One consultant who knows your network

How the work is set up

Alienstech is an independent consultancy. The owner does the design, the implementation, the documentation and the support. When you call about a slow application, you are talking to the person who configured the server it runs on, so the conversation starts several steps further along than it otherwise would.

That model has limits and they are worth stating plainly. It works well for companies of five to a hundred and fifty employees who want a considered, well documented environment. It is not a twenty four hour staffed help desk, and it is not the right fit for an organization that needs technicians on site every day.

Planning comes before purchasing

A surprising amount of the money businesses spend on technology is spent twice: once on a quick fix, and again a year later when the quick fix has to be undone. The way to avoid that is unglamorous. Find out what is actually installed, write it down, work out what it needs to do over the next three years, and then buy.

Every engagement starts with an assessment for that reason. It is common to find licenses being paid for that nobody uses, a backup that has been failing quietly for months, or a firewall still running the configuration a previous provider left behind. None of that is unusual and none of it is a criticism of the people running the business. It is simply what happens when nobody has had the time to look.

Documentation you own

Every client environment is documented: network diagrams, IP addressing, switch and firewall configuration, server roles, license counts, warranty dates, account inventories and recovery procedures. That documentation is kept current, and it is yours. If you ever move to another provider, you should be able to hand them a folder rather than an apology.

The long view

The goal is not to win a project. It is to still be the person you call in five years, which only happens if the advice was sound the first time. That shapes the recommendations: standard equipment rather than exotic, capacity for growth rather than a system that is full on the day it is installed, and security treated as part of the design instead of something bolted on afterward.