Many factors play in to the selection secondary data center and office space locations. A good CIO strategy includes multiple geographies in an evaluation of disaster recovery centers. For some organizations Midwest colocation outside of Chicago might be a better solution.

Standard features that many organizations look for when considering disaster recovery centers include:

Hardened data center facilities – With Midwest colocation, F5 tornado resistant data centers building are important, along with earthquake resistant facilities in some areas.

99.995% uptime or better – This is the uptime level expected from Tier IV data centers. Some IT professionals consider the uptime is a DR center to be less important than in the primary data center. If your organization is doing real-time or near-real time data replication, data center uptime in your disaster recovery center is likely as important as in your primary enterprise data center.

Multiple carriers with no cross-connect fees – Access to multiple telecom carriers ensures diverse and reliable connectivity in the event of a disaster, or on an ongoing basis with real-time replication. Data centers with no monthly cross connect fees significantly reduce ongoing costs.

Data center compliance and certification – Compliance and certifications in the disaster recovery center are just as important as the primary data center.

Data center pricing model – Simple is better. Most organizations seem to prefer to pay for power, cooling and space incrementally as they use it.

Advantages to Midwest data centers located outside of Chicago include:

• Geographic diversity, especially for Chicago-based organizations.
• Overall lower costs, including, lower data center power costs, lower costs of construction labor, and lower data center capital costs.
• A theoretically lower risk from placing the disaster recovery center outside of one of the USA’s five largest cities.

Wholesale colocation providers offer the most flexibility for organizations that prefer to own and control their own telecom connections, network, servers and storage. Some wholesale data centers offer disaster recovery office space. This space can be custom fit by the organization to use for emergency call centers or workspace recovery.

Considering disaster recovery options in Chicago? Consider Midwest colocation providers outside of Chicago in your search.

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Disaster Recovery Planning

To help identify what services would be required (and when), it is recommended that a full contingency plan be developed and tested to ensure business continuity. The following key areas should be completed to ensure that the Business Recovery Plan is effective in all circumstances.

Threat Assessment

Firstly, you will need to decide on the disaster scenarios that you wish to protect against. It should also be remembered that prevention forms a very important part of the pre-planning phase, and any areas needing to be improved should also be highlighted at this stage. The provision of a Disaster Recovery service is usually intended to cover, but not limited to, the following scenarios.

• Loss of power
• Loss of computer equipment
• Loss of communication equipment
• Loss of Computer room
• Total loss of a facility

There are many other disaster scenarios that need to be considered to satisfy that all aspects have been explored. Some of these are non-physical disasters or environmental side effects such as bomb warnings, adverse weather conditions or loss of access to the building caused by a localised incident. It is recommended that you carry out a full Threat Assessment to enable all possible scenarios to be considered.

More of the Ezine Articles post from Paul E Moore

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According to a Trusted Strategies/Solera Networks survey of 200 security professionals, system or network downtime or outage was the top concern when dealing with the aftermath of a security incident.

It’s no great leap to see that the concern applies to any kind of downtime, not just that caused by a breach of security.

The reason that downtime topped the list, according to survey respondents, was the awareness that downtime — and especially the often chaotic process of recovering from it — is something too many businesses are unprepared for.

For the IT professionals participating in the survey, the focus on consequences of a data breach were paramount. That downtime, associated with cleaning out systems, insuring that the systems actually are cleaned, then restoring the systems to full operational capability rightly tops security concerns… and you can be close to positive that it tops business concerns as well.

More of the Information Week article from Keith Ferrell

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What is a hot site? Think of a hot site for disaster recovery as a secure, hardened building that’s equipped to support your current IT production activities right now. The building has equipment (e.g., servers) that’s comparable to your existing infrastructure; it has your principal business applications in place (these were determined by a business impact analysis); and will also have access to your most current data (usually by some form of data backup activity). The hot site will also have conference rooms for your disaster recovery staff to meet, areas to change clothes if needed, food and beverages available, and possibly even a store to buy clothing, and an exercise area.

What is a cold site?

By contrast, a cold site disaster recovery site is a secure facility that is mostly empty space — awaiting the arrival of equipment and personnel in the aftermath of a disaster declaration — and has power, access to communications services, lighting, and possibly preconfigured work areas with furniture, phones, fax machines and copiers. But most often, it is an empty area that is ready for occupancy by customers who have declared a disaster and will be setting up their recovery site in that building.

