Rest assured that we are. Your Voodoo Networks managed computers will be ready to go when you are done celebrating with your family and friends.

Our staff and systems are already working to make sure that your computer and IT systems are updated, protected and ready to work over the Holidays, or more importantly when you get back to work after the Holidays. But we want to make sure that you know that if you are working then you aren’t alone. As IT people, we are truly used to working when others are off sleeping or celebrating. And we’re OK with that. It’s what we signed up for.

And if you or your staff need to be working, we’ll be right there to support you.

But we hope that you can take some time and enjoy the Holidays. And don’t worry about us – we’ll enjoy them too.

But now we are doing just that. What gives?

We aren’t looking to outsource existing jobs overseas to provide a couple of cents increase in the stock market value of a company. That’s the big one. And what we are doing is making sure that any work that is moved outside of your company makes complete sense, both to you and to us.

We also aren’t outsourcing our IT work overseas. Our staff is here in the US, and is paid a better than living wage, contributing to the local economy in ways that sending work overseas can’t.

Our goal is to provide you with topnotch IT services and support, using highly qualified and experienced people in your own timezone, working as partners with your company to provide you with exactly the services you need to grow your company and improve your bottom line.

See? Even people affected by IT outsourcing can learn that it has more than four letters…

Now, while some of us have truly diverse backgrounds, both in and out of IT, not every IT person is going to be able to solve every issue, nor should they try to. For example, a programmer (very much an IT person) isn’t the person that you are going to call on to design a network. And a network guy isn’t the person you want doing desktop support. And most desktop support staff aren’t really going to be ready to design and build a server system for you. And don’t get me started on printers…

Before anyone objects too strenuously, I should say that there are people out there that can do all of that, but they are few and far between. And most likely they aren’t working for you doing full time computer support. Learning about all the different areas of IT is a full time job itself. And anyone trying to keep up with every advance in every field in IT would quickly run out of hours in a day.

Large companies know this. That’s why they have IT departments. In really large companies those departments are further subdivided: Servers, Networking, Telecom, Application Support, Application Development and Desktop Support (or operations). Those teams of people work together, sometimes shifting between areas, but they all have jobs that are fairly specialized. And they spend all their time learning about new systems and features, testing them and seeing what works and doesn’t before implementing or putting anything into production.

But in smaller companies, there isn’t the luxury of having an IT team with specialists in every field. You generally end up with the IT guy. If you are lucky. If not you have the office computer person (not an IT person, but someone who is more comfortable with computers than the rest of the office) attempting to do the work of an IT person. Sometimes with less than satisfactory results. You aren’t getting the knowledge base that a full team of IT specialists can provide you even with a dedicated IT person. And if you don’t have a dedicated IT staff, then you are taking other people away from their jobs to deal with technical issues, which is hurting your bottom line.

On the other hand, you can have the luxury of a full IT support staff. How?

With Voodoo Networks Full IT Support Services.

What we are doing is providing you with a level of IT expertise that you can’t get with a single in house person by using the benefits of scale and automation. And doing so at a far lower cost than you’d pay for a team that encompasses all of the expertise that we can bring to the table. We have decades of experience in all facets of IT. From networks to servers to support, we’ve got the experience on staff. And working on your IT issues.

While you might only get to know one or two people from Voodoo Networks, rest assured that everyone is contributing. From server specialists to networking specialists to IT strategy folks, we bring our entire team to bear for every client. Regardless of whether you meet them or not (they tend to be happiest in little dark rooms lit up by a dozen monitors…) they are there to support you with all your IT needs.

And all for a price that is often lower than having one IT person on staff, and is almost lower every time after you include your overhead costs.

What is Preemptive IT?

Quite simply, it’s making sure that any potential issues are resolved before them become problems that impact your ability to use your computers or other technology systems to conduct your business.

The best analogy that I can think of is maintaining your car in order to make sure that it works when you need it to. You don’t wait until your engine blows up to change the oil, but many people think that is the best way to deal with their computers, only using IT support after the computer has a problem.

Using a company like Voodoo Networks for Full Service IT support can insure that your systems are always up and running when your staff needs to use them. We use our decades of Enterprise level IT experience to create best practices for IT that we use as the basis for all of our clients. Some of the things that are included in that are operating system updates, application updates, antivirus updates, malware sweeps, cleaning up temporary files and monitoring for issues like drive space or potential hardware failures.

We use specialized tools to make sure that all of those things occur on the best schedules for you and your systems, and to reduce any chance of difficulty due to the actual update process itself. We work with you to create a maintenance window for you computers and do any updates that may require system reboots or interfere with your staff within that time window only.

