Reliability is becoming the most important commodity in the data center. Most of your customers would agree that reliable access to your computer systems is more important that application features.

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.

A few hours ago, Indianapolis City-County Councilor Benjamin Hunter (@HunterForIndy) posted these two entries on Twitter:

Public Safety Director Straub just officially announced the new city Homeland Security & Emerg Ops Ctr will be going to Eastgate in my dist.

I appreciate Director Straub working with me and owner Alex Carroll in getting this important project in my district. Public Safety job one!

Lifeline Data Centers (@LifelineDataCtr) is proud to serve the City of Indianapolis.

What is your company doing to balance high data center uptime with manageable facilities costs? If you’re like many medium to large organizations, you’re considering wholesale colocation facilities as an alternative to traditional outsource data centers.

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.

What are the real costs of operating your enterprise data center? The electrical power needed to maintain an enterprise data center continues to increase.  Yet in small businesses, the cost of the data center’s electrical power is rarely assigned to the IT department.    Decision makers in the finance and IT departments should consider this hidden cost when evaluating new projects. 

For a small business in Indianapolis with:

• one rack of server equipment
• 2 UPS systems
• router
• firewall
• 2 switches
• 30 workstations
• 10 printers

electrical usage is roughly 9 KW/hr. Cooling is another 18 KW/hr for a total of $1167 per month. Approximately $525 per month is for the servers and communications equipment.

Compare this pricing to an outsource data center: $850 per rack per month plus the cost of a telecommuncations circuit. Affordable colocation is a reality. By using an outsourcer’s hardened data center, your are protecting your systems from critical downtime. If the provider offers tier IV data center facilities, you’ll also be improving uptime via redundant power and cooling systems.

The idea of using a Midwest colocation provider may be the right choice for your business. Outsource data center facilities offer the advantage of large data center facilities at affordable prices for small business. Looking for a provider? Give Lifeline Data Centers a call at 317.4523.2591.

Are you wasting time and resources on your data center?

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.

Is your data in a F5 tornado resistant data center? The risk of tornado is the biggest threat for Midwest data center facilities. Whether it’s Midwest colocation or in-house data centers, how do companies protect against the threat of tornado?

The most common approach for protecting against tornadoes is to use a hardened data center, built of steel-reinforced concrete. Underground entrances for power and telecommunications are important. Absence of flood plain is important. TIA-942 compliant data centers adhere to all of the important hardening guidelines. Is your data center TI-942 compliant?

Looking for affordable colocation in hardened data center facilities with 99.995% uptime and data center certifications? Call Lifeline Data Centers in Indianapolis at 317.423.2591.

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.

Many businesses, small and large, are using outsource computer room facilities to improve their data center uptime and reduce data center capital costs. But at what price? The traditional outsource data center facility is a minefield of vendor lock-in problems. You can get in, but it is difficult to end contracts and leave.

How does this happen? Many outsource data centers sell private label bandwidth and point-to-point circuits. If these contracts are purchased over time, there is no single contract termination date and it becomes costly to move and maintain these redundant contracts.

How can you avoid it? Choose a carrier neutral data center with no cross-connect fees, so you can purchase circuits directly from the carriers and avoid any monthly add-on fees.

Your outsource computer room provider should earn your business. If they’re not giving you the features that you need, i.e. 99.995% uptime (equal to tier IV data centers), hardened data center facilities, data center certifications and affordable colocation, you have alternatives. If you’re looking for a great solution, give Lifeline Data Centers a call at 317.423.2591.

I have been working with an old friend for many months, investigating his alternatives in moving out of his existing outsourced computer room facility and into Lifeline Data Centers. His existing outsource computer room facility was chosen by a predecessor. The existing provider has a number of features that are problematic for my old friend:

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.