be able to respond in quick time to avoid down time and hence saving you money and in case of hospitality business avoid having disgruntled guests/customers. 24x7 remote network monitoring services, Guarded System can help you detect and resolve potential network problems before they disrupt your business.