As if that is not enough of a threat, cyber terrorism or cyber warfare exists not only on the global and national levels, but also within corporate and personal levels. When it comes to corporate enterprises, cyber threats, or cyber attacks as they are commonly referred to, have the dangerous potential to thwart or destroy their networks. This is a serious issue, given the amount and sensitivity of the information flow among companies in private and public sector industries. Because information flow is so important between networks, this critical information sharing is highly susceptible to cyber attack, putting the enterprise at much risk.

What Can Enterprises Do?

First, as cyber threats are of national concern, it is critical for the private and public interests to work together in establishing the means to share sensitive information securely, and develop best practices to protect and, when necessary, swiftly restore critical networks.

On a smaller but equally important scale, it is important for an enterprise to both modify its compliance guidelines as well as educate internal staff on these policies and procedures. Beyond informational sharing, any cyber threat/cyber security policy needs to be adaptable – as the nature of the threats will change and develop over time. Just as cyber threats are identified and addressed with certain tactics or technologies, these threats in turn evolve and escalate with their own countermeasures. The importance of staying vigilant for unusual activities and current with security updates or policies cannot be stressed enough.

Strong operational security and use of best practices are key to deterring cyber threats. Cyber attackers typically focus on finding and exploiting deployment issues such as unpatched computers, weak passwords, or unapproved file-sharing software, which can make internal documents publicly available.

An enterprise’s network defense should include firewalls, gateway antivirus protection, intrusion detection (external and internal authentication), and web security gateway solutions. Operating systems, applications, virus definitions, and plug-ins should also always be updated the minute new code is released.

An enterprise should proactively monitor its infrastructure for any signs of network intrusions, malicious code, or other suspicious or unusual activity, and stay current with vulnerability alerts and remediation.

The cyber security policies an enterprise adopts will clearly vary among industries and company sizes, so specific regulatory rules are not likely to adequately address the needs of different organization types.

With that, it is more essential now for enterprises to research and implement bold and innovative solutions that will best address their cyber security concerns. Having the best information at an enterprise’s fingertips is so critical – as it keeps the enterprise at the top of its game, proactive, and prepared to respond to any threats that come along.

Companies such as Seccuris, an international information assurance company that provides clients with security and risk management consulting services, managed security services, security solution integration, and education services, are solid players in the internet industry where enterprises and governments seek to protect themselves against all forms of cyber warfare.

Partnering with such a company helps enterprises to ensure solutions are regularly being deployed to successfully to meet underlying controls, policies and processes that provide the protection and control necessary to prohibit or thwart cyber threat activity.

TELEHOUSE America, along with its sister company KDDI America, have partnered together with Seccuris to develop the “Global Cyber Threats” Webinar, which took place on May 3. A replay of the webinar is available here.

TELEHOUSE and their newest partner, Security on Demand, are currently working together to deliver On-Demand TELEHOUSE Security, which utilizes a “Security-as-a-Service” (SaaS) business model powered by Security On-Demand’s proven security architecture that leverages the best from both cloud-based and premises based security models. TELEHOUSE customers will be able to customize solutions specifically designed to meet their business’ risk management and compliance needs and requirements.

Why should your business choose On-Demand TELEHOUSE Security, powered by Security On-Demand? Some advantages include: lowering the cost of compliance and IT ownership, the SaaS delivery model provides the benefits of rapid deployment (which means no maintenance and no upfront capital costs), flexible service levels, and you can equally participate in the management of your security technology as part of the security and compliance team.

TELEHOUSE and Security On-Demand are helping organizations maintain compliance with industry and government regulations, proactively manage risk, and defend against security threats. Through pre-packaged security solutions, companies can select the service options that fulfill the specific needs of their own IT infrastructure. The flexibility of this new service means businesses of all sizes can benefit from utilizing On-Demand TELEHOUSE Security.

To learn more about this new product and how it can enhance your place of business please visit TELEHOUSE Security On-Demand.

Many enterprises run and operate their own data centers in-house. Due to equipment obsolescence and evolving technologies, rising energy costs and the push toward embracing green measures, this has become quite cost prohibitive for many businesses. Looking at balance sheets and profit/loss statements has a different meaning for enterprises over service providers. For enterprises, running a profitable data center is subjective since it costs so much to embrace new technologies and enable operational efficiencies. In addition, maintaining a well-trained staff with core expertise across the many areas involved in running a data center can be time intensive as well as pricey.

This is quite different though for colocation and managed service providers. Due to economies of scale, providers can more readily incorporate newer equipment, efficient power and cooling systems and spread out the ‘costs’ across their customer base rather than absorbing it all at once. In any case, whether you are a large or medium size organization running your data center in-house, or a colocation or hosting provider, it is important to look at your team’s core skill set, your bottom line costs and profit models carefully before you make the decision.

