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 focus primarily in the areas of Data Center
Automation and Business Continuity, which includes high availability,
disaster recovery, virtualization, and
mobility.
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, LANs, WANs, and
SANs 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 simply 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.
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