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Apple Professional Services
Some organizations have demands that go beyond the basics of installation. For organizations looking for expertise in fulfilling turnkey solutions we have established a Professional Services division, where our team of professional experts will help you assess your technology needs, provide onsite deployment, best practices, and integration services.

Two core practices that work together
SolutionKeys Professional Services is comprised of two core offerings. Each one is a highly effective, complete offering, designed to complement the other. If companies using our services together stand to benefit greatly from the program’s efficiency and synergy.

Our Professional Services experts can also guide you through other Apple products and resources, such as AppleCare support plans, helping you to realize the full potential and maximum return from your investment.

Management Services, Project Management, and Custom Services
SolutionKeys provides customized solutions and services for organizations seeking to deploy Apple hardware and integrate it with their existing infrastructure. Our broad knowledge base of best practices garnered over many successful deployments will allow delivery of on-time and on-budget solutions.

Our clients gain access to our technical expertise and domain knowledge, spanning a wide range of application types and industries. Our consultants have open access to the research and development teams developing the core technologies we build upon, as well as access to a large pool of software partners and developers. Plus, you’ll get the expertise you need through all stages of a project, including:

  • Project planning and management
  • Authentication, authorization, and security planning
  • Legacy systems integration and migration to Mac OS X Software programming
  • Customer Server Deployment monitoring and maintenance

Clients will also benefit from our leading-edge technologies and standards that ensure the highest level of performance, flexibility, and interoperability.

Whatever your challenge — migrating from a legacy system, growing market share, improving customer service, reducing operational costs, streamlining business processes, publishing information securely, or other critical organizational needs — SolutionKeys will develop the technical solutions that meet and exceed your goals. We have experience in building all types of solutions:

  • Asset management
  • Software migration planning and custom Imaging
  • Directory systems
  • Document authoring and management systems
  • e-commerce and online stores
  • Online registration systems
  • Service request applications
  • Disaster recovery site-to-site deployments
  • Asset tagging and hardware imaging

All of SolutionKeys’ project managers are certified by the Project Management Institute (PMI) to meet international standards, giving you a highly-qualified, professional, reliable service, every time.

Apple Rapid Deployment
From integration of the latest Apple server and storage solutions into your already diverse computing infrastructure to updating your entire multimedia workflow with the latest Apple professional editing hardware and software tools, the SolutionKeys Rapid Deployment Team can help you quickly deploy new technology for business-critical tasks whilst ensuring you understand your technology investment every step of the way.

The SolutionKeys Rapid Deployment Team is comprised of an agile group of highly skilled engineers. These seasoned professionals provide onsite consulting for large-scale deployments or can help with smaller complex jobs — whether you need a presales assessment, a migration or integration plan, or hands-on configuration of Xserve and Xserve RAID systems. We can also build custom solutions to meet the specialized needs of your network and organization.

Don’t know where to start?
The SolutionKeys Rapid Deployment Team offers assessments onsite where it will identifying your objectives, carrying out an assessment of your computing environment and propose recommendations for your specific project and solution.

SolutionKeys Rapid Deployment Team can help you with a wide variety of migration, integration and deployment projects. Examples include:

Integration.
Integration of new services with existing enterprise IT infrastructures, including Active Directory (with support for single sign-on), LDAP and Microsoft Exchange, all with the power and flexibility to manage your OS clients and provide policy management and centralized services.

Networking & System Administration.
Are your systems running as efficiently as they could be? Systems administration is becoming ever more important as companies increasingly rely on the correct functioning of technology to operate on a day-to-day basis. User directories, cross-platform compatibility, Internet connectivity, and easy access to business-critical hardware and software are all crucial to productivity, but simply installing the appropriate solutions is not enough. Technology is constantly growing and changing as upgrades become available and security risks are identified, making regular maintenance and updates essential.

Shared resources such as databases, peripherals, and applications require a scalable and protected network. Internet connectivity must be fast, secure, and easily accessible, and maintenance of these systems requires centralized or remote management tools.

Deployment, Monitoring and High Availability.
Bringing best practices and efficiency to help ensure the best management and deployment of Mac OS X desktops, SolutionKeys Professional Services can help customize and create a wide variety of deployment scenarios.

