Archive for the ‘Midwest Colocation’ Category
Homeland Security News Wire – Indianapolis emergency response center opens days before Super Bowl
2012
With only a few days left until Super Bowl XLVI, which will be held in Indianapolis this year, security officials there unveiled a new emergency coordination center on Wednesday
With only a few days left until Super Bowl XLVI, which will be held in Indianapolis this year, security officials there unveiled a new emergency coordination center on Wednesday.
“We are very proud of this new facility and hope that it serves as a national model of partnership between local, state and federal authorities,” said Mayor Ballard at the Regional Operations Center’s (ROC) grand opening. “The creation and opening of the ROC is an integral part of our ongoing, proactive plan to ensure the safety of the public.”
More of the Homeland Security News Wire post
Lifeline Data Centers featured in Indy Star article on the Indianapolis Emergency Operations Center
2012
The Indy Star published this article yesterday about the new Indianapolis Emergency Operations Center on the Lifeline Data Centers campus.
Keeping an eye on crime just got a little easier in Indianapolis.
At least that’s the contention of city officials, who said a new 76,000-square-foot Regional Operations Center that opened Wednesday gives them faster and more accurate information about where crimes are being committed.
“The creation and opening of the (center) is an integral part of our ongoing, proactive plan to ensure the safety of the public,” Mayor Greg Ballard said in a prepared statement.
The center, at the old Eastgate Consumer Mall on Shadeland Avenue near Washington Street, dwarfs the old 1,100-square-foot Marion County Emergency Operations Center at 47 N. State Ave.
More of the Indy Star article from John Tuohy
The illusion of data center uptime
Most of the mid-size companies that visit our Midwest colocation facility already have a data center. It’s the one in their home office. These companies have built a data center inside the four walls to take advantage of real estate that is already leased, along with cheap, fast network access for all of the employees in the building.
Redundant generators protect against data center downtime
Some companies value data center uptime more than others. These companies are in markets where their computer downtime can cost them sales, profits and clients. These companies often have in-house data centers with more sophisticated equipment to keep the computer systems up and running in the event of a power outage. These companies invest tens of thousands of capital dollars in battery backup, power conditioning and generators to protect from downtime. A few even spend thousands more in capital dollars to makes the air conditioning more reliable.
But do all these data center capital costs improve uptime? The answer is yes, but in many cases, not enough. Many of us mistakenly look at the last five years of actual downtime to judge whether our data center is highly reliable. This is a mistake. Your data center may not be reliable, even though you’ve been lucky for the last five years.
What does it take to keep your downtime to less that an hour per year? It takes data center with two of everything that is critical for operation: power, cooling, and communications systems. This two of everything model is also called N+N data center redundancy. Without it, companies should expect hours or days of downtime per year.
Uptime Institute uses a structured system to classify data centers. Tier IV data centers are built with N+N redundancy (two of everything) to maximize reliability. These Tier IV data centers are designed to deliver 99.995% uptime, which is 28 minutes of downtime per year or less. But building a Tier IV data center is expensive. A second power feed into a building can cost a quarter of a million dollars. CFOs routinely reject the idea a second generator because of the exorbitant capital costs. Without N+N data center redundancy, the uptime numbers just don’t add up.
What’s the answer to high uptime and manageable costs? Many companies use affordable wholesale colocation facilities. Some of these outsource data centers offer 99.995% uptime in exchange for monthly operating expenses rather than exorbitant capital costs. Many IT staffers use colocation to reduce their workload, get out of the power and cooling business, and focusing their data center management on their critical computer systems.
Colocation is not for every company. Applications, users, geography and other factors play into whether colocation or cloud computing might improve the reliability of your data center. The bottom line is the cost of downtime to your company. If you need 99.995% uptime, don’t fall prey to the illusion of data center uptime. Consider wholesale colocation to solve the uptime problem and manage data center costs.
Why do hardened data center facilities matter? Hardened data centers reduce the risk of a prolonged outage due to natural and man-made disasters.
On the west coast, data centers are hardened by a number of different technologies to withstand the frequent shaking of earthquakes. In the Midwest, hardened data center facilities protect against natural disasters such as tornadoes. F5 tornado resistant data centers protect your mission critical facilities and equipment from natural disasters.