To read more about the pros and cons of this issue please visit us at data center knowledge. You can also learn more about the benefits of colocation by scheduling a tour of one TELEHOUSE America’s data centers.

Can you believe how fast time flies! TELEHOUSE America has some exciting news! They are celebrating the 1st birthday for their newest Manhattan data center located on 85 10th Avenue. TELEHOUSE New York Chelsea officially opened its doors on January 24th, 2011.

The Chelsea Center hosts Tier 1 and Tier 2 carriers, including AboveNet, Cogent, KDDI America, Level 3 Communications, Neutral Tandem, Optical Communications Group, Sidera Networks, Time Warner Cable, XO Communications, and more continue to join the TELEHOUSE family in 2012. This premier facility also offers access to the 140+ members of the New York Internet Peering Exchange (NYIIX). The facility was built in response to the demands of companies of all sizes in busy city of Manhattan, and it provides direct access to New York City’s dense telecommunication network. TELEHOUSE New York Chelsea is a perfect choice for companies looking to colocate in the New York metro region.

To learn more about the specifications of the Chelsea Center click here. To contact TELEHOUSE America directly about services at TELEHOUSE New York Chelsea please Contact Us.

Both speakers will discuss opportunities abound in China for multinational companies seeking to expand their web business and brand equity into the largest internet market in the world. With these opportunities come unique challenges and important differences in how businesses can successfully establish their web presence.

Join us! You can witness this fascinating exchange of ideas by registering online today by clicking here.

KDDI America announced their strategic investment in CDNetworks on October 31, 2011.

For more information go to: http://www.kddia.com/en/press-release-2011-10-31.

There are so many new ways to implement environmentally friendly strategies and procedures in the data center. Nowadays, there are an abundance of companies across all industries claiming to be ‘green’. When it comes to the data center industry, what does green really mean? In his latest article, Data Center Dynamics, blogger Ian Bitterlin, CTO of Ark Continuity, tackles this issue.

As an environmentalist and ‘keen supporter of renewable energy’, Bitterlin focuses on the statement that, quite honestly, data centers can never be 100% green, as they utilize electrical power, which is fed in part to ITW hardware, with components used for cooling, lighting, etc. Subsequently, this is turned into heat and rejected as waste into the air. Facilities that are powered by renewable energy only have 5% server utilization, and a PUE of two, which, according to Bitterlin, is “a waste of greenness”.

Green data centers not only save energy, but they also reduce the need for costly infrastructure upgrades to deal with increased power and cooling demands. The common issue faced by data centers, however, is that the standards of what constitutes ‘green’ are changing to adhere to the times; but at the same time, power demand is rising steadily.

That being said, what can a data center do to essentially be greener?

• Consolidate servers; and consider upgrading to energy efficient servers.
• Ideally, applications that run on the data center hardware should be some sort of carbon reduction enabler. (Think video conferencing, online grocery shopping, internet searches, etc.)
• Choose IT hardware that best suits the software; the combination will minimize idle power and ensure a power-efficient platform. Even better, adding high-inlet temperature tolerance and a high delta-T will ensure the most power-efficient IT solution.
• Consider consolidating the clients’ business with other like-model users in order to gain load volume on a 24×7 basis.
• Minimize energy consumption through de-duplication. Prevent servers from sitting idle. The most optimal target core utilization is above 30%; much higher than the world average, which is said to be 5%.
• Refresh the IT hardware on a sub 30-month basis to ensure that operations/watt performance and server power supply efficiency remains high-end.
• Design rack layout so it is conducive to aisle containment, allowing no cooling air to bypass the IT load.
• Ensure the server inlet temperature is fairly high in normal service (about 26-27°C) with very occasional excursions to 35°C to 40°C in the extreme for about an hour. This is to avoid mechanical refrigeration; even in backup.
• Restrict the server inlet temperature and focus on air quality.
• Make sure all loads are dual-corded. Oftentimes, the overall system efficiency will be higher if an N+1 active/passive path topology is deployed.
• Choose a UPS that has the highest efficiency – most ideally higher than 97%, at 60 to 80% load.
• Supply the facility with utility power generated from renewable sources. The fuel will have to be sustainable, with high thermal efficiency and 99% or higher availability.
• Consider adding solar photovoltaic panels to the roof.
• Make use of the “wasted” heat, rather than just expelling it into the air. This can be done either on-site, or directly next to the facility. Some examples are greenhouses, biofuel growth, hospital heating, swimming pool heating, etc.
• Pay close mind to the standards set forth by both Energy Star (the government’s energy-saving program), and The Standard Performance Evaluation Corp (SPEC), which is working on a performance-per-watt benchmark for servers that aim to help in providing a baseline for energy efficiency comparisons.