For help setting up a Mac OS X server to provide DNS, DHCP, LDAP, even Failover capabilities or Security Monitoring, SolutionKeys Professional Services can help you get going and bring expertise and innovative solutions to help maximize your investment.

Migration.
SolutionKeys Professional Services can help with migrations from the Mac OS and Windows-based architectures to more open formats (including Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange 2007/2010, and file, web and print services) or from other UNIX backends.

Collaboration and Mobility.
For streaming video on-demand, QuickTime Streaming Server can be used. Included at no additional charge with Xserve and MAC OS X Server QuickTime Streaming Server is the ideal tool for distributing video and audio content around your premises or campus. SolutionKeys Professional Services have a strong, proven reputation in providing streaming server solutions.

Custom Enterprise Video Podcasting Solution.
SolutionKeys Professional Services can help you deploy a scalable intranet podcasting solution for your business using Mac OS X Server, Xsan, Xserve and Xserve RAID services. This solution allows you to make video and audio content available to your employees through iTunes subscriptions to internal podcasts (Mac and Windows compatible). Marketing and HR departments can also use this method to communicate much more easily with all your employees.

SAN and Storage Deployment:
Whether deploying Xsan for your video workflow, helping build nearline storage backup units, or connecting Xserve RAIDs into a diverse Fibre Channel environment, SolutionKeys Professional Services brings the best solutions with the most varied deployment experience to ensure the right solution for your environment.

Backup Solutions – Make a Plan-B with SolutionKeys
All businesses know that backing-up critical data is important. But in order to be effective, backups should occur frequently and consistently. In the modern, digital business environment it's absolutely essential to develop a total backup and storage system to ensure peace-of-mind regarding the security of your business-critical data.

Implement your backup plan
An effective backup and storage system should be part of your existing workflow. A SolutionKeys consultant can customize a solution that's based on how you do business, providing a start-to-finish service that includes:

  • Understanding your business infrastructure
    In order to customize your solution, our consultant will consider factors such as the amount of data you accumulate, network upload speed, and existing storage capacity. If you work with large files, such as digital video or graphics, you may require additional storage space and compression tools to reduce your file sizes. For added security, your consultant may suggest file encryption tools or other resources you previously hadn't considered.
  • Installing additional storage devices
    If you need additional space for keeping backups or storing archives, our consultant may recommend a high capacity server, such as Xserve with Xserve RAID. If your business has a large network with growing shared storage needs, your solution may include Xsan, Apple's SAN (Storage Area Network) file system, which allows multiple computers to access terabytes of storage concurrently over high-speed Fibre Channels.
  • Configuring backup software
    Your solution will rely on software to automate and simplify the backup process. There are many solutions available for the Mac. Your consultant will recommend the best software for your needs.

Apple Professional Service
Our Professional Services consultants aren’t just experts in Apple technology. They’re experts in applying technology to our customers. We have in-depth experience of almost any challenge you might face.

Services tailored to your needs
All of our services are flexible, so you can ask for exactly what you need. Our team can carry out an entire implementation if you lack time or resources. Alternatively we can work alongside your team helping them develop their Apple support services, complementing existing skills.

Systems Design and Architecture
SolutionKeys’ System Design and Architecture Services are designed to help you integrate Apple hardware into your existing infrastructure. We can provide inventory assessment and design custom system architecture for networks focused on Apple, Microsoft, or Cisco technology. Our teams can also install and configure servers and server applications, document, test, and subsequently verify your installation. Support is also available for server-based deployments, including workgroup clusters and file storage.

Deployment Management
SolutionKeys deployment managers can guide projects of any scale, create timelines, set clear expectations for success, and work with you to implement your goals. We’ve coordinated and implemented projects that include close to 2,000 computers and users. In fact, we’ve implemented the biggest such projects in Asia.

Apple Mac OS X Connectivity Services
SolutionKeys' Mac OS X networking experts can assist your business with a broad array of connectivity design issues including network architecture, remote and mobile connectivity, internetwork integration, security, and fast evolving technologies such as VoIP and high-speed wireless networking.

