Homeland SECURE IT Achieves Select Certification from Cisco

Greenville, SC, November 1, 2011:  Homeland Secure IT announced today that it has achieved Select Certification from Cisco. The Select Certification recognizes Cisco® resale channel partners that focus on meeting the technology and service needs of small businesses.

Cisco’s portfolio of both Small Business and Small Business Professional Series products directly complement and enhance Homeland Secure IT’s Systems Design, Sales, Installation and Support of end-to-end communications and physical networks.

Cisco Select Certified

“The Cisco Select Certification was created in response to customer demand for channel partners capable of designing and implementing Cisco solutions purpose-built for small businesses,” said Andrew Sage, vice president of Worldwide Small Business Sales at Cisco. “With the Select Certification, Homeland Secure IT has made an investment in obtaining the training, skills and knowledge necessary to play a pivotal role in meeting this growing demand.”

To earn Select Certification, Homeland Secure IT fulfilled the training and exam requirements for the Cisco Small Business Specialization.  Homeland Secure IT also met the personnel, training and post-sales support requirements set forth by Cisco.

The Cisco Resale Channel Program provides a framework for channel partners to build the sales, technical and Cisco Lifecycle Services skills required to deliver Cisco solutions to end customers. Through the program’s specializations and certifications, Cisco recognizes a channel partner’s expertise in deploying solutions based on Cisco advanced technologies and services. Using a third-party audit process, the program validates channel partner qualifications such as technology skills, business best practices, customer satisfaction, and presales and post-sales support capabilities — critical factors for customers choosing a trusted channel partner.

About Homeland Secure IT

Homeland Secure IT is headquartered in Greenville, SC, and serves Greenville and the Upstate of South Carolina.  Our goal is to deliver seamless design, implementation, and support to customers requiring both simple and sophisticated communications solutions.

• Unified Communications (VoIP)
• Wireless (WLAN)
• Video Surveillance
• Storage Solutions (NAS, SAN)
• Backup and Disaster Recovery
• Security (Firewall, A/V)
• Switching

For more information about this topic or to schedule meeting with our design and engineering team, please call 864-990-4748 or visit our website at http://www.HomelandSecureIT.com

Here’s a sad story… A local (Spartanburg, SC) music store was broken into over the weekend and 40,000 dollars in gear was taken.

The theft doesn’t look like your typical smash and grab either, because the thieve/s appear to have known the layout and went to great lengths to avoid detection. They entered through a skylight, after cutting power to the store, cutting video surveillance wires and disconnecting the alarm system backup power. A newspaper article about the break in and theft can be found here.

As a small business owner, I know the devastation the proprietor of the music store must be feeling, and I sincerely hope the perpetrator/s is/are caught and the equipment returned, and that there was insurance covering that inventory.

However, as a supplier and consultant in the security field, I have to wonder about a few details and offer some suggestions.

The article states the power was cut.  That would not normally matter to an alarm system, as it has a backup battery.  Now if the phone lines were cut before the power, then the system could not dial out.  UNLESS the alarm system has a cellular backup system as our home and our office both have.  This costs a few dollars more, but in the event of a power failure and loss of telephone connectivity, it can make the difference between the system working or not.

Dropping through a skylight SHOULD have been picked up by motion.  Was it not functioning? Was the system unable to call out?  The alarm should have sounded and strobe lights in equipped should have been flashing.  Pulling the battery on the alarm would have then silenced it, but not before it dialed out on the cellular backup system if it used that, or VoIP if the internet were not disabled too.

Which brings us to video surveillance. Obviously, no system is perfect, but many modern systems are capable of alerting staff of intrusion before it happens.  If you walk into my yard at my home, or come into the parking lot of our businesses, still shots will be emailed to me.  This functionality is easy to configure and helps let you know about sketchy things taking place. If I receive email at 10pm on a Saturday then I am going to be paying special attention to it, watching in real-time.

But what if someone were to manage to disable the internet connections? Wouldn’t that disable the ability to notify anyone?  Not necessarily. Businesses can consider secondary internet services, such as wireless broadband internet (3g/4g) for their video surveillance.  Total cost, 450/year and doubles as a failover for the business internet.

What if the power were cut to the building? The video surveillance system should be on an UPS (un-interruptable power supply) to keep it running for many hours. Our system is on an inexpensive UPS which will keep the DVR and the cameras functional for about 72 hours.  Total cost, 350 dollars.

WHAT IF (Lots of what if’s here!) the bad guys managed to actually get in without being detected… Couldn’t they just take the Digital Video Recorder?  Yes, they could, if it were not in a hardened enclosure.  But, there are ways to deal with that too. All video up until the time the DVR went offline can be synced to a remote location.

We have opted to sync our video to multiple machines, so if the DVR were physically destroyed or taken, the video would still be elsewhere.

If you would like to discuss how to better protect your Greenville /Upstate SC business or home, give us a call… 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com.  We offer CCTV, IP Video, Surveillance systems,  DVRs and NVRs. We can also help plan for failover systems, such as UPS and cellular / 3g/4g wireless backups.

Caught in the act thanks to a security camera

Do you ever wonder what is going on at your home when you are not there? Maybe you just want to know if someone approaches your door, or if a vehicle pulls into your driveway?

Call me paranoid, but I do!  We have surrounded our home and businesses with full color, night-vision cameras that record to a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) and in the event of motion, will send alerts in email to our phones, allowing us to see what we are missing out on.

In addition to that, we can view our cameras using a supported smart phone or any computer equipped with a web browser from anywhere in the world. This has come in handy several times, such as the other day when our alarm company called and said the fire alarm was going off at our home. Talk about a scary moment, but having the ability to see that the house was not full of smoke helped set our mind at ease and to cancel the call to the fire department (before they charged us money).

We receive discounts on our home and business insurance thanks to having both premise security in the form of intrusion detection alarms with smoke/fire/glass break and video surveillance keeping a watchful eye over the property. The cost of the alarms and video security will pay for themselves in reduced insurance premiums.

Camera systems have dropped dramatically in price over the last few years allowing home owners to experience the same security as businesses.

Whether you want a single camera watching your front door, or possibly facing towards where your boat / PWC is parked, or complete 360 degree exterior protection, it is all possible! Please call us at 864-990-4748, email info@homelandsecureit.com or stop by our offices if you would like more information about what is available or to see a demonstration of an installed system!