More of the SearchDisasterRecovery article from Paul Kirvan

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Is Chicago colocation (outsource data center facilities) too close to protect a Chicago-area business? Opinions vary on how far is far enough when it comes to a disaster recovery center. Cost usually plays a factor, and Chicago-area colocation can be expensive; power, floor space, access to Internet connections, and monthly cross-connect fees add up.

Midwest colocation outside of Chicago may be the best solution. Indianapolis offers low data center power costs and enough distance to reduce risks. Lifeline Data Centers in Indianapolis delivers wholesale colocation facilities with 15 telecommunications carriers and no monthly no cross-connect fees. Lifeline’s hardened data center facilities and N+N data center redundancy deliver 9.995% data center uptime or better. Need data center? Call Lifeline at 317.423.2591

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C I Host provides more than 250,000 consumers and small- and medium-sized business in 190 countries with managed web hosting, dedicated server and colocation services.

According to one report, “During the robbery, C I Host’s night manager was repeatedly tazered and struck with a blunt instrument. After violently attacking the manager, the intruders stole equipment belonging to C I Host and its customers…At least 20 data servers were stolen, said Patrick Camden, deputy director of news affairs for the Chicago Police Department.”

The company’s Family Colocation offering promises to house equipment in a secured 144 sq. ft suite inside one of C I Host’s data centers.

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The scope for knock-on effects such as system failure and critical data loss has been intensified in recent years by the expansion, complexity and power constraints on ICT infrastructures as ‘UK plc’ migrates an increasing proportion of business processes and systems online. In 2008 Gartner made a global prediction that half of data centres will start to run out of effective power supplies. However, local conditions often present more immediate difficulties.

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Colocation (also known as outsource data center) comes in all shapes and sizes.  Studies by multiple research organizations find that Midwest colocation continues to be a great value.  Every organization’s needs are different.  Do you need the disaster recovery to provide virtual server images, physical IT and network equipment, or just be a “high-tech landlord?”

The largest data center provider in Indiana, Lifeline Data Centers,   offers a unique combination of features that are well-suited for the IT-savvy organization looking for disaster recovery colocation:

• 99.995% uptime for all of your equipment
• Private cages or shared space
• Flexible data center pricing models for forecasting growth and change
• Multiple telecommunications carriers in a carrier-neutral environment
• No monthly cross-connect fees
• Low data center power costs billed on usage
• Multiple data center certification levels for government, vendor, and client regulations
• Private office space and workgroup recovery space for your emergency needs
• An owner-operated facility with electrical, HVAC and fire suppression experts on staff

Why not consider Indianapolis for disaster recovery colocation, or for your enterprise data center?

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CIO strategies that include outsource data center facilities are saving companies money and improving uptime.  The cost of downtime is getting higher for companies of all sizes.  Colocation pricing models can help companies move out of the capital expenses associated with building and maintaining internal enterprise data centers .

Whether you use affordable colocation in Indianapolis for primary data center space or a disaster recovery center, you’ll be sure to get a great value, high uptime, and access to plenty of connectivity.

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• the Midwest is less prone to natural disasters
• power costs are low compared to the coasts
• the central location offers fiber density and therefore telecom choices

Many companies consider Chicago colocation because of easy travel access and telecom density.  Yet Chicago colocation prices are almost always higher than similar data center facilities within a few hours.

What are your true requirements?  If you’re using colocation for your enterprise data center, you may need carrier neutral data center facilities so you have multiple telecom provider choices.  If you’re using colocation for a disaster recovery center, your requirements may be slightly different.  Chances are you are looking for:

• Affordable colocation
• Hardened data center
• SAS 70 data center compliance
• Carrier neutral facilities; plenty of telecom choices with no hidden fees

Chicago colocation is expensive for a few reasons:  high real estate costs, union labor, higher demand density of business and a higher cost of living.

Lifeline Data Centers in Indianapolis provides large data centers for companies looking to outsource their computer room facilities.  Lifeline has been providing affordable colocation in their hardened data centers since 2001.  Lifeline handles all the power, cooling, hardening, security and compliance issues so that you can concentrate on your IT and your business.  If you’re looking for affordable colocation, call Lifeline at 317.423.2591.

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