All-in-One: See the following Collax products

All-in-One

When you first start to implement IT, or even add major functionality to existing IT, it is sometimes hard to know where to start. Whether it is for the whole company, introducing IT to a branch office or even a dedicated home office.

The trick is how to do this and what to use to fulfil these needs. Collax has built an all-in-one solution to meet all these basic needs for an office and it meets the vital requirements of most technical administrators, which are:

Easy and fast to install - all in one operation
Simple yet flexible to administer (from one console)
Reliable

Collax has identified three main areas where assistance is often required: Infrastructure, Security and Communication.

Infrastructure: Business Server Solution

If you are setting up a new office or even introducing IT to a dedicated home office
there are basics that you definitely need:

Networking - Ability to let computers talk to one another (ISDN, xDSL, Ethernet, Modem, VLAN, RAS call-back, DNS, DHCP etc.)
Mail Server - Ability to send and receive E-Mail (POP, IMAP, ESMTP, Spam filter, Attachment filtering, Mail relaying, E-Mail distribution etc.)
Fileserver - The ability to centrally store and securely share files (Windows File Shares, FTP, NFS, User/Group management, quotas, data synchronization etc.)
VPN - Securely access your network when not in the office (IPSec with X.509/PSK, PPtP, DynVPN, CA for PKI, CRL etc.)
Web-Proxy - Be able to control how the Internet is being used by your office (Authenticated/Transparent, Groups, User/Time restrictions, URL filtering, cache, logging etc.)
Web server - Setting up Internet access to your systems (http and https, WebDAV, Virtual hosts, Scripting: PHP4, CGI, Perl)
Firewall - The ability to stop unwanted or hazarders Internet access to your network/systems (Stateful Inspection, Masquerading, NAT, DMZ, Graphical network matrix, Connection tracking etc.)
Fax Server - Fax is not dead and the ability to use and integrate Fax into your systems will make life much easier (Receiving/Sending on multiple MSN, SMS sending, Mail-to-fax and Fax-to-mail, Fax client, Spam protection etc.)
User Page - Access to your work related systems from out of the office through the Internet (Web mailer, Out of office notification, Contacts, Calendar, Access to fileserver etc.)
Backup - The ability to copy critical files and then restore them easily in the event of data loss (SMB, NFS, Tape, Incremental/completely managed via time, complete restore or based on data etc.)
Server Management - Full remote management of your IT system makes life easier and response to issues or changes much timelier.

Security Gateway

Security is vital to all companies that have even one computer that has access to the Internet. The problem is that this is usually an afterthought! Most security products require you to change a lot to already installed systems and even, sometimes, re-architecting your network.

Gateway solutions get round this by protecting your network and making sure hackers and viruses can not get in to your company or move around from computer to computer.

Collax identifies that the basic functionality required for a good gateway solutions are:

Firewall - The ability to stop unwanted or hazarders Internet access to your network/systems (Stateful Inspection, VOIP-Support (SIP, RTP), Connection tracking, Malformed/Unclean Packet Filter, Denial-of-Service Protection, Graphical network matrix etc.)
VPN - Securely access your network when not in the office (IPSec with X.509/PSK, PPtP, DynVPN, CA for PKI, CRL etc.)
Filtering - Search your network for bad and unwanted traffic (Virus protection for E-Mail and Web traffic, Web Blocker URL Filtering, Black/Whitelist URL Filtering, Anti-Phishing, Keyword Content Filtering, Active Content Filter, Extended E-Mail Filter, Application Proxy HTTP, SMTP, DNS, NTP, SOCKS etc.)
SPAM - Look and remove junk E-Mail (Live Spam Protection, E-Mail Greylisting, Razor-Check, SPF Check Definable White and Blacklists, Trainable Bayes Filter, DNS Blacklists, Image Filter and PDF Filter etc.)
Networking - The ability to let computers talk to one another (Multi-WAN, Link and Interface Failover, Time managed Restart of dynamic connections, Traffic shaping, Tagged VLAN, DMZ Support, Bridging, NAT, Masquerading, Port-Forwarding, MAC Address supervision / monitoring etc.)
Intrusion Detection/ Prevention - Look to see if someone has already gotten into your systems and react to it (Dynamic Blocking, Powerful proactive protection, Standalone IDS competence in Stealth Mode)
Server Management - Full remote management of the system makes life simpler and response to issues or changes much timelier (Active system monitoring real-time, Configuration report, Live log, Firewall report, Incidence log, Event monitor, Graphical system statistics, Secure, flexible logging, Diagnostics tools etc.)

Communication: Groupware Suite

Although the first step in introducing IT to your company is often driven by communication and E-Mail requirements the question that soon arises is “Can communication and interactions within my company be improved?” The idea of ‘collaboration’ is not new but the idea of computer based collaboration to improve team working is now definitely here.

Collax identifies Groupware as the coming together of the following in a unified way of working:

E-Mail
Group shared calendars
Group shared task lists
Group shared contact lists
Remote and mobile access

But to make real groupware work there needs to be a strong underling technical base to keep it safe, secure and reliable:

Storage management
Network management
Outlook Connectivity
Anti-Spam
Anti-virus

Without both being present neither one can function correctly to achieve true collaboration.

Look to the right!

See the recommended products for All-in-One.