| The Paladin Support Center, a division of Poulsbo’s Paladin Data Systems, recently announced the general availability of computer infrastructure services to local firms. Paladin has offered infrastructure support to its Fortune 500 customers for over six years, and is now rolling out this service with an affordable set of offerings targeted to the needs of local businesses.
The timing of the announcement was set to coincide with Microsoft Corporation’s release of its new XP version of its operating system. According to Michelle Dvorak, Paladin’s Training Division manager, “There has been a real interest in Windows XP classes and certifications. A lot of local businesses are planning on upgrading their systems in the coming months.”
According to Chief Technology Officer Gary Macy, “In today’s business environment organizations with between 5 and 200 computers have many of the same needs larger organizations do, but can’t, or don’t want to make the large investments required to have a fully staffed internal Information Technology department. That’s where our range of offerings will provide high end services and capabilities for a much lower cost.”
“We don’t sell hardware or software, and work with everything from Microsoft, Novell and many versions of Unix. So we can provide unbiased solutions for our clients,” stated Scott Rider, Paladin’s managing principal in charge of the Support Center group.
The idea is to provide one-stop service for everything, from simple office application upgrades for programs like Microsoft Office, through complex secure networking solutions using Virtual Private Network (VPN) and advanced firewall technologies, to get organizations on the internet while protecting them from all the bad guys out in cyberspace.
Paladin estimates that nearly 70 percent of Kitsap businesses have information system projects they want to undertake but can’t, due to a lack of experienced on-staff capabilities.
“It’s not uncommon for organizations to attempt to implement internet connections, firewalls, network servers, file servers, enterprise print servers, e-mail servers, and try to manage three or four different versions of Microsoft Windows – all with nothing more than the part-time support of the guy in accounting who got stuck with the job because he has a computer at home”, said Rider.
In addition to basic infrastructure support the Paladin offers disaster planning and support. Macy explained, “Most businesses do a really bad job of planning for a disaster. While it’s good to have a plan for what you’re going to do, should there be a fire or flood, there is a disaster which every business will experience at some time – the failure of it’s electronic information storage devices. Very few organizations have a sound information backup program in place, and even fewer have ever actually tested to see if they can recover from the backups they are creating.”
In addition to disaster planning and backup management, Paladin will offer off-site information storage services for it’s customers, so clients can recover from a complete loss of their facilities.
For more information, Contact Paladin at (360) 779-2400. | 