For information networks based solely on OS X or for environments that feature a mix of Apple Macintosh, Linux, and Windows-powered servers and desktops, SolutionKeys has the experience and depth to handle the complexity of designing, installing, and supporting a network architecture that is dependable, protected, efficient, and aligned with your company's goals.

SolutionKeys can help your company install Apple’s Xserve enterprise servers, Xserve RAID high-availability storage solutions, and Xsan storage area network (SAN) systems. SolutionKeys can in addition offer Cisco-certified experts to maintain Cisco network appliances.

Mac OS X connectivity engineering services available from SolutionKeys' include:

  • Network Architecture
    SolutionKeys’ system engineers can provide consulting support in all areas of network infrastructure. These include high-availability servers and storage systems, company-wide IT policies that meet industry standards, scalability, server clustering, throughput optimization, multi-site networking, business continuity planning, and the strategic use of outsourced data centers.

    SolutionKeys can offer the combined experience of professional consultants certified by Apple, Cisco, Microsoft and other global technology providers. All are familiar with tried and tested techniques to assist you in creating a robust and easy-to-manage information network.

  • Internetwork Connectivity
    SolutionKeys’ network engineers have the breadth of experience to offer expertise in an array of connectivity technologies and topologies.

    SolutionKeys’ Mac specialists can help your company to benefit from Open Directory, Apple’s open-systems directory and network validation services architecture. Open Directory is based on powerful standardized technologies such as Open Lightweight Directory Access Protocol and Kerberos Network Authentication Protocol for transparent compatibility with other LDAP servers.

    SolutionKeys’ expertise with Microsoft Windows Server and other networking technology can make it easy for you integrate with Microsoft’s proprietary Active Directory.

    If your network deploys a combination of Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, and Linux based-resources, SolutionKeys can assist you to integrate and administer a single directory instead of a separate directory or different client records for each operating system. Your users will be able to shift effortlessly between Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows devices — and have the convenience of authenticated single log-in access to directory-based network resources.

  • High-speed Wireless Access
    If your organization is considering a wireless networking solution to increase the reach or supplement or work alongside your office LAN, SolutionKeys can assist you with designing a robust wireless layout, identify appropriate components, and integrate access points, client adapters, wireless bridges, antennas, and related products.
  • Online and Mobile Access
    SolutionKeys' Apple and Cisco certified consultants can assist your company to build and manage a network environment that reliably accommodates users who need access from remote offices, from home, or when on the road. SolutionKeys' wireless connectivity experts can assist your company to set up notebooks, handheld devices, email systems, databases, and line-of-business software to sync seamlessly so that they keep your business data consistent and readily accessible. SolutionKeys has vast experience assisting customers deploy and administer wireless devices.
  • Apple Xserve Servers, RAID, and Xsan Storage Area Network Consulting
    SolutionKeys’ long experience with large-scale and complex deployments of Apple-based solutions allows us to offer support for integration of Apple's highest end technology, letting you maximize the competitive value of your Apple OS X network.

Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows Integration
SolutionKeys' Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows consulting experts can help you combine OS X and Windows computers into seamless networks with shared data and resources plus collaboration support.

Creating an efficient co-existence between servers and workstations based on OS X and Windows demands extensive knowledge of and real-world experience with both Apple Mac and Microsoft Windows technology.

SolutionKeys' can provide top-class support to companies that rely on both of these technologies to sustain their competitive edge. Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows co-existence and maintenance services offered by SolutionKeys include:

  • Network Configuration and Troubleshooting
    SolutionKeys' accredited Apple Mac OS X engineers can help you incorporate OS X systems based on an OS X platform into your Windows network. Our certified Windows experts and Cisco Systems support experts can assist your business by configuring a protected network and communications foundation that permits both OS X and Windows users to share resources.

    SolutionKeys’ Active Directory support expertise can help you set up the Active Directory schema and use the Workgroup Manager application in Apple Macintosh Server to manage Apple Macintosh users on Microsoft Windows environments that depend exclusively on Windows Active Directory.

  • On-site Technical Support
    Although SolutionKeys is one of the leading sources of economical remote computer help and has created innovative techniques to fix the majority of technical problems online, we also understand that some circumstances require an experienced computer technician to be onsite.
  • Help Desk Call Center Services
    SolutionKeys' Help Desk Outsourcing Services are particularly intended for organizations who demand immediate contact with Help Desk’s offering effective online response and full escalation options, but who must also operate within a modest support budget.