Preemptive IT is the goal of every experience IT tech. We all know that preventing issues is better than fixing issues. Even with an on staff IT person, using Voodoo Networks to provide preemptive IT will free up that staff person to work on projects that can actually help your business grow, rather than just spend all day working on fixing computers. And if you don’t have an on staff IT person, but rely on an Office Manager or other employee to fix computers, outsourcing your IT will allow that person to do their actual job, helping your bottom line, rather than spend all day working to fix other peoples computer issues.

Which would you rather do? Wait until IT breaks, or know that it’s going to work when you need IT?

This is really just a quick post to make sure that everyone knows that we are still going strong. And we have lots of interesting stuff going on right now. From IT process and procedure design to network upgrades to an intimidating new security systems offering, we are cranking along on all cylinders.

Plus we are, like many others, getting into the Holiday spirit.

More to come soon.

Cut to yesterday, getting off the plane in Long Beach. Thunderstorms. Rain. Cold.

Seriously. Los Angeles was 113 degrees two weeks ago, now it’s colder than Seattle.

Oh well. Can’t have everything I suppose.

Anyway, I passed the task off to our NOC, so not a big deal. But it would have been nice to have had access to that from where I was sitting.

* Disclaimer: In my prior life as the Network & Security Guy, I was the guy that was responsible for doing just that kind of blocking. So I’m being a touch hypocritical here. But then again, I never said that I wasn’t hypocritical.

1 ) What areas do you provide event CCTV services in?

Our Voodoo Site Services mobile CCTV units are based in Southern California, in the Los Angeles / Orange basin. But with that said, we can easily move them to where ever our clients need them, as long as they understand there are extra costs associated with doing so. Please contact us to see what we can do for your event.

2 ) We have a festival that is going on tour for several months. Can you help us provide security for the whole tour?

We can indeed, based on our systems availability. We have made units specifically for this type of request, and would do so again if needed. Once again, please contact us to discuss doing long term projects and tours.

3 ) How quickly can you setup and start recording video?

Our event CCTV units can be up and recording with the cameras on the van within minutes. Deploying the additional cameras takes about 15 minutes each, though depending on the layout of your event sometimes it can take more or less time. In general we recommend allowing about an hour and a half for setup and tear down of the full system.

4 ) Are the cameras that you use for event CCTV deployments night vision capable?

No, we don’t deploy night vision cameras, except in unusual circumstances. Night vision cameras have a much higher cost, and except in cases of complete darkness don’t provide a significant benefit over the low light capable cameras that we use. With minimal lighting our cameras work extremely well, and we can provide IR illumination to enhance their clarity in specific areas.

5 ) Will you deploy your mobile CCTV systems for law enforcement if needed?

Of course. We are currently working on our internal plans for doing this, but our goal is to work with local law enforcement. Our current plan is to offer our systems to law enforcement organizations for scheduled events in the same way that we do for our non-law enforcement clients. And for emergencies we will work to provide our units to law enforcement and government agencies if they are available.

6 ) What about other emergency responders?

Just like with our law enforcement options, we’ll provide our units on either a scheduled or as available basis to all government entities. With that said, we do have a very strong community service aspect of our services, and will participate to whatever degree we are able to for disaster response. Whether that is mobile CCTV systems, our production command vehicles, wireless IP access for whatever systems need them or emergency power provided by our solar generators and extra batteries, we’ll make sure that we do what we can to help as many people as possible. It’s all part of being a community, and that is something that we are proud of.

7 ) Are your Production Command vehicles easily identifiable?

We currently have some vans that are plain white, and some that are white with a Voodoo Networks logo on them. We are currently contemplating some kind of specific logo or design for Voodoo Site Services but we aren’t sure yet if we want to do that or maintain our low profile white vehicles. What are your thoughts?

8 ) Aren’t Mobile CCTV and Event CCTV the same thing?

Well, yes and no. It depends on how you define each one. We like to stick with mobile event CCTV as it really does describe what we do. We don’t just deploy a little box with some cheap cameras and call it an Event CCTV system. We use our (mobile) Production Command vehicles to deploy very high grade systems at your event, then move on to the next event that we are working at, or if you are doing a tour, to move the system right along with you.

I think that covers the basic questions that we’ve received, but if you have any other questions, please contact us at info@voodoonetworks.com and we’ll get back to you right away.

Voodoo Site Services is now the newest member of the Voodoo Networks family, displacing VoodooMSP as our newest member.

So what exactly is Voodoo Site Services?

Well, to put it simply, Voodoo Site Services provides mobile CCTV systems for festivals, shows, special events, along with video security for tv & movie sets and the ability to provide video and power systems for Emergency Responses.

While many people might think that it’s way outside of what we normally do, if you look back at our history and experience, this is right up our alley. In fact, we can’t think of anyone who could do it better.

