Information Technology FAQs

Sensei provides full-service IT support 24×7 to its clients. Sensei also provides supplemental IT support to clients that already have a full IT staff. Other services Sensei provides are:

• Disaster Recovery and Planning
• Email Hosting, Setup & Design
• Cloud email Solutions & Security
• Onsite and Remote Support
• Virtualization, Consolidation and Cloud Computing
• Cloud Hosting
• Cloud Backup
• Datacenter Hosting
• Office Relocation Services
• Hardware & Software Purchasing & Financing
• Power Management
• Server & Software Migrations
• Design & Implementation Solutions
• Asset Tracking
• 24×7 Monitoring
• Helpdesk Support
• Broadband Management & Circuit Acquisition
• Proactive Maintenance
• System Documentation
• VoIP Backbone Design
• Wireless LAN Solutions
• Virtual Private Network Services
• Security Policy & Firewall Management
• Telework Solutions
• Infrastructure Upgrades
• Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR)

In the simplest terms, the cloud means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet (with your data stored in a datacenter) rather than accessing and storing data on your local hard drive or server in your office. With the increased speeds in bandwidth these days, cloud computing has become very popular, especially since it helps with business continuity, offering a guaranteed “six 9s,” 99.9999% uptime for electricity, climate control and Internet access. Sensei offers cloud solutions to its customers and provides this service at competitive rates.

Taking your company to the cloud requires a lot of thought. We offer a free one-hour consultation to assist in assessing your readiness to move to the cloud, in whole or in part, depending on your business requirements. Sensei will help you design a plan that works best for your needs.

At Sensei, we provide “site-surveys” when we first meet a customer. This entails meeting with the individuals/decision makers of the business, checking the current network, and coming up with a phased approach to provide service to the business. At Sensei, our site surveys are free of charge and once they are completed, we present the business with a proposal, recommendations, timetable and estimated costs. Sensei provides free IT assessments to businesses throughout the DC Metro area. Call Sensei’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Jeff Fox at 703.359.0700 to arrange one.

Backup is the most important part of a network and should be performed frequently. Sensei offers backup products that will back up the servers and desktops on the network as frequently as every 15 minutes.

Why so frequent, you might ask? The more frequent the backups, the less time it takes to back up the computer or server. It also means you lose the least amount of data should a disaster occur. If you only back up your data once per day, it’s possible that you may lose the entire day of work.

We also help with and recommend testing backups on a periodic basis to ensure that your backup solution is in working order.

You should look for individuals working at a well-known company with a reputation for being knowledgeable, responsive and professional. Consultants should have IT certifications, experience and be able to talk to your business in a way in which you can understand.

At Sensei, our consultants do their best to explain IT matters in terms in which you can understand. Sensei employs highly certified individuals who have multiple years of experience and are extremely talented at providing IT support to businesses

Sensei has many industry certifications and continues to update these certifications when required. Some of the certifications our consultants hold are:

• MCSE – Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer
• MCITP – Microsoft Certified IT Professional
• MCP – Microsoft Certified Professional
• MCSA – Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator
• MCTS – Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist
• Pentest+ – CompTIA Pentest+
• CEH Master – Certified Ethical Hacker Master
• CEH – Certified Ethical Hacker
• CCNP – Cisco Certified Network Professional
• CCNA – Cisco Certified Network Associate
• CCA – Citrix Certified Administrator
• VCP – VMware Certified Professional
• CISSP – Certified Information Systems Security Professional
• Microsoft 365 Solutions Associate
• AWS SAA – Amazon Web Services Solutions Architect
• AWS Cloud – AWS Cloud Practitioner
• HP ASE – Hewlett Packard Accredited Solutions Expert
• NET+ – CompTIA Network+
• A+ – CompTIA A+

Yes, Sensei provides support around the clock. Technology doesn’t stop after business hours – nor do we. Whenever you need us, Sensei is here to help.

Response time officially is four hours during normal business hours and one hour after hours. We strive to get back to you as soon as we can and usually are able to get back to you very quickly. We want to get you back to being productive as soon as possible.

Sensei has established great relationships with our vendors (Dell, Microsoft, HP, Lenovo, etc.,) and therefore can provide substantial savings on hardware and software through those vendors. As an example, when one of our customers quotes a computer from a vendor, we can typically beat that price by a significant margin.

Sensei consultants have over 100 years of combined experience.

Yes. Sensei is an IT Managed Services Provider (MSP) and therefore provides not only project work, but follow-up maintenance, and ongoing support (onsite and remote).

Yes, Sensei has many references for our clients to call. We do our best to make sure that every customer is happy to serve as a reference.

Sensei doesn’t offer phone systems, cabling, or internet to its customers. Sensei has multiple vendors for these three services and can gather the quotes needed to make an informed decision. We strive to be a one-stop shop for our customers and are pleased to facilitate relationships with trusted vendors that we’ve already vetted.

Yes, Sensei will assist with moving your office computers, servers, and networking to a new space. We make sure your new office has cabling, Internet and is ready to go when you are. Office relocations can be a nightmare if you don’t have the right IT company assisting you. Sensei has performed hundreds of these moves and has experience to avoid the “gotchas” that so often come with relocations.

Sensei assists lots of start-ups with selecting the right equipment and services for your business needs. Sensei will meet with you to discuss your business and requirements and then provide a proposal based on those needs as well as recommendations based on our industry experience. We will also provide estimated costs.

The biggest gap we see with other IT providers is experience and certifications. Many companies will employ consultants who have only worked on one network and who are not certified. Sensei employs consultants that have years of experience working on many different computer networks.

When you have a question or problem, we have a terrific knowledge bank on which to draw. If you have a terrific IT provider, count your blessings. But if you don’t, call Sensei’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Jeff Fox at 703.359.0700 and ask for a complimentary IT assessment.

Email is the most important forms of communication for businesses. Spam and malware that are sent over e-mail are extremely dangerous for businesses. Sensei has options available to prevent spam and malware from hitting your Inbox.

We also provide business continuity practices so that if your email server is down, you can still access your email. This generally provides 100% uptime for your business.

Typically, when the power fails, the Internet goes down, and servers and computer shut off. You must wait for power to come back on to continue working. Businesses that have frequent power failures should look for battery backup systems that can handle the typical power failure and keep business running.

Most businesses don’t rely on the power company. They prefer to rely on us to provide cloud hosting that keeps businesses up and running even if the power fails. Give us a call and ask us about our cloud services and how we can keep you operational 24x7x365.

Today virtualization is used to reduce power, to cool and to provide methods to reduce costs. In most scenarios where a business requires a database server, email server, file server, and print server, virtualization allows you to have all these servers sitting on one physical device instead of many physical devices.

So now you don’t need to purchase five servers – you can purchase one or two servers and provide the same service as well as provide easier maintenance, on-the-fly upgrades of memory, processor power, and disk space.

Sensei consultants have been using virtualization for our customers for a long time and this has allowed us to provide cost effective solutions. VMware, Microsoft, and Citrix are the major players in virtualization and Sensei consultants have experience with all three.

Sensei assists businesses with a full-time IT staff all the time. Typically, we assist with major projects but also with the cloud. Some organizations have many offices, and their IT staff is located in different states. Sensei can provide support or hands-on work locally for those business to save money on travel. Organizations with a full-time IT staff don’t always have all the answers and look to Sensei for their experience and hands-on knowledge to assist them with running the network more efficiently and securely.

Sensei works with many non-profit organizations and provides discounted rates for all three divisions at Sensei: Information Technology, Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics.