What does data center downtime cost your business? Do you lose credibility, revenue, profits, or clients when your systems are down?

If your cost of downtime is low, don’t waste your time reading this post. It isn’t for you.

If your cost of downtime is lost credibility, lost revenues, lost profits, and/or lost clients, what can you do to reduce your risks?

Use the 80/20 principle. Power and cooling issues account for a majority of prolonged outages in your organization’s data center. You can reduce the risk of power outages with data center power redundancy: two utility feeds, two generators, two UPS systems feeding your critical systems. You can reduce the risks of cooling failures by employing two or more air conditioning systems to cool your equipment, along with two or more ways to remove hot air from your data center environment.

The problem is that building data center facilities with these features is extremely expensive. The capital costs of a 1500 foot data center can easily exceed $1 million. But a few select outsource data center facilities can solve downtime problems at prices comparable to your existing enterprise data center.

Compare outsource computer room facilities with the cost of operating your own. Look for data centers that have N+N (2N) redundancy. Many outsource facilities claim to have data center power redundancy and multiple cooling systems. Make sure you’re getting what you pay for.

Don’t overthink this. Thanks to the lower costs of telecom, It’s no longer about where your critical systems reside. It’s mostly a math problem. Compare the cost of downtime plus the costs of operating your existing computer room to outsource data center facilities. You may be surprised.

High availability data center facilities with 99.995% uptime or better can solve many downtime problems. Affordable colocation facilities (outsource data centers) can help you manage your costs while improving your data center uptime.

Are hardened data center facilities protecting your mission critical systems? If you have a data center in the Midwest, is the building where your data center is located an F5 tornado resistant data center?

Organizations that have a high cost of downtime try to reach the goal of a zero downtime data center. These organizations minimize downtime by employing tier IV data center facilities, or facilities built using tier IV guidelines. Design considerations include:

-N+1 or N+N data center redundancy including multiple power feeds, generators, and UPS systems
-Other data center redundancy including dual telecom entrances and multiple HVAC systems
-Hardened data center facilities, designed to withstand regional disasters.

If the risk of tornado or earthquake is high, and the cost of downtime is also high, why would you put your mission critical facilities in anything but a hardened data center? If you use outsource data center facilities, watch out for steel deck roofs and office buildings converted to data centers. Concrete walls are fine, but if the steel deck roof peels off in a tornado, your systems are at risk.

Lifeline Data Center uses only concrete reinforced buildings. If you’re interested in 99.995% uptime SLAs with NO downtime in the last five years, call Lifeline at 317.423.2591.

99.995% uptime equals 27 minutes of downtime per year or less. But what it really means is the level of credibility your company has in the marketplace.

We live in a real-time world. Customer facing computer systems sell your products. Manufacturing systems ensure production and quality in the products you make. Internal systems keep employees productive. Minutes of downtime can cost thousands of dollars. Data center downtime costs your company revenue, profits and credibility.

So how do you achieve high levels of uptime?

First, understand the cost of downtime. What does it cost your company to have critical systems down? Downtime is often calculated per application. Knowing the cost helps you focus efforts on data center uptime where it counts most.

Second, make sure your data center facilities have at least 2 of every critical component. This is known as 2N or N+N data center redundancy. Anything less than two utility feeds, two generators, two UPS systems and two HVAC systems puts you at risk for data center downtime. You can also improve uptime by using hardened data center facilities, built to withstand the regional risks. F5 tornado resistant data centers are important in the midwest.

Third, build your systems and applications using the same 2N architecture to protect against failure and to allow for concurrent maintainability.

Your data center uptime is your system reliability. Your system reliability is your credibility in the marketplace. Can’t afford the data center capital costs of 2N architecture? Use the outsource data center facilities of Lifeline Data Centers. Call us at 317.423.2591.

Is outsource data center space a better alternative than infrastructure as a service? Many of Lifeline Data Centers newer clients are second generation outsource data center users. They are moving out of the cloud, or out of another data center and into Lifeline. Their reasons for moving fall into a few categories:

Infrastructure as a service was a good solution at startup, but became too expensive to use as the client grew and needed more resources.

The cost of downtime is high and the clients have experienced data center downtime with their current outsource data center or cloud computing provider.

Data center certifications and data center compliance were difficult or impossible to evaluate/audit in a cloud-based environment.

Clients experienced performance issues that were difficult or impossible to isolate in a fully-hosted, cloud- based environment.

Clients do the math and determine that leasing/buying hardware and placing it in a facility with a sensible data center pricing model is a less expensive alternative.

Clients have had some costly downtime pain and want to take back control of their environments to guarantee that they have hardware, software and data center redundancy where it counts.

Clients realize that what they really need is a hybrid model that includes both outsource data center space and infrastructure as a service/software as a service.

Why are they choosing Lifeline Data Centers over other providers for their outsource computer room space?

Flexibility – clients can buy shared space or private cages, and can purchase extra space for growth without paying a penalty.

Uptime – Lifeline provides 99.995% uptime, the same levels as Uptime Institute certified tier IV data center facilities. And Lifeline’s hardened data centers are F5 tornado resistant.

Data center pricing model – Lifeline has a simple pricing model that separates floor space, per rack charges and power utilization. This appeals to clients who need incremental growth and easy forecasting of future costs.

Carrier neutral data center with no cross connect fees – Lifeline offers access to 15 carriers with no monthly cross-connect fees. Many clients find that the cross-connect fee savings can pay for their outsource data center space.

