Information Technology Services

Focalgate is a comprehensive information technology provider, serving the Twin Cities and the upper Midwest since 2001.  Our team is comprised of highly experienced professionals from a wide range of technology areas working together to ensure the success of our clients. 

Our practice focuses on enterprise-level technology services for small to mid-sized businesses, nonprofit organizations, and governmental entities, tailoring technology to suit your specific needs in the following areas: 

• Technology & Network Infrastructure Services
• Managed IT Solutions
• Storage, Backup & Disaster Recovery Solutions
• Cloud & Virtualization Services
• Voice Communications Services
• Virtual Chief Technology Officer Services

No matter how large or small your organization is, we will be there when you need us.

Your technology and network infrastructure should allow you to communicate, produce, create, sell, and accomplish your goals.  It runs the applications critical to your operation and affords you the ability to be successful.  Your technology infrastructure is the central nervous system of your organization.

Focalgate’s team of professionals will work with you to assess your current technology and network infrastructure and recommend fixes, changes, and improvements as necessary.  As you grow we will work with you to create and implement a plan to facilitate your success in the best way possible.

Wireless networking is a fundamental part of today’s network infrastructure.  Our team is experienced with indoor and outdoor wireless network deployments including simple point to point links and large scale geographically distributed outdoor networks.  We design and deploy remote solar powered data telemetry sites and remote communications & security networks as well. 

Focalgate can design and deploy asset and human resource tracking & communication systems for your organization.  These systems are wireless network based, provide very high levels of accuracy, and operate throughout your facilities.  Equipment used for these systems is tailored to the role; systems are designed for standard office environments and the harshest environments imaginable. 

If your network infrastructure does experience issues, we will be there to address the problems and bring your systems back online quickly.

Focalgate technology and network infrastructure:

• Network assessment, design, implementation, and monitoring
• Router & switch configuration and deployment
• Firewall and network security; intrusion detection
• Server & workstation configuration and deployment (Windows, Linux, and Mac)
• Wireless network design, survey, and deployment
• Communications & tracking systems
• Virtual Private Network (VPN) configuration and deployment
• Rack & stack
• Structured cabling
• Rapid response troubleshooting and repair

Managed IT is the service of proactively monitoring and supporting your systems and network 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  It’s preventative maintenance and network security designed to ensure your organization eliminates downtime to the greatest extent possible.  This service is provided for a monthly fee based on the number of devices in your organization.  It also includes a fixed quantity of service hours each month; additional services for Managed IT clients are billed at a discounted rate, if needed.

Focalgate provides an experienced engineer who is dedicated to your organization; you’ll know who is responsible for all your IT needs.  He acts as your IT General Practitioner, calling on specialists to assist as necessary, but always managing your care to be the best possible.

Our leased server, workstation, and phone system program eliminates fixed costs for your organization while providing current generation technology to enhance your productivity.  Don’t underestimate the productivity loss an organization suffers by struggling with slow out of date systems.  We can help you overcome the up-front cost hurdle of acquiring current generation equipment.

We are highly experienced in supporting both Windows and Mac systems, including mixed hardware organizations.

Focalgate Managed IT Solutions:

• Personalized service – your own dedicated engineer as primary point of contact who knows you and your systems.
• 24/7 proactive systems monitoring and maintenanceincluding servers, workstations, mobile devices, and network appliances
• Windows Server Active Directory management
• Network appliance, server, workstation, and mobile device deployment & upgrades
• Firewall deployment and monitoring; network intrusion prevention and detection
• Asset management
• Help desk & Back office 
• Optional:
• Leased server, workstation, and phone system program
• HIPPA compliance and auditing

Focalgate provides storage servers of all sizes, configured for the specific needs of our clients.  They range in size from simple small office direct attached storage devices to extremely large 100+TB scalable storage servers.  We typically utilize a ZFS-based solution with multiple redundancies, configured to maximize speed in its deployment role and the safety of our client’s data.  All storage servers are not created equal, be sure to understand what you are trusting your organization’s critical data to.

We create tailored disaster prevention programs for our clients to eliminate data loss and dramatically reduce down-time caused by hard drive or other system failure.  Hard drives fail, that’s just a fact of computing; an organization-specific bare metal backup program provides the ability to bring failed systems back online in a fraction of the time, without data loss. Plan to prevent hardware disaster, before it happens.

If disaster does strike, Focalgate will help you recover.  We can retrieve accidently deleted files, restore formatted hard drives, and recover failed large-scale multi-terabyte RAID arrays of all types. 

Focalgate Storage & Disaster Recovery Solutions:

• Client-specific storage servers from small to large
• Disaster prevention services including on-site and cloud backup
• Disaster recovery service restoring critical data from failed drives and large-scale RAID systems

“The Cloud” is a tool to help your organization be more effective, portable, and connected.  However, unless cloud services are integrated coherently into your overall IT structure, and conform to the way your organization operates, the cloud becomes confusing and counter-productive.

Focalgate offers a full range of cloud services, but most importantly, we help you choose the right services for your organization and assist you in integrating them in a way that makes sense for you. 

We are a Microsoft Solutions Partner assisting with the full range of Office365 products, Google G Suite, QuickBooks, backup solutions, and more.

We also provide comprehensive server virtualization services.  Server virtualization allows you to save money by utilizing one powerful machine to operate multiple different operating system environments. Our virtualization services include VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V, or cloud-based virtualization including Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, and other independent cloud-based virtualization services.

Focalgate Cloud & Virtualization Services:

• Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and other cloud-based applications
• Server virtualization with VMware, Hyper-V, and cloud-based services
• Cloud-based off-site backup solutions

Focalgate is a primary provider of competitively-priced Voice over IP solutions to help you reduce costs and increase the reliability and flexibility of your voice communication systems. 

Our solutions are deployed on your local or a cloud server, and are designed to provide you with a much larger range of functionality than is available with traditional land-lines.  Our PBX Unified Communications Systems provide integration with iPhone and Android handhelds, user presence, instant messaging / text chat, fax functionality, web conferencing & collaboration including video, user management consoles, powerful configuration options, and much more.   

Focalgate Voice Communication Services:

• Competitively priced complete VoIP solutions 
• Feature-rich communications systems including video conferencing
• Significant savings compared to traditional land lines
• System leasing options 

You need to plan for your organization to be successful; your technology infrastructure plays a critical role in that success.  Focalgate will help you develop a technology roadmap to choose the right tools and solutions to accomplish your organization’s growth plan, in the most cost-effective manner.

Focalgate is also your resource for project management and procurement.  Our experienced engineers will help you in the deployment phase of your projects, including structural build-outs and equipment acquisitions, successfully implementing your chosen technology roadmap.