What is the cost of downtime?
How many hours would it take for the company leadership to be concerned? Cost: discomfort.
How long would it take for your customers to start complaining? Cost: grave concern.
How many hours before your customers turn to your competition to serve their needs? Cost: real revenues and profits.

Most large companies evaluate how much downtime they can take per computer application. The customer-facing ordering system may be more important than the accounting system it feeds, but less important than e-mail. Companies create a matrix of applications and levels of criticality. They use this matrix to develop their data center requirements. If 99.995% uptime (28 minutes of downtime per year or less) is required, many companies outsource the computer room facilities to affordable colocation facilities.
These computer room outsourcers offer data center power redundancy, cooling redundancy, and data center certifications. An ever-growing list of federal and state regulations is driving many companies to outsource computer room facilities as an easy way to “make the grade.”

Companies have lots of choices when it comes to outsource data center. Many savvy companies prefer wholesale colocation. Wholesale colocation offers floor/rack space, power and cooling. Some wholesale colocation facilities are high availability, carrier neutral data centers that offer a unique ability to deliver easy-to-change configurations and access to multiple telecommunications carriers with no cross connect fees.

Need better reliability in your computer systems? Need to reduce your downtime? Talk to the high uptime data center professionals at Lifeline Data Centers, 317.423.2591.

With this in mind, there are several key factors for having an ideal environment within which cloud computing services can grow and prosper:

1. Limitless Scalability

Cloud computing demands higher levels of faster scalability than previous delivery models. Bandwidth and processing power need to be instantly available for surges in demand, with the added ability to reduce resources when peaks in traffic have passed. By outsourcing to a large data center, companies do not have to worry about over-provisioning for spikes in demand, therefore avoiding issues of under-utilization. Using a third-party data center also prevents the risk of running out of capacity for such heightened demands.

2. Physical and Virtual Security

Although there are many benefits of moving to the cloud, there are also some risks. The Ethernet-based cloud is not impenetrable or fail-safe and is certainly not immune to data loss. Organizations must identify operational and security risks associated with the cloud, namely data security, integrity and privacy, so as to better choose a solution that addresses these concerns.

Large data center environments are ideally suited to secure delivery of cloud applications, such as Storage-as-a-Service and Software-as-a-Service. This is due to the robust nature of the data center’s infrastructure and the inherent need for high-quality, efficient and up-to-the-minute technologies and hardware. Larger facilities excel in both physical and data security, with multiple security layers and fail-safes, as well as back-up and recovery systems that protect against data loss.

More of the Data Center Knowledge article from Kevin Dean

Ten years ago, organizations that wanted to protect their enterprise data center from disaster had few choices. Back then, the mainframe was usually the centerpiece of the disaster recovery plan. The disaster recovery plan for the server environment was managed in-house with backup tapes and software. Some companies included servers into to their mainframe disaster recovery contracts, usually at very expensive yearly rates.

But times have changed, and new technologies are helping companies build customized disaster recovery plans that blend

Today, two key technologies are enabling companies to build cost-effective do-it yourself disaster recovery centers:

Virtualization: VMware, Hyper-V, Xen, and a number of open source platforms are allowing for multiple logical servers on a physical server. With additional tools for moving and replicating these server images across multiple physical servers, virtualization enables companies to not only protect against a prolonged outage, but to allow for routine server maintenance with little or no downtime.

SAN replicaton: near real-time or real time data replication comes standard on many SANs. Bandwidth requirements are lower and reliability is excellent on most.

These two enabling technologies need the right environment in which to operate. Reliable outousrce data center facilites are available everywhere. But few offer 99.995% uptime. Carrier choices exist in most data centers. But a few offer carrier neutral data center space with no cross-connect fees. Hardened data center facilities are more difficult to find. Data center certifications and compliance can play an important role in your choice.

Building a customized solution is a little more complex than buying all of your disaster recovery services from a single vendor. But putting your own equipment in an affordable colocation facility (outsource data center) that offers multiple carrier choices and no cross connect fees can not only improve recovery times, it can significantly reduce costs. Want to learn more? Call Lifeline Data Centers at 17.423.2591.

Your other option is to use outsource data center facilities to house your enterprise data center. Outsource data center facilities come in many shapes and sizes. Here are a few of the most common:

Managed services providers – Large providers such as IBM, HP, and Sungard offer data center space along with managed services such as IT support, network, server and storage hardware. These providers are well suited to replace some or all of your IT staff, along with the burden of maintaining hardware and a data center. Profitability for these providers is often based on managed services, so these managed services providers will be keenly interested in providing their IT services to your organization.

