Required Standards.
The minimum standards your equipment and services must meet for us to deliver managed services as agreed.
Purpose
These are the minimum standards a customer's equipment and services must meet for Interwise IT to deliver its managed services as agreed. They keep systems secure, supported and reliable, and they are a guide to when technology is due for replacement.
What happens below standard
- Equipment or services below these standards are not covered by the agreement's included support. Interwise IT will tell the customer, and will usually raise it at the IT Review.
- Bringing equipment or an environment up to standard is Environment Remediation. It is out of scope on every plan and is quoted first, as Fixed Price work.
- Where a below-standard device fails, the work to restore it is Environment Remediation, not included support.
- A customer may keep a below-standard device where the Interwise Security Baseline allows a written Risk Acceptance for the control involved. A non-waivable ISB control cannot be accepted this way.
Workstations and laptops
| Item | Minimum |
|---|---|
| Age | Under 5 years from purchase |
| Processor | Intel Core i5 (8th generation or newer), or equivalent - the oldest Windows 11 supports |
| TPM | TPM 2.0, enabled (Windows 11 requires it) |
| Memory | 16 GB |
| Storage | Solid-state drive (SSD) |
| Operating system | Windows 11 Pro, Business or Enterprise, 64-bit; or a macOS version still supported by Apple. No Windows Home edition (ISB 13) |
| Windows 10 | Supported only while the device is covered by Microsoft's paid Extended Security Updates (ISB 13) |
| Drive encryption | Required, with recovery keys held securely (ISB 12) |
Servers
| Item | Minimum |
|---|---|
| Age | Under 6 years from purchase |
| Processor | Intel Xeon Silver, or equivalent |
| Memory | 32 GB or more |
| Warranty | Manufacturer warranty with next-business-day replacement, current |
| Operating system | Windows Server 2019 or later, in vendor support. Windows Server 2016 is below standard - its extended support ends on 12 January 2027 |
Network and internet
| Item | Minimum |
|---|---|
| Internet bandwidth | 25 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload |
| Firewall and router | A business-grade device still receiving vendor firmware updates, kept current to the ISB's timeframes (ISB 19) |
| Unsupported network devices | Replaced; anything past vendor support is raised at the IT Review and quoted (ISB 20) |
Software and Microsoft 365
| Item | Minimum |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Office | Microsoft 365 Apps, or Office LTSC 2024. Office 2016, 2019 and 2021 (including LTSC 2021) are past vendor support and below standard |
| Microsoft 365 licence | A plan that includes Microsoft Entra ID P1 - for example Microsoft 365 Business Premium, E3 or E5, or Business Standard with the Entra ID P1 add-on. Intune and Microsoft Defender licensing are not required: endpoint protection is provided by Interwise IT's own managed security stack |
| Line-of-business applications | On a version the vendor still supports, with a current vendor support agreement where the agreement requires one |
| Unsupported software | Removed or replaced (ISB 20) |
Security, backup and multi-factor authentication
These are set by the Interwise Security Baseline (ISB) v1.2, provided with the agreement. In summary:
- Multi-factor authentication for every user on every cloud service, by authenticator app or security key (ISB 01), and on third-party services holding sensitive data where the vendor offers it (ISB 02).
- Separate administrator accounts, and legacy sign-in methods blocked (ISB 03, 06).
- Backups of servers, mailboxes, OneDrive and SharePoint, with restores tested (ISB 21, 22).
- Supported operating systems and applications only (ISB 13, 20).
Where this document and the ISB differ, the ISB prevails.
Review
Interwise IT reviews these standards at least once a year and may update them on 30 days' written notice to customers.
Related
- Interwise Security Baseline (ISB) v1.2 - provided with your agreement.
- Managed IT Services Agreement - clauses 3.2(d), 6.2(e) and Schedule 5.