    We can offer you fast contact with an Apple qualified Help Desk Specialist or a Microsoft-certified engineer to fix any desktop and infrastructure issues effectively and affordably.

Mac OS X and Exchange Integration
SolutionKeys' Apple and Microsoft qualified support experts can help your company to set up Entourage and Microsoft Exchange letting your Mac users team up with colleagues running Microsoft Outlook. With Microsoft Entourage 2008 (available with Office 2008 for Mac), you can use Microsoft Exchange accounts to send and receive email, access your global address list, sync your calendar and contacts, and invite people to meetings whilst on the go. In addition, Entourage for Mac works with AppleScript and the Spotlight search utility allowing your users to enhance productivity.

SolutionKeys can explain the efficiency advantages that Microsoft Entourage can bring to your cross-platform network and assist your company to configure a protected and reliable information network accommodating a mix of Entourage for Mac and Microsoft Outlook clients, both accessing the same Exchange Server.

Microsoft Entourage 2008 does not offer all the synchronization capabilities of Outlook, such as synchronizing tasks and notes, and the import/export capability of Microsoft Entourage 2008 has some limitations. In light of this, some organizations choose to utilize Apple Mail in combination with iCal to interface with their Exchange server. SolutionKeys' consultants can assist you with creating an environment that permits Mac clients to utilize these solutions securely and productively.

Support Services for Entourage 2008 for Mac
Entourage 2008 for Mac is an information manager that assists users to manage email messages, contacts, calendars, notes, and projects. With the Exchange Server support built into Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac, users can operate more productively in a Microsoft Exchange Server-powered messaging system and collaborate with colleagues who use Microsoft Outlook as their messaging client software.

Features of Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac include:

  • Consolidate Personal Data: Entourage 2008 enables you to consolidate your messages, contacts, calendar, notes, and task details in one easy-to-access place.
  • Microsoft Exchange Integration: Users can operate seamlessly in an Exchange Server system because Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac utilizes the WebDAV protocol. You can transmit and get messages, search the Exchange global address list, import addresses, sync up your schedule, and invite associates to meetings through your Exchange account.
  • Address Book Synchronization: You can sync your contacts with your Exchange personal address book, offering complete access to your address list at all times.
  • Directory Search: You can rapidly locate email addresses by searching Exchange's global address list (GAL).
  • Access to Many Email Accounts: Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac permits you to establish unlimited email accounts including IMAP, POP, and MSN Hotmail accounts. This enables you to handle all your email with one convenient tool.
  • Schedule Synchronization: You can keep your Entourage 2008 for Mac Calendar in sync with Exchange to keep up to date with your schedule when you are online or working offline.
  • Message Organization: Entourage 2008 for Mac enables you to group, read, and search for messages according to project, sender, date, or other fields.
  • Easy Archiving: Microsoft Entourage 2008 allows you to export PIM data including as messages, addresses, or calendars into an Entourage 2008 for Mac backup system to keep your PIM information clean and secure.
  • Microsoft Word Integration: You can send Microsoft Word documents from Word as the content of messages.

SolutionKeys can help your company to design, implement, and maintain a cross-platform network that allows your Mac OS X clients to use Entourage 2008 for Mac to access Microsoft Exchange. SolutionKeys' Microsoft-qualified consultants and Mac OS X specialists can help your company to connect your Mac OS X computers to your Microsoft Exchange Server. SolutionKeys will make sure that your Exchange Server is correctly configured and that LDAP and Outlook Web Access are properly integrated. SolutionKeys can also deliver a broad range of Microsoft Exchange support services including planning, configuration, troubleshooting, protection, remote access, performance tuning, plus spam filtering and virus prevention. SolutionKeys also offers customized individual Entourage for Mac education.

Comprehensive Support Services for Exchange Server in a Cross-platform Environment
For cross-platform environments that do not use Entourage for Mac but which include Microsoft Exchange plus a mix of Mac, Microsoft Windows, Linux, or other popular platforms, SolutionKeys' Exchange experts can assist with integration of email clients using a seamless solution that maximizes your ability to collaborate and exchange data.