Telecommunications providers – Telecommunications providers like AT&T, and TW Telecom started the colocation business. They sold extra space in their central offices to companies that needed more reliable power. Costs vary for these facilities, and the “rule book” tends to be fairly restrictive. There are often limits on power, space per rack, and access to other telecommunications providers. Some have ventured into the managed services business to generate additional revenues.

Wholesale colocation facilities – The simplest offering, wholesale colocation offers hardened data centers, redundant power and cooling, along with physical security, and fire suppression. I call wholesale data centers “high-tech landlords” because they offer real estate-like services to your organization. Wholesale colocation offers expertise in power and cooling. These are areas of expertise that most IT organizations lack. You have the flexibility to choose who does the IT services, whether it your own staff or a third party provider. Wholesale data centers also offer flexibility for growth and change inside the data center. A select few of the best providers are carrier neutral data centers with a dozen carriers or more that charge no monthly cross-connect fees. Watch for hidden costs on power utilization. You should be able to pay incrementally as you grow your power utilization and rack space.

Regardless of the type of outsource data center you select, make sure you ask questions about:

• Power and cooling systems: Do they have two of everything? You’ll be surprised at how many lack basic data center redundancy and reliability.
• SAS 70 data center certification: Is data center compliance is affecting your vendors and clients? You can “buy” a level of compliance in an outsource data center.
• Colocation power costs: What are you paying per kilowatt hour of utilization? Are their limits on power per rack? Are there hidden charges for more power? Your data center power costs can double based on the geographic location you select.

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Do wholesale colocation facilities sound like they might fit your needs? For affordable colocation, call me at Lifeline Data Centers, 317.423.2591.

Continuous data protection (CDP) backup works to back up all of the data in a system whenever a change is made. So if your data backup system is hit with a virus or data loss occurs, you can go back to the most recent clean copy of the data and restore it. There are two types of continuous data protection: real-CDP and near-CDP. What are the differences between these? Can we consider continuous data protection a replacement for traditional backup systems? And who should consider using CDP in their enterprise? W. Curtis Preston, independent backup expert and executive editor for TechTarget, answers these questions and more in this Q&A. His answers are also available as an MP3 below.

Can you outline the differences between real-CDP and near-CDP?

The term continuous data protection really only applies to what some people call real-CDP. Real-CDP is basically data replication where the changes that occur on the system that is being protected are immediately replicated to another system. Replication and CDP are different because of what happens on the destination side. With real-CDP, there is something that’s continuously being updated on the destination site. In addition, real-CDP also stores a log of these changes, allowing the system to roll those changes back to a previous point in time. Essentially, with real-CDP you’re able to undo anything that happens to a system within the period of time that you’re storing data to it.

More of the SearchDataBackup article from W. Curtis Preston

IT staff are good at supporting applications. They are usually talented at designing reliability into your most important business software: application, server and connection redundancy, along with data replication and fail-over procedures. How good is your staff manage the facilities side of reliability?

The lion’s share of outages are related to data center downtime. Power, cooling, security, fire suppression and building failures account for the majority of outages in the enterprise data center.

Large and small companies alike are investigating alternatives to the in-house data center. Some consider outsource data center facilities for high data center uptime (high reliability). 99.995% uptime (27 minutes of downtime per year or less) is the level expected of tier IV data centers. Many CIOs feel that their most mission critical applications require mission critical facilities with 99.995% uptime.

Selecting outsource data center facilities can be tricky. Also known as colocation facilities, these outsourced data centers come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some focus on IT services. A few focus on providing high-tech real estate with flexible options, so that savvy IT organizations can grow and change without barriers.

Wholesale colocation facilities like Lifeline Data Centers in Indianapolis, Indiana

• Affordable colocation
• 99.995% uptime
• Hardened data center facilities
• Low data center power costs
• Pay as you grow rack and power pricing
• Fifteen telecom carriers in a carrier-neutral data center
• No monthly cross-connect fees
• SAS70 data center compliance
• Data center compliance: HIPAA, FDA, NIST and TIA 942 compliant data centers

Need more reliability? Use wholesale colocation facilities. Leverage decades of experience at Lifeline Data Centers, 317.423.2591.

