BUSINESS COMMUNICATION SOLUTIONS · AUSTIN & HOUSTON
Clear answers about IT support, security monitoring, Microsoft 365, backups, risk assessments, SOC 2, and CMMC readiness for Austin and Houston businesses.
Select a topic, then expand a question. For advice about your environment, call Austin: 512-257-1433 or Houston: 281-815-8784.
A managed IT agreement can cover help desk support, workstations, servers, Microsoft 365, networks, maintenance, backups, and cybersecurity. Your agreement identifies covered systems, responsibilities, support hours, response expectations, and separately priced work. Explore managed IT services.
Fully managed IT gives BCS responsibility for the agreed IT services. Co-managed IT shares defined responsibilities with your internal administrator or existing provider—for example, specialist security support, projects, vacation coverage, or independent checks. Compare support models.
Yes. We can agree on specific tasks, access permissions, reporting, and escalation with your current team. The goal is to fill gaps and make ownership clear, including which party handles each system, alert, or vendor issue.
BCS supports businesses in Austin, Houston, and surrounding areas through remote assistance and local on-site services. The right approach depends on the issue, location, and agreed coverage. Scheduling and response commitments are defined in your service agreement.
Yes. We can scope support around selected systems and their dependencies, such as servers, identity, business applications, network connectivity, and backups. We first identify the assets, vendor responsibilities, access requirements, and recovery priorities involved.
Yes. An authorized handoff can include administrative accounts, licensing, asset records, network documentation, backups, open tickets, and vendor contacts. Transition timing depends on access availability, your environment, and existing agreements; it should be planned before current coverage ends.
Pricing depends on users, devices, locations, applications, security requirements, service hours, and the work already handled by your team. BCS reviews your needs before providing a scoped proposal. Read the managed IT pricing guide. Figures in general pricing articles are illustrative, not a quote for your business.
Either model may be used, along with a fixed fee for a defined scope. A business with shared workstations, several servers, or many field employees may need a different approach from a typical office. Compare the covered services and exclusions as well as the unit price.
They can be included, but inclusion depends on your proposal. Confirm the specific Microsoft licenses, protected users and devices, backup workloads, monitoring coverage, and any separate subscriptions. A managed IT agreement should make those responsibilities and costs explicit.
Project work may be quoted separately from recurring support. Examples include new cabling, equipment installation, office relocations, major migrations, and remediation outside the agreed scope. Review the proposal before assuming that every IT-related task is included.
BCS offers a 30-day free trial for managed IT services. Contact us to confirm the covered services, start date, and any separately priced licensing, equipment, installation, or project work before the trial begins. Ask about the 30-day trial.
No. Security monitoring, general help desk support, emergency escalation, and on-site dispatch are separate service commitments. MDR with a 24/7 SOC can be included for covered systems when scoped in your plan. Confirm who can respond, what actions are authorized, and which support hours apply.
Antivirus and endpoint protection help prevent and detect malware. Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) adds endpoint activity visibility to support detection, investigation, and response. Features overlap between products, so evaluate actual capabilities and configuration rather than relying on the label alone. Learn about endpoint security.
EDR is endpoint security technology. Managed Detection and Response (MDR) is a service that adds investigation and response support. A Security Operations Center (SOC) is the team and operating process behind monitoring and incident handling. The service agreement defines coverage, hours, escalation, and response authority. Explore MDR and SOC support.
Snort and Suricata are network IDS/IPS engines; OSSEC is a host-based IDS. EDR and SIEM can detect intrusion activity without being classified as dedicated IDS tools. A SOC is the team that investigates activity. A combined platform may include several components. See IDS tools and examples.
That depends on the visibility you need. EDR focuses on endpoint activity; a SIEM can correlate logs from endpoints, accounts, servers, firewalls, and other connected sources. Review the risks, integrations, detection rules, and investigation needs before adding it. Learn about SIEM services.
Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) connects security tools and automates defined workflows. It may enrich an alert, open a ticket, or trigger an approved containment action. Automation needs reliable inputs, tested playbooks, and clear response authority. Learn about SOAR.
Compare your asset inventory with reporting endpoints and connected log sources. Check agent health, last contact, policy assignment, unsupported devices, and monitoring exclusions. Use safe, authorized tests to verify that important alerts reach the people responsible for investigating them. Review asset inventory and coverage.
MFA is an important layer, but email protection, administrator permissions, identity monitoring, device security, application access, and recovery procedures also matter. Review how accounts are enrolled, how suspicious access is handled, and whether important accounts are excluded. Explore Microsoft 365 support.
Not necessarily. License choices should match each person’s applications, devices, security features, and compliance obligations. Users benefiting from a licensed feature need the appropriate entitlement. Review requirements before mixing plans or assuming one premium license protects everyone. Read the Microsoft 365 licensing guide.
Intune can help manage supported devices and applications, deploy settings, apply security policies, and assess device compliance. What it can enforce depends on licensing, operating system, enrollment, and configuration. It also needs ongoing review when devices stop reporting or settings fail. Explore Intune support.
