• what we do

    Sustainable Decisions is here to help organizations and individuals make decisions about how to manage online information, communication and collaboration. We'll help you choose the best tools for your requirements and then help you deploy them. If you're the hands-on type, we'll train your team, providing support through the entire learning process. We'll build the infrastructure required and show you how we did it. If you'd rather leave the geeky stuff to us, we can host and manage all your services on our network and servers. With our monitoring and alerting systems always on, you can feel confident that everything will run smoothly and when something does break, we'll KNOW and have it fixed quickly to ensure the shortest possible interruption to your work

  • who inspires us

    Technical consulting for the largest movement in the world. Groups of all sizes working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, health care. Servicing the organizations working for social and environmental justice and the care of people in need by providing consultation and hands-on engineering for all of their technological requirements.

  • how we work

    Using the most environment friendly means of getting our projects completed including transporting our consultants by foot, bicycle or hybrids. We encourage and practice paper free communication, invoicing and documentation. Low energy offices and a commitment to using non-polluting energy sources.

    We lean heavily towards open source software and solutions but clearly understand the need to use commercial applications when they prove to be the best alternative available.

  • why we're here

    The issues are important. Your projects inspire us.

  • collaboration

    The ways in which we share our work and personal lives is evolving rapidly. Email is the Internet's pioneer tool for keeping in touch and sharing ideas which hasn't lost its supremacy as THE indispensable application.

    Is your team searching for new ways to collaborate? Maybe a wiki would do. A content management system might fit the bill. Or what about Google, Zoho or a cloud based software-as-a-service app? . We can help by:

    1. letting you know all your options
    2. doing demonstrations of the tools that sound interesting to you
    3. supporting you to make the most informed decision
    4. implementing the solution
    5. training your staff as required

    Is your email infrastructure watertight? We can help you make decisions on whether to host your email internally, with a managed services provider or utilize low cost alternatives like Google Apps. Our first choice when building custom email systems is to use open source SMTP, Anti-SPAM, IMAP and POP3 software. They've been tried and tested longer than any commercial equivalent and are the underlying core utilities embedded in collaboration suites such as Zimbra, Open-Xchange and Zarafa.

  • systems

    Growing your infrastructure or need a new server? Operating system installations are time consuming. Alleviate your staff from the mundane and let them focus on their primary objectives. We can build single servers or clusters, depending on your needs. It's one of our core competencies. We specialize in Linux, FreeBSD, and (Open)Solaris but we're also well versed in Mac OS X, Windows and the other commercial variants of UNIX.

    Can virtualization help? A virtualization assessment will help determine how much you can save in hardware and administration costs. By consolidating many systems onto a few you'll quickly gain the main benefit of this solution: saving money on hardware purchases and the time it takes to manage that hardwarere. We can also help you leverage the open source Xen virutualization environment stretching your savings even further.

    Got a feeling something just isn't right? Surfing the web feels slower. Sending a job to the printer isn't as snappy as before. Searching for documents and emails is just painful. We can quickly analyse and compartmentalize your network to pinpoint the cause of these symptoms and provide a solution to get you back to the responsiveness you once knew or wish to achieve.

    Do your systems need protection? Whether you need security for compliance or piece of mind, we can be the analysts and system hackers to make sure the crackers won't compromise your data and productivity. We're very familiar with hardening operating system, configuring security devices like firewalls and writing policy documents.

  • networks

    Need more speed? We can help you migrate your network from 100Mbit/s to gigabit in less time and at lower cost than you might think. 10 gigabit is here if you really need it, but usually a tune up can make a significant difference. Same with your connection to the internet. We can build redundant and aggregated links that will make sure you always have a connection and also give you twice the bandwidth you'd usually get from a single ISP.

    Is your wireless network providing an optimal experience? You'll see big improvements in response and speed by using the latest 802.11n specification. We can make sure your wireless network is configured optimally so the money you spent on hardware is fully utilized.

    Is your wireless installation configured to provide the best security available? Wireless security is practically impenetrable when using well known best practices. Let us show you the options available based on your existing hardware and clients and then we'll recommend what you can do to turn your wireless network into a veritable fortress.

    Do your branch offices need to communicate and share files? A growing discipline in wide area network (WAN) design that we specialize in is inter-office network optimization and acceleration. Reduce your overall bandwidth requirements or delay the need for costly upgrades by implementing an optimization strategy.

  • security

    Generally regarded as the “black art” of information technology, computer and network security is also the most neglected area. Of course, only up until you've been hacked and discovered your resources have been enslaved by a botnet zombie master from who knows where. Other things to protect your systems from include the infamous virus, worm, trojan horse and of course the cracker him/herself.

    Have you checked your locks lately? It's not something we need to do often in the physical world but on the interweb, regular monitoring is integral to mitigating compromise. We can perform tests on your perimeter devices such as routers and firewalls to verify they're safe from known attacks. We can assess your internal network to determine vulnerabilities and recommend protection strategies. All of our assessments include detailed documentation on the methods, issues and countermeasures.

    Do any of your computers need special protection? There are times when a hardened operating system is a requirement. The accounting server. The anonymous proxy. We can build these servers from the bottom up to ensure that all entry points to gaining privileged access are well protected.

    Are your perimeter defences in check? We can ensure that your internal networks are adequately protected from attack by performing penetration tests and configurations reviews of your routers and firewalls. A full report with suggestions on how to improve your current state is provided as a deliverable.

  • contact

    Sustainable Decisions Inc.
    35 Brock Avenue
    Toronto, ON M6K 2K9
    416-712-5721
    info@sustainabledecisions.ca