We aren’t just taking a $99 RF based security system that we stuck in a pelican case and called a mobile CCTV solution.

We are actually building out the systems that we’ve used for years and providing mobile capabilities to it. We have built our systems with VGA grade 360 Degree view cameras used to provide you with an overview of your coverage area, and combine those with HD quality, 18x optical zoom cameras to give you the ability to zero in on interesting events throughout the area. And once again, these systems are state of the art, professional grade cameras that are deployed worldwide for outdoor and indoor security in civilian and government facilities.

We team these high quality IP based cameras with a leading radio solution that, in most circumstances, provides enough bandwidth to run all the connected cameras at 30 FPS in full resolution. This isn’t your standard home network. This is a fully redundant commercial class network that is capable of streaming video at well over 200Mbps.

These cameras and radios are mounted on emergency services grade tripods and masts, the same ones used and trusted by emergency responders the world over. The top mounting points for our gear are located 12 feet off the ground, providing both the radios and cameras with a clear view of the site they are located on.

To power the remote systems we’ve gone all out to provide a solution that is portable and green. Using military specified solar power systems, we can power our camera / radio tripod systems indefinitely. And if we don’t have the room or ability to deploy our solar systems at the tripods, we use the battery packs from the solar systems to power the units for 24 hours at a time, replacing them with fully charged batteries as needed. If we can use an area outside the event area to deploy our solar systems, we’ll stay green and charge the batteries using the solar panel systems. And if not, we can use either local power or the high efficiency generator in our Production Command vehicles.

Ah – the Production Command vehicles. We know that keeping track of what’s going on in a crowded area requires a quiet workspace, complete with everything you need to not only keep track of the event, but also to plan responses, communicate with your staff and stay out of the weather and commotion that can occur at any outside event. To that end we’ve built our command posts in Sprinter vans. Powered by Mercedes engines, these are some of the most efficient and high tech vehicles on the road. We’ve equipped ours with 2 full operator stations for the CCTV system, Terabytes of video storage space, a top of the line Video Management Solution, OTA TV monitoring, Enterprise grade network management, a dozen Motorola radios for your event staff to stay in touch, multiple scanners for tracking public safety channels in the area, mobile wifi access, VoIP phones connected to our central pbx allowing outbound dialing, 8KW Power Take Off generators and everything else that is needed to setup and operate a 6 location CCTV system.

The production command vehicle comes complete with one of our technicians, who sets up the network, tests all the systems, creates a quick map of the camera locations for the Video Management System and trains your security personnel in it’s use. If needed the tech can provide a second set of eyes in the secondary operator station. We work with your security team, emergency responders or local law enforcement to make sure that everyones needs are met.

When we deploy our 6 camera / radio sets, one of them is mounted on the Production Command vehicle, the rest of them are deployed around your event site. Normally the tripods are placed about 200 Meters apart (any further and there can be RF issues). So in a linear deployment (along a street for a event) you can cover over a kilometer. And the cameras themselves can recognize faces out to 150 Meters.

Once again, this isn’t just a system that anyone would throw together. This is a professional grade system that was designed, tested, built and operated by teams that have been deploying IP based CCTV and Wireless backbones for over 10 years, in locations ranging from shopping malls to airport to government facilities.

I’ll be writing more about the offerings from Voodoo Site Services in the next couple of days, and you can check out the site to find out more, including some manufacture clips of the camera quality and a bit more detail on what setting up an event site entails.

In the meantime, the current systems are already booked through the end of the year, and we are taking dates and deposits for 2011 already. Just let us know when and where you need us, and we’ll be there to watch your back for you.

In the meantime I’ve had a bit of a discussion with various people about what people look for when they are searching for help with their computer systems. I understand that “managed computer services” isn’t really the first thing that pops into someones mind when they need help, but I also don’t think that most business owners look at all the problems they are having and think “computer repair”.

From my point of view, I want to teach people to think of computers not as something you repair, but something you proactively maintain. Which is what VoodooMSP does as a Managed Service Provider.

Does VoodooMSP repair computers? Well, yes and no. We tend not to get into tearing computers apart and putting them back together, but we will. We are certified by Dell and HP to do that with most of their systems. But our real goal is to avoid that by making sure that your computers are cared for in the first place.

Remember our other stated goal – to not make money from your computers being broken. That’s what computer repair gets you. We don’t like being in that place when we have problems with things like cars, plumbing or anything else. And we don’t want to be the kind of company that puts you in that position with your technology. We prefer to come in early, clean up what you have, fix anything that we see may cause a problem, then get your computers and technology systems on preventive maintenance.

Short post today, but I’m off to enjoy the sun. And stress about having everything ready to announce tomorrow. Enjoy the day.