About Mt Xia

Mt Xia Technical Consulting Group works with medium to large size organizations worldwide to provide business and technical expertise with regard to managing and operating information systems. We specialize in working with the IBM AIX platforms and associated systems, such as networking, storage, and configuration management.

Capitalizing on decades of business and technical experience, we provide design, implementation, support, and maintenance assitance in all aspects of information systems needs and requirements. Mt Xia has developed policies, standards, and procedures used by many of the today's largest and most profitable organizations. Our real world knowledge and experience, combined with training and client interaction provides cutting edge solutions that are unequaled by any other consulting company.

The Mt Xia Technical Consulting Group is headquartered in Oklahoma and we perform technical consulting work all over the United States and on occasion, internationally.

We specialize in high availability, disaster recovery, and business continuity utilizing IBM AIX and Linux technolgies and platforms.

Architecture and Design

In order to provide data integrity, continuity, and accessibility, an organizations IT infrastructure must be based on a sound architecture and design plan. This plan should provide the basis for all aspects of work performed by an IT department, such as implementation, monitoring, management, support, help desk, performance reporting, performance tuning, normal operating procedures, emergency operating procedures, recovery operating procedures, and disaster recovery.

An organizations architecture plan should also account for multiple simultaneous working environments. These environments would include the current working environment and one or more “next generation” development environments. As each new generation of technology is implemented, the architecture plan becomes a living entity which changes and grows ( or shrinks depending upon the organizations needs).

We at Mt Xia architect new systems, applications, LAN’s, WAN’s and SAN’s into existing infrastructures with an eye toward future needs and requirements. Our vast experience and expertise allows us to smoothly integrate these new systems into an organizations existing architecture plans or develop architecture plans for an organization from scratch.

Implementation Services

Implementation of technology simple for the sake of technology is wasteful and inefficient. The decision to implement a specific piece of technology must be based on whether or not the technology makes or saves money. If the technology does not make or save money, it probably should not be implemented. In this scenario, technology only complicates a task that would otherwise be performed more efficiently without the technology. We at Mt Xia can help an organization determine the justification for implementing technology solutions.

At Mt Xia, we believe that a technology implementation must be viewed from an organizational perspective. In today’s environments, there is no such thing as a stand-alone system. Systems are networked, integrated, and share data continuously. Any new implementation project must be assessed for it’s overall impact to the organization and how well it fits into the organization’s architecture plan. The impact assessment is required because this new implementation must be monitored, managed, supported, etc. by facilities already in place under the organization’s existing architecture plan. Before implementation of a new technology, it should be determined if the existing architecture plan accounts for all of the extraneous support tasks which must be performed. If not, it must be determined if the new technology can be implemented in a way that will allow it to fit within the constraints of the architecture plan, or if a change to the plan is in order.

At Mt Xia, we can provide implementation plans and services which will insure that new technologies are implemented seamlessly into your existing infrastructure and are integrated fully into your support systems. The decision to implement a technology is probably going to be based on an assessment that demonstrates the technology will make ore save the organization money. However the initial implementation and on-going support costs must also be considered. An efficient initial implementation is not enough, the new technology must be implemented in such a was as to provide on-going long-term efficiencies as well, with respect to the support services.

We at Mt Xia strive to insure that any implementation plan we create and/or perform reflects an organization’s overall architecture plan and integrates well into an organization’s plans for monitoring, management, support, help desk, performance reporting, performance tuning, normal operating procedures, emergency operating procedures, recovery operating procedures, and disaster recovery.

Network, System, and Application Monitoring

The complex nature of today’s computing environment require monitoring of all aspects of the environment, not simply the network backbone. Typically organizations in the past have implemented network management systems which did little more than report the status of routers, switches and hubs. While this is useful information, it is only a very small part of the overall picture. An organization may nave numerous servers providing critical information to multiple locations and hundreds of workstations. It is important that all operational aspects of these servers be monitored, including processors, memory, swap space, hard drives, network adapters, SAN adapters, serial adapters, and a variety of operating system parameters.

Furthermore, these critical servers are in operation for the purpose of providing access to one or more applications. The applications running on these servers should also be monitored. The application parameters to be monitored are application dependent and will vary widely between applications. Determining how and what to monitor fore each application can be difficult and time consuming.

We at Mt Xia have a vast amount of experience and expertise with a wide range of networking hardware, server hardware, server operating systems, and applications. We are able to leverage this experience and expertise to quickly, efficiently, and effectively integrate your systems into an organizational based monitoring and reporting system. This provides your personnel with the information and statistics they need to keep your organization on-line, productive, and profitable.

Error Logging, Error Notification, and Response Automation

The ability to capture error, warning and status messages that are generated on an organizations computing infrastructure is the basis for the activities of the support services and associated personnel. The variety of hardware, operating systems, and software means that there will be a variety of error logging mechanisms. It is important to be able to identify and analyze each error logging mechanism associated with each piece of hardware, operating system, or application software. Even though there are many standardized error logging mechanisms, this does not mean the information needed will be logged. The information needed is dependent upon the business objectives associated with each component of the system.

The desired business objectives should be determined as associated with each piece of hardware, operating system, and software application package. These objectives should be used as an implementation guide for utilizing the message logging systems and/or mechanisms associated with each component.

We at Mt Xia understand and utilize a wide variety of error logging mechanisms that are associated with all of the hardware, operating systems, and software components with which we work. Depending upon the component, some standardized mechanism may be used. Other components may require that we integrate it into a standardized mechanism. Still other components may require custom written extensions to standardize the error logging mechanism. What is important for an organization is to adopt a standardized error logging mechanism, and to strive to implement it across all platforms.

At Mt Xia, we have experienced that it is usually a good idea to separate the error logging mechanisms from the error notification system. Error notification provides the mechanisms for creating an entry in the help desk and change control systems, notification of the appropriate personnel, notification of repair personnel, and/or automatically initiating corrective action. Separation of error logging from error notification provides the ability to modify, update, or change each part of the system, without affecting the other.

Support Services

Today's computing environment requires a number of support services be provided by an organizations Information Technology department. Some of these services include:

• Operations
• Standards
• Procedures
• Security
• Problem Resolution
• Programming Assistance
• Integration Assistance
• Architecture Design and Assessment
• Training and Education

We at Mt Xia have the experience and expertise in a wide range of support services. We have assisted organizations with their day-to-day operations of networks, servers and applications.