The above list is a great guideline to refer to in creating ‘truly’ green data center. In summary, the actions enable a low-carbon process, are IT efficient, and are supplied with renewable energy, including 100% reuse of the waste heat.

TELEHOUSE is making its move towards a ‘greener’ future in 2012 and beyond. Read the latest on TELEHOUSE’s green initiatives.

So, colocation hosting is as simple as a company operating its IT (servers, etc.) and/or network equipment from a shared third party’s data center or hosting company that is equipped with the level of security, reliability, redundancy and diversity required in its access, power, cooling and communications infrastructure..

What are the Benefits of Colocation?

Saves Money

Colocation provides companies access to a ready built data center space with the requisite security, power, cooling and communications infrastructure needed without the direct investment or ongoing expensive maintenance cost of the facility.

In addition, carrier neutral colocation data centers provide the added benefit of more choices in and more competitive telecommunication service options, especially internet bandwidth with much higher bandwidth speeds and improved redundancy for network connections. The reason for this? The data center already collocates (houses) a number of telecom companies’ or Internet Service Providers’ (ISPs) network “Points of Presence” (POP), so you simply purchase connection to any of their multitude of services.

Lastly, premium colocation providers, such as TELEHOUSE, include or offer 24X7 first level (“remote hands”) support for very basic or simple on-site remediation requests (Help Tickets), .

These requests could include simple power cycling, checking or changing connections, entering simple commands, etc. Higher support levels may also be offered as well, including scalable or specific IT services and hourly or prepaid consulting services. The point is these are all designed to be delivered quickly and at a lower cost typically than the customer can, especially at a distance from the data center.

Power / Outage Protection / Security

Depending on the facility rating, or “Tier” level, describing the level redundancy and diversity in the infrastructure, Colocation facilities offer considerably better protection against power and cooling failures or “outages”. Premium colocation providers not only have multiple power feeds uninterruptable power supplies (UPS) and backup power generation equipment, along with redundancy and diversity in the cooling infrastructure, , but will guarantee 99.999% uptime concurrent with maintenance cycles .

Typically, Colocation facilities offer various levels of security for authorized personnel and equipment. These measures may include, multiple check-in points, key card facility access with or without biometrics, authorized access lists, password protection, video recording, roving guards, perimeter sensors, cabinets or cages with access cards, key lock or combination locks.

Pride of Ownership

The money saved in colocation, provide companies with the opportunity to further invest in and utilize higher end equipment ownership, or leasing, along with further development of their applications to advance their business needs and goals. . Companies maintain complete control of, hardware (servers, router, firewalls…), related software and their timely upgrades as they see fit to schedule.

Flexibility

If a company moves locations, it does not have to worry about moving its servers along with it as well.

Ok, I understand what colocation is. Now to get somebody to help my company even further?

Here is where Managed Hosting comes in!

Colocation is more of a ‘hands-on’ approach to having companies’ servers reside on the premises of a colocation hosting provider. It allows companies to act as their own managed host, colocating the equipment in a third party data center, as opposed to from their office or home using a local telecom or internet connection. Managed hosting is one step further – in that the company delegates all server maintenance to the colocation hosting provider.

Increasingly, businesses are all about saving time and money; and with a managed hosting provider, companies are at liberty (and with great peace of mind) to allow the data center provider to do all of the work necessary for successfully, securely setting up and maintaining the IT equipment (servers, routers, firewalls….etc.) thereby reducing initial and on-going maintenance costs. The data center facility bears the responsibility of maintaining the server or other equipment on the client’s behalf, which not only saves considerable costs, but it saves IT professionals the time and worry of operating and managing the equipment’s reliability, security and performance. Top managed hosting providers guarantee uptimes, with highly reliable 24X7 service and personnel on staff. This is especially useful for companies that do not have IT team members located in close proximity to the colocation facility.

The sheer difference between colocation and managed hosting is that with colocation, the IT equipment continues to be managed by the client while located in a colocation data center; with managed hosting, the data center provider takes care of all aspects of the server hosting and management for the client.

In the end, it’s totally up to you, the Customer.

“Colocation hosting” is a wondrous service for companies of all types and sizes, who require ownership and control of their IT equipment, security, processes and applications, more than a “cloud” or “managed hosting” solution (such as web hosting) provides.