Although the risk of a natural disaster is low, the risk of a prolonged outage in a natural disaster is very high.
Is your enterprise data center protected by a hardened data center building?
Colocation or cloud computing? Which one is right for your critical computer systems?
In simple terms, colocation (also known as outsourced data center or wholesale colocation) is high-tech real estate. Companies use colocation to solve the problems of hardened data center buildings, power, cooling, telecommunications and security. Companies use colocation to solve these problems without losing any control of their IT infrastructure and systems. Colocation is about control of IT without the worry of building facilities.
Cloud computing comes in many forms. Companies use cloud computing to access applications and resources without owning hardware or maintaining an IT staff . Cloud computing is about applications and solutions without the worry of IT staff, IT infrastructure, and building facilities.
When comparing cloud computing providers, make sure you understand the incremental costs. Simpler pricing models are usually better. Understand the built-in backup systems and redundancies and how you can build in higher reliability if you need to.
When shopping amongst colocation providers, make sure you understand the incremental costs. Simpler data center pricing models are usually better. Keep costs low by choosing a provider with low power costs. Midwest colocation providers tend to have lower data center power costs than other areas of the United States. Affordable colocation is available in many regions of the country. Most companies today look for a minimum 99.995% uptime carrier neutral data centers with no cross connect fees.
Use colocation to maintain control of your applications and infrastructure without the worries of building facilities. Use cloud computing when you’re looking to solve application problems with a minimum of IT overhead.
Does wholesale colocation simplify data center management? Does outsourcing the facilities side of your data center make it easier to manage the data center?
Consider the what it takes for 99.995% uptime enterprise data center facilities management:
F5 tornado resistant data center building- for Midwest colocation
Full data center power redundancy – multiple power feeds, generators, UPS systems and rack feeds
Data center cooling redundancy – multiple, concurrently maintainable cooling systems
Physical security – two factor authentication and multiple layers of loggable physical security
Fire suppression – Reliable, industry standard systems with regular testing and maintenance
Data center compliance and certifications – from SAS 70 to SSAE 16, HIPAA, Sarbanes Oxley, FDA, FISMA and NIST certifications are just a few of the standards
Telecomm redundancy – Multiple telecommuncations feeds with separate entrances into the building
These requirements have nothing to do with Information Technology. They are facilities problems. If a colocation provider can take these requirements off your hands, you’re free to focus on data center management of your business, the applications that support it, and your underlying IT infrastructure.
Yes, wholesale colocation providers can simplify data center management. And if you’re selective, you can use the colocation provider to engineer higher data center uptime levels. Look for a wholesale colocation provider that delivers hardened data centers, N+N data center redundancy, multiple carriers, no cross connect fees, and 99.995% uptime. Power billing based on utilization is key. And don’t forget to shop for low data center power costs.
Wholesale colocation lets you stop worrying about data center facilities management.
Is your in-house data center nickel and diming you to death?
Is your internal data center expensive to operate? Forget what’s in the racks. I’m not talking about servers, networking equipment and storage. I’m talking about facilities: your raised floor, your security, your power, your cooling, your telecommunications infrastructure and your fire suppression. How expensive is it to maintain?
Operating a data center in-house is expensive. Real estate floor space costs, raised flooring, reliable air conditioning systems, specialized security and fire protection all drive up the data center capital costs. Small data centers can easily exceed $1 million in capital up front.
Data center power and cooling redundancy is expensive. Multiple UPS systems are fairly common. Dual generators are rare. Rarer still are in-house data centers have two utility feeds. Data center capital costs are high, but the costs of maintaining and operating generators and UPS systems are high as well. N+N data center redundancy (two of everything) is prohibitively expensive for many organizations. You can’t deliver high uptime without power and cooling redundancy, yet uptime requirements continue to rise.
Staffing is expensive. Do you dedicate half an FTE or more to the maintenance of the data center?
Data center compliance and certifications are expensive. SAS70 (Now SSAE 16) data center certification audits start at about $20,000. Other certifications like the Uptime Institute’s Tier IV data center certification can cost more.
Not only are the data center capital and operating costs high, they’re also unpredictable.
How do you control costs?
