by Latasha Darden | Jan 20, 2023 | Backup & Disaster Recovery, Cybersecurity, Managed IT Services, Nonprofit IT Services
Data is a valuable asset for any organization, but it is essential for nonprofits, who rely on data to measure their impact and achieve their goals. In this blog, we cover data backup best practices that nonprofits can implement today. Backup Best Practices...
by Latasha Darden | Jan 20, 2023 | Business Technology, Managed IT Services, Nonprofit IT Services
Non-profit organizations often operate on tight budgets and may not have the resources to invest in in-house IT staff or equipment. This can lead to outdated technology, inadequate security measures, and a lack of support for the organization’s mission-critical...Cross the Divide’s partnership with Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMH) is one that brings us immense pride. Doing our part to support RMH’s vital work of helping families in their time of need is a challenge we’ve gladly taken on. As with any 24-hour facility, particularly one where downtime can have serious consequences, the IT systems we’ve implemented and support for RMH are by necessity reliable, secure, and above all stable! We’ve worked hard to implement systems that can seamlessly fail over during downtime, backups that can be restored on the fly, and disaster recovery / contingency plans for a wide scope of scenarios.
Additionally, as RMH has grown, we’ve worked to design and integrate all aspects of their considerable IT infrastructure into a seamless experience. RMH’s scale, requirements, and partnership with hospitals / medical facilities mean that CTD regularly works with outside vendors and support on RMH’s behalf, filling both a support and IT strategy role in an organization with many moving parts.
During our tenure as RMH’s IT provider, the organization has gone through several big changes – construction of large new facilities (and their associated server rooms), mergers, integrations with outside providers… the list goes on. As with any IT project, the keys to our success in these large endeavors have been expertise and planning. Installation of new firewalls, as recent example, meant CTD spent several weeks plotting out exact changes and order of operations, testing and retesting new equipment, and interfacing with the network administrators at RMH’s healthcare facilities to insure cutover to new hardware caused a bare minimum of user impact. Our efforts paid off, and our major, after-hours changes happened in a matter of minutes!
IT work in any healthcare field is always a challenge, both technically and from a requirements perspective, and CTD looks forward to many more years of cooperatively overcoming the next obstacles that lay in store for RMH!
Cross the Divide is proud to be partnering with National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) since 2005. The last decades have been an incredible time in the history of the LGBTQ+ civil rights, and thanks in part to NCLR’s devotion to their mission, immense strides have been made towards true equality.
Many of the challenges faced by NCLR on the technological front will be familiar to anyone who has worked with legal professionals – challenging (sometimes arcane) document requirements, short deadlines, and the not-always-cutting-edge landscape of legal software tools.
Thankfully, CTD has had the opportunity to work through technical obstacles large and small with NCLR. We have built a modern and resilient IT system, accessible seamlessly both in and out of the office, that allows NCLR’s legal professionals to travel and collaborate with ease.
NCLR experienced a burst of growth during the critical period surrounding California’s Prop 8 vote and subsequent court cases. LGBTQ+ rights took center stage on the national stage, and NCLR seized this opportunity to further their cause. CTD was there to help every step of the way, setting up new offices, deploying new communications platforms to handle rapidly expanding development and volunteer needs, and working through all the security and complexity barriers that come with growth and change. Any nationally recognized organization becomes a target for bad actors online, and we’ve kept NCLR’s stable and secure.
We’re extremely proud of what our friends at NCLR have achieved, and we hope we’ve done our part to get them where they are today. Looking to the future, we’re helping NCLR move into the cloud era, and leverage platforms like Teams to allow a truly hybrid work environment.
Before signing with CTD, Habitat for Humanity East Bay Silicon Valley (HEBSV) had a single, dust-covered, out-of-warranty tower server which served as their all-in-one domain controller and file store. They needed an immediate fix and called CTD for assistance.
Since that first panicked call, we’ve helped HEBSV grow from a single, unsustainable on-prem server to a fully modern, cloud-based, secure organization whose employees can seamlessly work and collaborate from anywhere.
We’ve helped them navigate dozens of complicated scenarios – the move from on-prem to the cloud, the move from traditional phones to Microsoft Teams, organizational mergers, domain name changes, platform implementations, MFA… the list goes on. As HEBSV has grown and changed through the years, so have we, and we’ve been honored by the trust they’ve placed in our expertise and hard work to get them through so many challenges.
HEBSV’s mission means they face a lot of obstacles the average non-profit does not:
Mobility – Even before the new hybrid work model, Habitat’s work in construction means that they’ve needed to work effectively from everywhere, on even modest network connections. Jobsite laptops take a beating, internet connections are unreliable, and deadlines are always tight, so CTD works with Habitat to provide a robust and secure platform that allows their construction staff access in and out of the office.
Retail – Habitat also operates a set of special reclaimed materials storefronts, so we also provide for the needs (like Point of Sale systems, etc.) of standard retail businesses.
Budget – Habitat is known around the world for its dedication to its mission, and especially given the high cost of construction development in California, every dollar counts. We’ve worked with HEBSV to keep their IT costs as low as possible while still providing a reliable, enterprise-grade system for all of their employees.
We look forward to keeping HEBSV’s systems running smoothly as they work tirelessly to provide housing for the less fortunate!
GRID Alternatives, founded in 2001, was set to embark on a period of rapid growth and expansion when they partnered with CTD in 2010. GRID’s transition from a small, local program in the SF Bay Area to a leading provider of solar energy nationwide meant they needed an IT firm who could handle the challenges of rapid growth – new offices, new systems, new policies, and new technologies.
In an extremely high-effort migration, CTD and GRID worked together to bring order to the chaos that inevitably surrounds the transition from a medium-sized business, by implementing proper Active Directory, setting up a reliable and secure file server in CTD’s private cloud environment, migrating from a legacy phone system to Skype for Business (and later transitioning to Microsoft Teams) to allow seamless communication between staff in the field and back in the office, and helping to plan and implement the critical IT framework and policies that larger organizations depend on.
Since then, we’ve helped GRID build out a nationwide network of offices with resilient connectivity and centralized data stores, implemented critical security improvements like single-sign-on and multi-factor authentication, and deployed a fleet of managed laptops with a standardized image.
When COVID lockdowns first hit, CTD and GRID Alternatives were already positioned to make the shift to remote work. CTD’s remote access implementation allows seamless functionality in and out of the office and migrating them fully to Microsoft Teams and Salesforce allowed GRID to become fully cloud based.
Now we’re continuing our work with GRID to adapt to the new technological landscape and a hybrid environment. As GRID continues its growth, we’ve worked to set up support for international staff in places like Nicaragua, built out custom systems to support the complex and intensive work of GRID’s design team, and built out a multi-level backup system that protects all of their cloud data.
CTD’s team of dedicated support staff allows GRID users across the country to get help with all of their IT needs with a single, central point of contact, and working together we look forward to meeting all of their business needs and helping them continue to improve work efficiencies.