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Managed IT Services for Engineering Firms

Engineering firms rely on technology to produce innovative designs, communicate with their clients, and collaborate with their teams. Engineers have begun to make use of cloud-based and remotely hosted technologies to collaborate, to access mountains of data from the field as easily as from the office, and to speed up their day-to-day tasks.

However, not all engineering firms have spent the effort they really should on backups, security, and compliance. If the people who implemented your IT systems didn’t deeply understand your industry and the way you work, you may not be working at peak efficiency and your security and reputation may become compromised.

You need IT professionals proactively managing your systems to prevent and mitigate these issues. That’s where we come in.

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Who is Highway 99 Technology Solutions?

We are a full-service managed IT services provider specializing in the needs of engineers and other professional services firms in architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) just like yours. We are based in downtown Vancouver where we offer responsive and reliable IT solutions and support small businesses throughout Metro Vancouver.

How Can Highway 99 Help Engineering Firms?

We can shoulder your entire organization’s IT burden, both for routine work and the special requirements that your biggest building and design projects demand. We work to make IT-based downtime a thing of the past, and to harden your systems against both accidental and deliberate data breaches. Better still, we do that with a sensitivity to the demands you put in your data technology and the way you actually do business.

We can help with:

  • Support for your workstations and servers
  • Data protection and live system monitoring
  • Complete management of internal or hosted email servers
  • Solutions for all your networked infrastructure needs
  • Cyber-security and malware protection
  • Complete, regularly scheduled backups and software updates
  • Asset and license management
  • General IT consulting

Our team’s regular working hours are weekdays 7am to 6pm, and we are available to handle emergencies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Sound like just what you need? Let's chat.

Why Use Highway 99 for Your Engineering Firm’s IT Needs?

We’ve heard it a thousand times. You don’t need an IT team, and if you did, you’d only bring them in to fix a problem. You wouldn’t need on-call support or ongoing IT management.

You might have a truly world-class remote backup system. But have you ever tested it? How many of your systems run on consumer-grade platforms, and use unmanaged antivirus, if at all? In your heart, you know that is risky. What happens when you discover those consumer-grade systems have been infected for months, and therefore so have your backups?

It is less expensive to skimp on security, on monitoring and asset management – right up until everything falls apart.

Call us before that happens.

Highway 99 understands the needs of engineering firms. In fact, your primary point of contact is a professional engineer themselves. And because we understand the challenges you face; we can give your firm the competitive edge it needs to thrive.

What about Cloud Services?

Migrated to the Cloud? You Need Specialized Support.

The possibility of your cloud systems being poorly configured or improperly optimized could do a great deal of damage in the long run – it could be crippling your ability to serve the needs of your clients.

Highway 99 can ensure that your cloud services are configured correctly, that access is restricted to the people you intend to use the system, and that all of your data is backed up regularly.

Contact Us Today

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Get the IT Support Your Business Deserves

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Now let’s talk about you.

Every business is unique. Get in touch, let us know about your business and the challenges you're facing. Better yet, book a consultation today for a full technology needs assessment today. We’ll explore precisely what your practice needs and how we can supply it – at no cost or obligation.

IT Tips for Engineering Firms

Develop a Tech Strategy that Supports Your Firm’s Growth

Know what you are trying to achieve with your IT systems, and what they need to do for you. Make tech decisions and investments based on that strategy, and consult with experts before choosing hardware, software, or business solutions.

Prepare for Disaster, and it Won’t Become a Disaster

A good backup and data recovery plan could mean the difference between a major inconvenience, and the end of the business altogether. Pay special attention to protecting and preserving your confidential and sensitive information – you almost certainly have more of that on your systems than you think. Follow the 3-2-1 rule for data backup::

  • Keep 3 copies of your most crucial data
  • Use at least 2 different backup media (tapes, CDs, etc.)
  • Keep at least 1 copy in a secure, off-site location

It’s equally important to test your backups regularly. Nothing is worse than having to go to your backups and discovering that you’ve been recording junk data for the last six months.

Never Compromise Cybersecurity

Data security is everyone’s job:

  • Never give access to your systems without a good reason, and never to someone who hasn’t proven their identity
  • Don’t leave your devices unattended or logged in – even just over lunch or a break.
  • Update your devices and apps on a regular schedule – especially your malware protection
  • Adopt (and enforce) a robust password policy and use two-factor authentication (2FA), especially for remote access
  • Store sensitive data on as few applications and devices as possible

CAD Workstations for Engineering Firms

A slow, obsolete workstation could be robbing you and your clients of hundreds of billable hours every year.

A new CAD workstation (as of Q3 2024) should have all of the following, at a minimum*:

  • 12th generation (or newer) Intel i7; or 4th generation (or newer) Ryzen 7
  • 32GB of the fastest available memory (RAM)
  • 1TB of storage on an NVMe SSD (solid state drive)
  • DirectX 12 compliant graphics card (GPU) with 8GB video RAM (e.g. NVIDIA T1000 8GB)

Such a system should last you at least five years before it needs to be replaced. We custom-build workstations that match your engineering firm’s needs.

* Of course, minimum specs and upgrade timing will vary based on your exact use case.

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