Wholesale colocation offers an interesting solution. Wholesale data center providers build and operate high-tech real estate. Here are a few of the reasons that organizations choose to outsource the data center facilities.
You can rent the space you need in these giant data centers.
You can still have full control of your IT equipment and telecom infrastructure.
You can benefit from N+N data center redundancy in power, cooling, and telecom to improve uptime.
In a select few outsourced hardened data centers, you can protect your mission critical systems from F5 tornadoes and other regional risks.
Some Midwest colocation providers offer you access to multiple telecommunications providers with no cross connect fees. You can build telecom hubs to better manage the money spent on telecommunications.
You can trade capital costs for operating costs.
You can build a highly predictable cost model that allows for growth and change.
Sick of getting nickel and dimed to death? Call the outsourced data center experts.
Second fiber path into data center gives local companies the ability to institute business continuity practices, which is often mandated by industry regulations
November 29, 2011 – ROCHESTER, NY and INDIANAPOLIS
Fibertech Networks, a leading provider of broadband capacity serving the Indianapolis community since 2002, has completed a dual fiber entrance to Lifeline Data Centers’ Eastgate facility. The new, second entrance willallow Indianapolis government, health care, and financial service organizations to effectively meet industry compliance standards for network uptime and access to information.
“Redundancy in the network is easily the most important offering that this dual entrance provides,” said Alex Carroll, president for Lifeline Data Centers. ”Customers that manage mission critical applications must be aligned with the telecommunications industry compliance standard TIA-942. One of the requirements with this standard is that there must be diverse, dual paths for customers that require 99.999% uptime and the entrance that Fibertech recently installed accomplishes this.”
More of the TelecomRamblings.com post
Data center building, power, and cooling disciplines are not IT disciplines.
Your expertise on applications, software architecture, network, server and storage design is not expertise on building tier IV data centers with 99.995% uptime.
Likewise, experts on mission critical facilities like hardened data center buildings, data center power redundancy and cooling are rarely experts on mission critical systems and applications.
A best-of-breed CIO strategy would include expertise in both information technology systems design and highly available data center facilities. How is this done?
If your organization likes to “roll your own” enterprise data center, you probably hire design/build experts to help you accomplish your goals of high data center uptime. Although the capital costs associated with in-house data centers can be enormous, internal data centers offer the highest level of control.
If your organization is considering outsourcing the facilities disciplines, wholesale colocation offers a simple way to offload the “landlord” side of the data center without losing control of the systems.
It’s often best to outsource data center facilities when you’re great at IT but not so great at building data centers.
Midwest colocation facilities like Lifeline Data Centers offer F5 tornado resistant buildings,N+N power and cooling redundancy, and access to many telecom providers. Midwest data centers offer low power costs also give you peace of mind that you’ve done the best job at solving the data center downtime problem using an affordable colocation solution.
Are you trying to be an expert in both facilities and IT? Talk it over with the mission critical facilities experts.
Do you need a hardened data center? If you are trying to protect your data center’s ability to withstand natural or man-made disasters and acts of terrorism, then the answer is yes. The term “hardened data center” described computer room facilities that are designed to withstand tornadoes, earthquakes, and man-made disasters.
Many data center strategies includes using hardened data centers to achieve 99.995% uptime. Hardened data centers, along with redundant data center power and cooling all play a part on maximing reliability and increasing data center uptime.
Not all hardened data centers are alike. Many believe the best type is a reinforced concrete structure. Reinforced concrete offers the best protection against tornadoes, the most common natural disaster in Midwest data centers and Midwest colocation. F5 tornado resistant data centers help companies protect against wost case. Reinforced concrete also offers excellent protection from earthquakes.
Some hardened data centers are constructed as a building within a building, based on the thinking that a natural disaster might destroy the outermost building while the inner building protects the data center. This approach is often used when an existing building is being refit as a data center facility. The effectiveness of the protection is completely dependent on the type of building and construction.
Hardened data centers can be used as primary (production) data center facilities or as disaster recovery sites. Many consider a hardened facility more important for the production environment in order to minimize service interruptions.
How important is a hardened data center? It is critically important if you are trying to avoid downtime and if your area is prone to disaster.
