What are Azure Managed Services?

Azure Managed Services are provided by Microsoft partners and are a combination of consulting, governance, and managed services.  

What is an Azure Managed Service Provider?

An Azure MSP can help you plan, deploy, manage, and optimize your workloads and resources within Microsoft Azure. By partnering with an Azure MSP, you can benefit from their expertise, experience, and specialized knowledge, allowing you to focus on your core business while leveraging the capabilities of Azure to drive innovation, scalability, and agility.

How can Azure Managed Service Help You?

By partnering with my partner, TierPoint, as your Azure MSP, you can benefit from our expertise, experience, and specialized knowledge. We’ll help you optimize costs, maximize the robust security and compliance benefits of Azure, and harness the power of exciting new technologies like IoT and Machine Learning.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach for Azure. That’s because unparalleled flexibility is kind of the point.

Whether you’re looking to optimize costs, maximize licensing, leverage robust security, or all of the above, we can help you build and manage a custom Azure environment that meets your specific business needs.

• Optimize Azure Spend & Maximize Value
• Elevate Your Azure Management with 24/7 Support
• Drive Digital Transformation & Innovation on Azure
• Enhance Azure Security with Managed Services
• Streamline Azure Configuration and Change Management
• Enhance Business Continuity with Azure Disaster Recovery

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Have a question? Our partner has Azure experts to provide answers. If you don’t see what you’re looking for, reach out to us and we’ll find you the information you need to move forward with confidence.

What is AWS Managed Services?
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 Launched in 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the three largest public cloud platforms along with Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). AWS offers a global network of data centers, along with more than 200 different cloud services that companies can use to build, host, and operate mission-critical applications and workloads.

If you're looking at AWS Management alternatives or simply want someone else to evaluate the environment, we can help. 

My partner, Tierpoint, offers a free AWS cost optimization assessment just to ensure your environment is best optimized.

Their management goes beyond simple visibility and includes actionable insights on things like:

1. securing open S3 buckets,
2.  improving tagging,
3.  re-architecting for scalability 

All backed by U.S. based support. 

Have a question on AWS Managed services or want to learn more for your buiness data needs, give us a call or email us.
AWS Managed Servic

Electric supply rates are going way up starting June 1.

This is due to an auction held last year that sets the capacity prices that power providers must pay to ensure reliable electricity supply.  This will impact currently contracted accounts and accounts that are on local utility rates, i.e. Comed. 

This cost increase will impact facilities in 13 states including ComEd customers. That means starting June 1, 2025, ComEd customers will see rates go from the current 6.55 cents/kWh  to  10.028 cents/kWh.

Comed Residential Electric Supply Rate through May 31, 2025

6.55 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) (Note: This is written on your bill as 0.0655)


High Price Alert:

Comed Residential Electric Supply Rates (June 1-Sept. 30, 2025) 

10.028 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) (Note: This is written on your bill as 0.10028)

My advice is to look at alternative electric suppliers to Comed for residential electric supply.
Check out NRG for residential electric supply options and save yourself some money this summer when you typically use more electricity than the rest of the year due to air conditioning.
I am seeing NRG electric rates of 9.2 cents/kWh with a 3 month contract.

Please use my referral code to sign yourself up with NRG to save some money v. Comed:

https://www.picknrg.com/custref?refID=0098124576


Alternatively, you can go to my partner page for more electric supply options.

For Residential electric (and gas) savings options, go to the following link:
https://powerkioskdirect.com/
click sales code, enter bicekenergy
Choose the energy plan you like, enter your info, and sign up.

For business electric supply rate, please contact me for the best options for your next contract.

Bicek Telecom signed a pharmacy to a new electric contracts that start this summer ahead of the electric supply rate increase coming in June.

Now is the time to look at new electric contracts for your business to get ahead of the impending rate increase.
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Please call me to see if we can save your business money on  electric and/or gas supply costs. 

Bicek Telecom had an auto body shop sign a contract for hosted phone and internet services.

The customer gets rid of their old premise based phone system, gets brand new phones, more reliable internet service plus an increase in bandwidth, and lowers their overall cost by 30+%.
Further, they consolidated telecom providers with one bill and one company to contact for all telecom needs.

If you are considering replacing your current premise based phone system or hosted provider, please give us a call.

Bicek Telecom signed an accounting firm, funeral home, and florist shop to new electric contracts that start late spring and summer ahead of the electric supply rate increase coming this June.

Electric supply rates are expected to increase to 9.5 cents/Kwh and more starting in June due to a facilities/distribution rate increase.

Please call me to see if we can save your business money on  electric and/or gas supply costs. ​

I wanted to alert you of some significant news potentially impacting your  electric supply costs. 

On July 20th, 2024, the Regional Transmission Organization that manages the electric grid across 13 states - announced the results of its annual Base Residual Auction(BRA) for the 2025-2026 delivery year (06/01/25-05/31/26).
 
This auction sets the capacity prices that power providers must pay to ensure reliable electricity supply.  The costs will be going up a weighted average of 750%! This will impact currently contracted accounts and accounts that are on the local utility rates.  So if you have COMED for electric supply, you will be seeing an increase in supply cost starting summer 2025.

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/exelon-pjm-capacity-auction-bge-talen-data-center/723163/
PJM capacity auction to lead to double-digit rate hikes for Exelon utilities: CFO

This cost increase will impact facilities in 13 states including  ComEd customers. Comed has estimated this increased capacity cost will raise their rates by 2 to 2.5 cents/kWh. That means starting June 2025 ComEd customers would see rates go from the current ~7 to ~9 cents/kWh.

That's a significant increase.

If you currently have Comed for electic supply, or have an electric supply contract coming due to expire in the next 3-4 months, please contact me to see what we can do to help your situation now.

A golf club just signed a contract with For2Fi for wireless back-up service for one of their buildings located on their golf campus. 

This provides back-up protection in case of any downed internet service so as to stay connected plus provides peace of mind. They chose to self install this. Optionally, they could have had the provider install.

For2Fi is a Managed Mobility Service Provider that offers cellular-based internet services and network redundancy. Our business internet plans are suitable for primary or backup service, with flexible month-to-month contracts. We provide a fully managed solution with onsite support and monitoring from our Network Operations Center.

Ask me about wireless back-up ideas for your business.

With cyberthreats becoming more sophisticated and frequent, businesses today face a new set of challenges in keeping their data secure. That’s where Managed Security services come in – offering your business comprehensive protection that’s powerful, efficient, and easy to manage.

Why Managed Security Matters for Your Business:

• Strengthen Your Defense: As more businesses shift to the cloud, ensuring robust protection across all entry points—be it on-premises or remote—is crucial. Your business gets enterprise-grade security with features like Next-Generation Firewalls, Anti-Malware, and Intrusion Prevention Systems.
• Simplify Security Management: Instead of multiple service provisers, one vendor consolidates all security operations under one roof, reducing complexity and cutting down the total cost of ownership.
• Enhance Threat Detection & Response: The integrated security fabric allows for faster threat detection and response times, minimizing the impact of breaches and helping businesses stay ahead of cyberthreats.

Call me to discuss cybersecurity and how it can benefit your business.