Hotel MSP Books Remote Support

Sorbis Corp. is an MSP dedicated to the hospitality business, supporting some 200 servers and 2,000 workstations spread across 80 hotels in cities such as New York and Miami.

One thing Sorbis needs to have nailed is offering compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), after all hotels take a lot of credit cards, and here the MSP wanted a partner.

It couldn’t just go with any jamoke. It needed an expert in security, which Sorbis found in remote support specialist Bomgar.

Prior to Bomgar, Sorbis remotely accessed client machines using the popular Citrix GoToAssist. This has proven a highly effective product industry wide, but didn’t offer the level of security Sorbis and PCI-DSS require.

“In order to meet PCI compliance standards we had to ensure our remote access tool was secure,” explained Sorbis CEO Gene August. “Security was the most important aspect in our search. We knew that we needed a remote support solution that supported two-factor authentication, and we found that in Bomgar. In addition, the Bomgar solution’s Active Directory Integration gives our IT department the peace of mind that only our support techs have the ability to access the remote systems we support.”

One thing Bomgar apparently does well is logging. “From an auditing standpoint, having a video recording of each remote support session is a tremendous help,” said August. “If any questions or issues arise with any session, we can quickly and easily go back and look at exactly what happened.”

Calling Hotel Security

According to Sorbis, other MSPs have checked into the hotel market, but don’t all have this PCI-DSS compliance.

“Because we offer support that is in compliance with the rigorous PCI standards, we are separated from our competitors in hospitality IT, and therefore offer more comprehensive services to our clients,” August claimed.

Bomgar’s approach includes the use of remote access appliances that can work with standard PCs and laptops as well as Linux, Mac and mobile devices, such as BlackBerry and those based on Android and iOS.