Although opinions on the definition of wholesale colocation facilities vary, they share common characteristics:

Reundant data center power
Data center cooling redundancy
Hardened data center buildings
Fire suppression
Security
A real estate approach to data center space

Many IT organizations benefit by solving the facilities problem separately from their IT issues. They have the expertise in-house to manage IT. But they’d rather outsource the data center facilities problems to experts. Data center compliance and certification issue can also be handled by the outsource computer room facility. This is another area that IT organizations are often happy to outsource.

Lifeline Data Centers, a Midwest colocation facility, offers additional features in its wholesale data center facilities:

Simple pricing model
Pay-as-you grow pricing
Power billed on usage
Carrier neutral data center facilities
No cross-connect fees Private cages or private suites
99.995% data center uptime

Does affordable wholesale colocation sound like it might suit your data center needs? Give Lifeline Data Centers a call at 317.5423.2591.

If your company relies on your computer systems to generate revenue, deliver services, or manufacture your product, your computer room facilities can be a source or worry. You spend lots of money on power, cooling, equipment and labor to keep your most important computer systems up, running and reliable.

But are you wasting time and resources on your data center when you could be spending less money for more reliability?

If you care about uptime, you probably have a generator for your computer room. You may have one or more power conditioning systems with battery backup to protect from a power outage. If you are in the Midwest, you probably have a hardened data center that can withstand an F5 tornado. Your company has likely spent significant capital dollars on your computer room, all to improve the reliability (data center uptime) of your key computer systems.

But is it enough? The answer is another question. How many minutes, hours or days can your systems be down? 99.995% uptime is 28 minutes of downtime per year or less. But it takes two of everything (N+N data center redundancy) to deliver 99.995% uptime. That means TWO electrical feeds from the power company, TWO generators, TWO power conditioning systems, and two air conditioners, to start.

Companies uptime requirements have changed. Even small companies “bet their business” on their computer systems. Will your company spend the money to build a 99.995% level of reliability?

If your company needs 99.995% uptime, or anything close to that level, consider affordable colocation providers: carrier neutral, outsource data center facilities with shared space, private cages, and no cross connect fees. The cost per month may be less than your spending now. The reliability and data center uptime will likely be higher than what you can build. Lifeline Data Centers is at 317.423.2591. Email us if you’d like more information on improving your data center uptime.

Flexible data center facilities help CIOs add racks, power density and temporary systems as needed. Outsource colocation and outsource data center facilities can deliver this flexibility as an operating expense rather than capital costs.

Outsource data center facilities that offer private cage space and separate square footage/active rack charges allow organizations to build for growth and change.

Carrier neutral data centers with no cross connect fees and help control long-term telecom costs and improve network reliability

Building a hardened data center with 99.995% uptime (equal to Tier IV data center ratings) is cost-prohibitive for most companies. Leasing space in an affordable colocation facility with 99.995% uptime is easy.

Maintaining data center compliance is expensive. Data center certifications can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement and tens of thousands to maintain. Outsource data centers let you outsource data center compliance, such as SAS 70 data center certification, TIA-942 compliant data centers, HIPAA, FDA, FISMA and other regulations.

The most flexible Midwest colocation provider, Lifeline Data Centers, can help you make your data center flexibility strategy happen. Call 317.423.2591.

Not a carrier neutral data center – The existing provider sells company circuits over all others. There is a premium for the clients to buy circuits directly from the carriers, and there are only three choices other than the providers circuits.

Colocation-owned point-to-point circuits – The client has been expanding and has purchased point-to-point circuits from the colocation provider. This has essentially locked him into the colo provider because it would be so expensive to exit these contracts, which all have differing termination dates.

Cross-connect fees – The client pays monthly add-on fees for the circuits that are directly with the carrier. With eight circuits, these add up to about $600 per month.

No data center power redundancy – The colocation provider has a single power feed from the public utility. Even though they advertise multiple UPS and PDUs (this cracks me up), the reality is that they have experienced multiple outages because of the lack of data center redundancy. My friend needs 99.995% uptime. But my friend has no sensible way to get out of his contracts without paying exorbitant termination fees.

No hardened data center facilities – The provider has concrete walls and a steel decked roof. A tornado would suck the roof right off the building. Does that make sense?

So what’s the point? Be careful when you select an outsource data center provider. Don’t let your vendor gain a choke hold on you and your business. What should you be looking for?

• Carrier neutral data centers
• No cross connect fees
• Data center power redundancy
• Fair, simple data center pricing model
• Hardened data center facilities

Looking for a better alternative? Call Lifeline Data Centers at 317.423.2591.