Microsoft Purview includes capabilities for understanding and protecting information, managing records, and supporting audit and compliance activities. Features such as sensitivity labels, data loss prevention, and audit have distinct licensing and configuration requirements. Learn about Purview setup and support.
Possibly, after reviewing the information involved, business requirements, and available controls. Define approved applications, device requirements, company-data handling, management permissions, and offboarding. Separate guest Wi-Fi alone does not protect company information accessed through a personal device.
Use an approved onboarding and offboarding checklist. Assign access by role, configure authentication and devices, and record approvals. When someone leaves, promptly address account access, sessions, devices, shared credentials, and data ownership. Verify completion rather than relying only on a submitted ticket.
File synchronization and cloud storage serve a different purpose from an independently planned backup and recovery service. Review deletion recovery, version history, retention, administrative access, and what happens after account compromise. Determine whether the available recovery features meet your business needs. Read cloud storage versus cloud backup.
Start with the systems and information needed to operate: business files, servers, applications, databases, and applicable Microsoft 365 workloads. Document what is covered, what is excluded, where copies are stored, and who can recover them. Explore backup services.
Set a documented test schedule based on how much downtime and data loss the business can tolerate, plus applicable obligations. Test after significant changes as well. Restore representative data and systems, record the result and recovery time, and correct failures; a successful backup notification is not a restore test.
Report it immediately through the designated incident channel and follow your response plan. Avoid deleting evidence or improvising a recovery. Where instructed, isolate an affected device from the network while preserving power for investigation; account compromise may require different containment. Review the ransomware response guide.
A tabletop exercise walks leadership, IT, and relevant staff through an incident scenario to practice decisions, escalation, and communication. It can reveal unclear responsibilities and missing procedures. It is different from a hands-on restore test or penetration test. Explore tabletop exercises.
Set a recurring schedule that fits your risk and obligations, and revisit the plan after major changes, incidents, or lessons learned. Include people with decision authority and document improvements with owners and target dates. The value comes from correcting what the exercise reveals.
Start with a discussion of your environment, business concerns, current protection, and responsibilities to identify potential gaps and next steps. Confirm scope before work begins. Detailed technical testing, formal deliverables, remediation, managed services, and facilitated exercises can be scoped separately. Start the free assessment conversation.
A risk assessment evaluates threats, weaknesses, likelihood, and business impact to prioritize risk treatment. A gap assessment compares the current environment against a defined requirement or target. A vulnerability scan supplies technical findings; it does not replace either broader assessment.
Review risks on a recurring schedule appropriate to your business and obligations, and after significant changes, incidents, or new customer requirements. New applications, vendors, locations, staff responsibilities, and sensitive information can change the risk even when your security tools stay the same.
Consider the business impact, exposure, likelihood, dependencies, and any mandatory deadlines. Identify an owner and target date for each action. Document decisions to defer work and the protection needed in the meantime; an internal risk decision does not waive an external requirement.
Yes. BCS can help review technical questions, check the controls within scope, and organize supporting evidence. Your authorized company representative remains responsible for the application, and your insurer or broker explains coverage. Report what is implemented and verified. Review cyber insurance readiness.
Leadership owns business priorities and risk decisions; IT staff and service providers carry out their agreed tasks. Define owners, approvals, escalation, and verification. Independent reviews, access checks, restore tests, and evidence of monitoring help identify mistakes or missing coverage. Read the business-owner guide.
Yes. BCS can scope gap reviews, technical implementation, documentation, remediation, and evidence support. Type I addresses design at a specified date; Type II also addresses operating effectiveness over a period. An independent CPA firm performs the examination and issues the report. Explore SOC 2 readiness support.
Start with the solicitation or contract and the information your systems handle. Level 1 focuses on Federal Contract Information (FCI); Level 2 addresses protection of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). Confirm the required assessment type as well as the level. Review Level 1 versus Level 2.
No. BCS provides readiness consulting and implementation support. The applicable CMMC assessment is performed through the required self-assessment or authorized assessment route. An independent CPA firm issues a SOC 2 report. Readiness work does not guarantee an assessment result. Explore CMMC consulting.
That requires a review of the information, applicable obligations, service scope, configuration, licensing, and provider responsibilities. A license name alone does not establish suitability or compliance. Determine the requirements before moving sensitive information or choosing a different environment.
Yes. BCS can help organize evidence, assign remediation work, and track verification. Whether a Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M) is permitted depends on the applicable program and specific requirement. A planned correction is not evidence that a control is already implemented.
Yes. BCS can work with your administrator or current provider on defined gaps, implementation, documentation, and evidence. Management still approves policies and risk decisions. Agree on ownership and access early so work does not fall between your team, service providers, and the independent assessor.
Start with the systems your business relies on, the protection already in place, and the gaps that need attention. BCS offers a free initial cybersecurity risk assessment conversation for businesses in Austin and Houston.