SolutionKeys can explain the benefits and limitations of using Microsoft Outlook Web Access as an email client for non-Windows computers and can help you to integrate a mix of messaging clients into your network.

SolutionKeys also offers a range of Exchange Server consulting services to help you enhance email security, Exchange fault-tolerance, off-site and mobile email access, email manageability, and Exchange backup/restore processes.

SolutionKeys' Exchange upgrade services simplify and eliminate risk when moving from a legacy messaging system or an earlier release of Exchange Server to Exchange 2007. SolutionKeys also provides an Exchange Server hosting service to reduce the cost, simplify the administration, and improve the fault tolerance of your Exchange Server.

For additional information please refer to our Microsoft Solutions.

Accessing your Windows Applications via your Apple Devices
Companies commonly depend on Microsoft Windows to host office productivity or mission-critical programs. For businesses with a combination of Mac and Windows desktops, there are two basic solutions for running Microsoft Windows-only applications on a Mac: an external terminal mechanism or local emulation of a Microsoft Windows computer. SolutionKeys can help your organization integrate any Apple hardware seamlessly into your windows and network infrastructure via both virtualization and Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection for Apple Mac, improving stability, throughput, and security, extracting added value from your business, for your business.

Remote Desktop Connection Clients

Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection Client for Apple Mac allows you to connect a Mac to a remote Microsoft Windows-powered system to run Microsoft Windows applications, access files and use network resources. You can copy documents between your Mac and your Windows-based system and print from Microsoft Windows programs to any printers attached to your Mac Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac is included in Microsoft Office 2008 for Apple Mac and offers significant enhancements over older versions.

Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection Client for Apple Mac
Terminal simulation requires relatively modest CPU utilization from the client Apple Mac and therefore in most situations provides better performance than CPU emulation. To connect to a Windows-based computer, you must have network connectivity and authorization to connect to the computer. The Windows machine must be running either Terminal Services or Remote Desktop. Remote Desktop Connection for Mac is available as a no-cost download and works with Windows Server 2008, 2003, Windows XP Professional, and Microsoft Windows 2000.

MICROSOFT Remote Desktop Connection for Mac provides enhanced capabilities including:

  • A GUI environment and menu bar that makes the attachment function easier to operate
  • Remote Desktop Protocol 6.0 for better throughput and Windows Vista and Windows 7 connectivity
  • Multiple session support for handling connections with a number of remote computers
  • Automatic reconnection for restarting a session if you drop the network connection
  • Session Window sizing options for executing the remote session as a full screen or in an adjustable window
  • Mac printing compatibility for printing Microsoft Windows documents on an Apple Mac printer
  • Network Level Authentication for improved security when attaching to Vista and Windows 7 computers
  • Improved screen resolution to accommodate wide-screen displays
  • Streamlined login procedures for enhanced efficiency

Microsoft's Virtual PC for Apple Mac emulates Microsoft Windows on a Mac system so you are able to operate Windows programs locally. Microsoft's Virtual PC for Apple Mac was available in high-end versions of Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac but is not included in the current versions of Office for Apple Mac.

SolutionKeys' Mac OS X consultants can assist you to deploy one or both these products for running Microsoft Windows applications on your Apple Macs and can in addition assist your organization to evaluate and configure third-party solutions for Microsoft Windows platform emulation.

Virtualization - How SolutionKeys can help you run Microsoft Windows on your Apple Macs
SolutionKeys' Microsoft-qualified engineers and Apple certified experts can assist you with the selection and deployment of appropriate software such as Parallels Desktop for Mac, Parallels Server for Mac, and VMware Fusion enabling your Intel-based Mac and Xserve users to run OS X and any other operating system and its applications, simultaneously.

With a desktop or server virtualization solution up and running, each virtual machine has its own window on the desktop, giving end users powerful interoperability between operating systems.

With virtual desktops your users can:

  • Run two different operating systems side by side.
  • Drag and drop files between Mac OS X and Windows applications, or even copy and paste items between the Mac and Windows desktops.
  • They can run any Windows-only applications, like Microsoft Project or Visio, without rebooting or complicated setup all while enjoying the security, ease of use, and functionality of the Mac.
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