Featured on the cover of ChannelPro SMB February 2021 issue, Alvaka Networks CEO, Oli Thordarson, explains how Alvaka was able to carve a unique identity as a rapid response and recovery brand through peerless execution and a 24/7/365 all US-based recovery team.
Twenty years ago, Alvaka President and CEO, Oli Thordarson, recognized the need to carve a unique identity for himself and his team. Determined for Alvaka Networks to be remembered as a business not only capable of a rapid response, recovery, and prevention, but also one that out-competed other competitors, Oli prioritized building and staffing a 24/7/365 network operations center (NOC). This step proved to be a crucial component in continued growth, and as a result, Alvaka saw itself move upmarket.
The significant investment needed for the NOC, building a professional team, and maintaining the hardware and software, proved time-over-time to be a worthy investment. Even with the devastating financial impact of COVID-19 for many companies around the world, Alvaka Networks was able to grow revenue 14% in 2020 – a testament to the business model it implemented over many years.

You want to enter in a fully burdened labor rate for this field. What that means is that you want to take the base hourly rate, plus 25-30% for employer payroll taxes, benefits, vacation/holiday time, etc.
Smoke testing is a type of software testing performed by Alvaka after a software patching sequence to ensure that the system is working correctly and to identify any misconfigurations or conflicts within the patched system.
This is a basic cost calculator for you to compute your typical monthly cost for patching your servers, PCs, laptops, tablets and associated application software. It also forms the basis for you to begin calculating your Return on Investment for software patching, or for comparison with alternatives to the manual process of patching operating systems and application software—such as Patch Management as a Service, also known as Vulnerability Management as a Service.
Smoke testing is a term used to describe the testing process for servers after patches are applied.