“Managed hosting” is ideal for companies that would like to have its servers (owned or leased), operating systems and/or other supporting features administered exclusively by the hosting or colocation provider. Companies that do not have the IT staff or available competitive bandwidth necessary to manage its own servers and equipment often choose this option.

For over 20 years, TELEHOUSE has pioneered the development of data center services and worked to keep our clients’ information secure and uninterrupted, while performing at the optimum level.

For starters, let’s consider the cost impact on a business. Not surprisingly, the cost of collocating in a data center increases as the tier increases. With that, while Tier 4 is considered the most robust and least likely to experience failures; Tiers 1 and 2 largely meet the uptime requirements of small to medium sized businesses; and Tier 3 suits many large companies rather well. Tier 4 is most ideally suited for multi-million dollar companies, including those that house mission critical servers and computer systems.

The below graph, courtesy of Eze Castle Integration, exemplifies the four tiers, and which tier suits a specific type of business.

PHOTO COURTESY OF: http://www.eci.com/blog/

The Process of Certifying Data Centers

The certification process, offered by The Uptime Institute allows companies to hallmark their data centers under clearly defined guidelines. Certification is offered by licensed engineers at Uptime Institute after they have audited and accessed your paperwork applications. The map below represents companies from more than 19 countries worldwide with officially certified data centers.

Although many data centers may not be officially certified, the collocation and wider data center industry uses the Tiering system as an authoritative point of reference. The reason the popularity of the tier system continues to grow among the industry is because it is an easy, accurate reference for a data center’s reliability, security and stability.

Visit the TELEHOUSE website to learn more about our Tier 3/4 Category data center services or contact us!

Facility specifications include:

• Caged and Open Colocation Space: 19 inch standard individually locked cabinets with options in 23-inch
• Standard power to cabinet at 220V, 10 x 13A Sockets
• Private power generation with N + 1 redundant configuration
• N + 1 / 2(N + 1) UPS system with 15 minutes load discharge
• N + 1 diesel generators plus contact with fuel company for refill within 2 hours
• Standby generators with 24 hours autonomy at full capacity
• Air conditioning redundancy at N + 1 configuration
• Hot aisle and cold aisle zone design
• 800 mm raised floor design with airflow space to provide the most efficient cooling
• Floor loading up to 1,500 kg per square meter
• Secure and monitored single-person point of entry, physically guarded 24/7 and integrated digital video camera surveillance
• Biometrics security system and card key with PIN to authorized individuals for access to customer space
• Carrier neutral with access to major local and international network carriers
• Dual cable lead-in and meet me room facility offers true diversity

To get more information on any of TELEHOUSE’s other 42 data centers around the world please contact us.

Every business, big or small, can greatly benefit from a disaster recovery and business continuity plan (DRBCP). The importance of surviving business interruptions easily is considerable for organizations of all sizes, and having the right plan with supporting data center services will ensure sustainability and protection for all of the businesses’ processes, records and customer data.

The initial steps involved in creating a disaster recovery plan include understanding the types of natural disasters or disrupting events your business is exposed or susceptible to:

Hurricanes – These storms are known for their forceful winds and rain, ultimately causing flooding, high waves, destructive storm surges and power outages. For the United States, most of the Eastern border – including coastal areas from Maine down to Texas – are susceptible to storms.

Tornadoes – Tornadoes are localized, dangerously destructive storms that are capable of reaching wind speeds in excess of 300 miles per hour, spanning dozens of miles. Tornadoes are concentrated, unlike hurricanes that typically target a wide area.

Earthquakes – Earthquakes occur when there is an abrupt release of energy in the earth’s crust, ultimately causing seismic waves. As a result of the vibration caused by the trembling, earthquakes can cause landslides, avalanches, floods, fires, and tsunamis. What drastically differentiates an earthquake from other natural disasters, such as hurricanes or tornadoes, is that they often occur with no early warning signs. Earthquakes can destroy homes, buildings, and cut off essential resources, such as the water, power and communications..

Blizzards – Snowstorms combined with strong winds constitutes a blizzard. They can often create dangerous conditions lasting for several days. Additionally, freezing temperatures can cause water pipes to burst, while heavy rooftop snow accumulation may also cause flooding, structural damage and finally, collapse.

Floods – Flooding occur for many reasons, such as heavy rain, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, broken pipes and sprinkler system activation. Onsets of flood can cause major structural damage and long-term disruption to businesses and homes.

Lightning/Thunder Storms – Lightning/thunder storms can cause significant damage to businesses. The National Lightning Safety Institute cites a Carnegie-Mellon study that shows 33% of U.S. businesses are affected by lightning, more so than any other natural disaster and/or violence. The power of the storms can lead to power and communication outages, destroyed electrical hardware and other dependent components, just to name a few.