COVID-19 Update

What our partners are advising:

With the current situation of COVID-19, many of our partners vendors are providing extended licensing or free access to services to assist businesses to be able to collaborate.

Citrix: Virtual Apps and Desktops 52% discount (RRP) bought in March | More advice can be found here.

Microsoft and offerings for Microsoft Teams: https://lnkd.in/dvB5_HD | Register for Our Microsoft Teams webinar– Tuesday 24th March at 2.00pm

Sonicwall: Working Remotely Webinar

VMware: Workspace ONE FREE for 30 days
For those who want to leverage a mobility solution. If you’d like more information you can join the VMware webinar: Pandemic Preparedness and Response – How to Quickly Set Up a Remote Workforce for Success

Check Point (new and existing customers):
Access free 60-day licenses for three products that ensure secure remote connectivity for all your employees:

• Remote Access VPN – Secure, enterprise-grade remote access to connect safely to corporate applications such as email and sensitive data. [1 free license gateway]
• Mobile Security – Protect personal mobile devices from viruses and other types of malware. (1 free license per remote employee)
• Endpoint Security – Protect laptops and PCs against viruses, spyware and ransomware. (1 free license per remote employee)

Businesses should also consider:

1. Ensure that your firewalls are licensed, up to date and have the capability to handle the number of external concurrent users.
2. Ensure that devices accessing the network externally are secured and up to date and have corporate visibility and control. In the event you do not have time to roll-out a secure BYOD solution for personal devices you will need to ensure that the device has a good security posture and remind people about your data privacy and security requirements to avoid any DLP and GDPR issues. Also query if they really need to access the VPN or can they work from cloud and local services.
3. Where possible use an MFA solution for secure access. If there is no MFA available only let IT configure the remote access for the users and keep credentials private.
4. VDI Environments – be sure that you have enough licences, throughput, compute and storage for any additional workloads.
5. Monitor – Where possible ensure that you are monitoring your network and services for any suspicious or unusual activity.

Device – Stock Levels:

With the current COVID-19 situation and the government directives, we want to let all our customers know our dedicated procurement experts will do everything to order and provide you and your staff with the most secure and mobile ready devices. We have seen unprecedented demand for laptops in the past week, if you need a quote, please do not hesitate to contact your PFH account manager or by using ITQuickQuotes.ie.

Office 365 Licensing:

We at PFH appreciate the difficulties many companies are experiencing due to the COVID-19 restrictions currently in place.

We would like to make you aware of some options that are available which could help reduce the cost of Office 365 licencing during this period.

With some staff temporarily laid off for an unknown period – you have the option to convert their mailbox to a shared mailbox, remove the license and reduce your license count. This will retain their email with no cost and the mailbox can be reinstated if the user returns to employment.

You may be able to reduce some of your licenses to a mail only licence for users not requiring full desktop applications while they work remotely.

If you would like more information on the available options that may suit your current circumstances, please send a mail to 365licensing@pfh.ie and one of our team will call you back to discuss.

Contact us

CALL
Service Desk – +353 (0) 21 230 3030
General Queries – +353 (0) 21 230 3000

Sales – LoCall 1850 734 100

EMAIL
Contact us about your general enquiries through info@pfh.ie