Local Alaska IT: solutions for Alaska businesses of any industry or size.

• Author: Anderson, Tasha
• Position: Telecom & Technology

It's not at all controversial to say that technology is an integral part of doing business, no matter a company's size, industry, or location; however, for any Alaska business, there is an appropriate IT solution.

Arctic Information Technology

Meara Boling, general manager, Platform & Infrastructure for Arctic Information Technology, says the bulk of the work the company performs in Alaska is their Managed Services offering, a flat-rate IT service for businesses typically ranging from ten to seventy-five employees. "They get access to a team of IT professionals: unlimited help desk five days a week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., anti-virus and anti-malware, remote monitoring and maintenance, system patching, those types of things, as well as strategic consulting and guidance about their IT needs and options," Boling says.

Some small and medium businesses may hesitate to contract with an outside IT provider: "The shortfall of businesses that have their own TT guy' is that guy or gal implements or prescribes only what they know," says Arctic Information Technology President Steve Dike. "We can't tell you how many times we've been called in and the client says their IT guy has their server in his house; businesses can get held hostage." Senior Account Executive Mark Mathis adds, "It could [also] be something as simple as 'Our IT person has gone on vacation for three weeks and we can't get in touch with them.'"

Remote IT

"It's wonderful to work in the last frontier, but there are a number of challenges," Boling says. As with most business in Alaska, access can be a problem, whether it's physically bringing equipment and appliances to remote locations or having access to affordable, high speed Internet. "Internet bandwidth and cost continue to be an inhibiting factor in some cases, or certainly a challenge at the minimum," she says.

She says the company schedules regular onsite visits with their clients, but most of their maintenance work is done remotely. In fact, Mathis says one of their largest managed services clients is in Cordova. "We're using best-in-class tools to manage our client environments, and we do as much as we can, within reason, remotely across the network connection, collecting telemetry and system log data to be as proactive as we can."

Mathis, Boling, and Dike all credit their ability to work with clients, particularly in remote or rural locations, to adamantly maintaining a client-first mentality. "In terms of working in...