Data center power costs – Lifeline’s two Midwest colocation facilities deliver low power costs and pay-as you-use-it pricing.

Is outsource data center space a better alternative than infrastructure as a service? It depends, of course, on the nature of your business needs. For affordable colocation, call Lifeline Data Centers at 317.423.2591 to learn more about your best alternatives for outsource data center and cloud computing data center options to take advantage of the best of both worlds.

In the Midwest, the biggest risk of natural disaster is tornado. Does your data center or Midwest colocation provider have F5 tornado resistant data center facilities?

Hardened data center facilities are reinforced concrete structures with roofing engineered to withstand 135mph plus winds. Lifeline Data Centers offers such facilities at both of their locations. If data center downtime is costly to you, consider outsource data center as an alternative to in-house computer rooms.

Hardened data centers are not the only advantage of outsource computer rooms. Data center capital costs can run easily reach hundreds of thousands of dollars. Maintaining data center certifications and compliance can create an additional FTE burden inside your company.

But be careful. Data center pricing models vary greatly. Look for access to multiple telecom carriers in a carrier neutral data center facility. Look for a provider that charges no cross-connect fees. Flexibility is the key; more choices are better.

If you think outsource data center might be a good solution for your company, give me a call at Lifeline Data Centers, 317.423.2591

A federal center for coordinating government agency disaster recovery efforts has hit some bumps in the road as it tries to improve how government agencies communicate in times of national crisis, according to a progress report about its efforts.

Members of the Emergency Communications Preparedness Center said they are having difficulty getting agencies to comply with its recommendations, mainly because they have no authority to force them to do so.

This and other concerns were raised in a report released by the Government Accountability Office, which reviewed the ECPC’s charter and interviewed officials from member agencies.

The ECPC was formed in 2007 in the wake of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina to serve as a clearinghouse for the sharing of emergency communications information during a national crisis. Its charter was approved last October.

more of the Information Week article from Elizabeth Montalbano

A number of factors, many of which are the direct result of the recent economic downturn, are combining to make increased data center construction and renovations increasingly likely. Forecasts by IDC and Gartner point to a significant uptick in server sales for 2010, suggesting that a corresponding increase in new data center construction projects and renovations of aging data centers may follow suit.

Reuters has reported that Gartner is forecasting server shipment growth percentage in the range of mid to high single digits for 2010; the research firm predicts that the revenue growth rate will lag slightly behind shipment growth, however. These encouraging numbers follow a rather dismal 2009, which saw server revenue decline by 18.3%, with a unit shipment decline of 16.6%, according to Gartner. Research firm IDC estimates server revenue decline at 18.9%, down to $43.2 billion, with unit shipments down 18.6% to 6.6 million units. Thus, IDC’s estimate suggests that unit shipments and revenue kept fairly close pace in their decline, despite Gartner’s estimate that revenue demonstrated a larger percentage decrease than did unit shipments.

more of the Data Center Journal article from Jeffrey Clark

Most businesses understand the value of reliable computer systems. But fewer business owners and stakeholders understand how to get the most for their computer system reliabilty dollar.

One of the easiest ways to improve reliability is to use outsourced, hardened data centers. It’s a quick way to achieve 99.995% data center uptime. This level, also knows and “four and one half nines,” equals 27 minutes of downtime per year or less. That is the same level expected of an Uptime Institute certified tier IV data center facility.

Hardened data center facilities offer physical protection from the natural risks common to the region. With Midwest data centers and Midwest colocation, the highest risks involve tornadoes. Hardened data center facilities with reinforced concrete walls and ceilings can physically protect your organization’s most important computers.

Hardened facilities with N+N data center power redundancy protect your systems from power outages. Redundancy means that the outsource data center maintains two of every piece of equipment needed to avoid downtime. But don’t be fooled; not all redundancy is created equal. Ask your data center provider to diagram their power and cooling redundancy. You’ll be surprised at the single points of failure.

Hardened data center facilities with power redundancy and multiple telecommunications carriers allow organizations to build more reliable data networks. More carriers can equal less risk of circuit downtime.

Your organization’s cost of downtime helps you determine the value of outsourced, hardened data center facilities. If more than 26 minutes of downtime per year costs your organization revenue, credibility, or clients, call Lifeline Data Centers at 317.423.2591.

With a state-of-the-art data center recently opened in Georgia, PricewaterhouseCoopers is on the prowl for a few good people. The challenge looms just about as large as the 80,000-square-foot building housing the IT infrastructure.

PwC is looking for IT professionals to fill vacancies on its network operations, security and facilities staffs, for example. Some positions are suitable for those with just a bit of experience while others require a much richer IT background, says Rick Ancona, deputy U.S. CIO and CTO at PwC, a professional services firm with U.S. headquarters in New York.

“The problem is, not that many people out there right now are versed in the data center of today,” he says.

By “data center of today,” Ancona means a highly automated, dense and virtualized IT infrastructure that relies on the most advanced electrical and mechanical components for ultra power efficiency.

The modern data center demands that IT professionals understand multiple disciplines as well as the facilities infrastructure — and that’s one of the big issues giving rise to the hiring difficulties.

more of the CIO.com article from Beth Schultz

I just read this story about a colocation facility that was robbed for the fourth time in just two years, and I had to laugh at the absurdity of it.

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.

more of the SearchDataCenter article from Bridget Botelho