RJ2 Technologies designs, monitors and maintains the network infrastructure businesses run on, which means the firewalls, switches, wireless access points, servers and the connections between them. The company was founded in 1998 and works from Deer Park, Illinois, serving companies across Chicago and the Chicago suburbs. Network monitoring runs continuously, so a failing switch, a saturated circuit or a firewall that has stopped passing traffic is caught by RJ2 rather than reported by a frustrated employee. Infrastructure rebuild work is owned by Shawn Meyer, Director of Professional Services, who has over 30 years in the industry and 21 of them at RJ2.
What is network monitoring, and what does RJ2 watch?
Network monitoring means software agents continuously check the health of the equipment your network runs on and raise an alert when something degrades or fails, instead of waiting for someone to notice and call. RJ2 monitors firewalls, switches, wireless access points, servers and internet circuits across client sites.
What gets watched in practice: whether devices are up and reachable, bandwidth use and saturation on circuits, error rates and port status on switches, wireless signal and client counts, server disk, memory and CPU, and whether backups completed. Alerts are triaged by severity so a site-down event moves ahead of a disk that is getting full.
What does managed firewall service include?
A managed firewall means RJ2 owns the firewall as a system rather than treating it as a box that got installed once. That covers configuration and rule management, firmware updates and security patches, monitoring that the device is up and passing traffic, VPN setup and maintenance for remote and site-to-site connections, and reviewing rules over time so old permissions do not sit open for years after the person who needed them left.
Most small and mid-sized businesses have a firewall that was configured correctly on the day it was installed and has not been reviewed since. The rules accumulate, the firmware falls behind, and nobody is watching the logs.
How quickly do you know when something breaks?
RJ2’s monitoring tools run 24/7/365, including an endpoint detection and response (EDR) product backed by a security operations center (SOC) that is staffed around the clock. RJ2’s team is on call with that SOC, and after hours, clients reach RJ2 through its call center. Alerts are triaged by severity, and the response targets for each level are set out in your agreement.
What does RJ2 do about aging hardware?
RJ2 tracks the hardware lifecycle across your environment and plans replacements before equipment fails rather than after, so a switch or server gets budgeted and scheduled instead of becoming an emergency purchase. Where a system can be extended rather than replaced, that is the first recommendation.
Virtualization often removes the need for new physical servers entirely, by consolidating several aging machines onto fewer, newer hosts. RJ2 will also source and supply equipment when it is genuinely needed, including servers, switches, wireless, workstations, cameras and power protection.
Can you rebuild a network that was never set up properly?
Yes, and it is common work. The typical version is a business that grew past its original setup, where the network was extended one device at a time by whoever was available, and nobody has a current diagram.
These engagements are owned by Shawn Meyer, Director of Professional Services, who has over 30 years in the industry and 21 at RJ2. The work starts with documenting what is actually there, because in most environments that has never been written down, and the undocumented device is the one that takes the site down during a cutover.
Do you monitor networks for businesses in Chicago and the Chicago suburbs?
Yes. RJ2 Technologies is headquartered at 21660 W. Field Parkway, Deer Park, IL 60010, in the northwest suburbs, and provides network monitoring and managed firewall services to businesses throughout Chicago and the Chicago suburbs.
Monitoring itself is delivered remotely and reaches any site. On-site work covers the Chicagoland area, and RJ2 also serves Rockford and northern Illinois, southeastern Wisconsin, and northwestern Indiana, with nationwide support for larger clients that have multiple locations. Engineers working downtown use a drop-in space at 333 S. Wabash Ave., Suite 2700. It is a working space, not a staffed office.
What equipment and vendors does RJ2 work with?
RJ2’s core vendors for network and server work are Cisco for networking equipment, Dell for servers and workstations, and Microsoft for server platforms. Endpoint protection runs on SentinelOne and Huntress. Backup standardizes on Axcient, with Datto and Veeam deployed where a client’s requirements call for them.
How do we get started?
Call the corporate line at 847-303-1194 and ask for sales, or email sales@rj2t.com. Existing clients with a network problem right now should call support at 847-303-1193.
A first conversation is usually about what equipment you have, how old it is, and who is watching it today.
Related: Managed IT Services | Cybersecurity Services | Unified Communications | Frequently Asked Questions
Further reading: Cloud Migration Services in Chicago: What the Move Actually Involves | Zero Trust Architecture, and What a Chicago MSP Actually Builds
