As we mourn

The technology world is dealing with a huge loss this morning.  While we mourn the passing of Steve Jobs, Founder and former CEO of Apple, it is also important to focus on his legacy and what he did for the world.  

Steve Jobs can be looked to as the one who made computers and technology “cool”. For many owning a Mac, iPhone, iPad or iPod became a status symbol, as you could say you had the latest and best technology literally at your fingertips.  Who would have thought putting an “i” in front of a word could completely change its meaning.   And what Steve Jobs started will carry the technology world for years to come.  

We have lost a friend, innovator and visionary.  One who saw the world for what it could and should be.  Let us now carry on where he left off…

AT&T Adds More Fiber

AT&T had four of these trucks camped out at our site all day on Friday…pulling lots more fiber.

Actually, AT&T is our neighbor with whom we share a private cul-de-sac along with several other carriers, just north of I-270 and near the main Telco fiber corridor from Chicago to Atlanta.

DataCenter.BZ now has 4 totally separate AT&T fiber entrances, 2 each connecting to our redundant carrier meet-me-rooms which provide data center customers with direct and/or blended access to many different carrier providers and therefore inexpensive and ultra-reliable connectivity solutions.

Now’s the time to secure your own stimulus package.

Last night President Obama laid out his jobs plan meant to help get America’s economy back on track. While technology and infrastructure projects maintained their emphasis, and the talk of tax cuts and incentives to hire new employees sounds enticing, business owners and executives may also want to focus on creating their own stimulus package.

How can you secure a stimulus package customized specifically for your company?  Consider what large enterprises and more recently government agencies and SMB players have been leveraging for years, the economic and operational advantages of locating and/or replicating mission-critical data, applications, communications and other IT assets in a data center.  Purpose-built data centers, that are highly secured, energy-efficient and networked with a myriad of connectivity options, often help corporate and municipal users of all types obtain economies of scale, achieve robust disaster recovery and business continuity solutions, and overall realize a more profitable and sustainable operations model insofar as data availability, communications and even workforce utilization is concerned. As a result, capital that would otherwise be tagged for operating and capital investments can instead be utilized for sales and marketing efforts, R&D, staff augmentation and other corporate growth initiatives.

Consider for a moment the cost and overall availability of Internet connectivity. The connections required by IT infrastructure located in discrete offices, business parks or even corporate computer rooms are typically offered by one or just a handful of telco providers each with their own pricing schedules and network maintenance costs. In contrast, securing such services in a data center that has partnered with numerous carriers available directly on-site can dramatically reduce telecom costs for businesses while at the same time enabling critical carrier diversity, the ability to “burst” on alternate carriers and other customized IT and workforce continuity solutions. Further, modern data centers are built in such a way that power, cooling, security and network connectivity are both safeguarded and protected from business impacting outages. Finally, a facility such as DataCenter.BZ has been critically designed and constructed to be extremely energy efficient. For example, over 3,000 tons of redundant cooling utilizes chillers and air handlers with energy efficiency ratings (EERs) of 23+ and 76+, respectively! The LEED Silver designed facility also incorporates “free cooling” and overall achieves an estimated energy efficiency ratio (PUE) of 1.25 which compares extremely favorably with corporate environments.

In addition to the economic advantages associated with greater connectivity options, lower telecom costs and higher energy efficiencies described above, another compelling factor for corporate users considering colocation and other data center services is the flexibility to outsource the surroundings required for housing critical corporate IT infrastructure. And as technologies change and corporate IT strategies shift, the ability to grow, reconfigure, virtualize, leverage cloud services, etc. without having to maintain, operate or invest in the supporting environment is a significant advantage that translates into considerable time and capital savings. Corporate IT staffs either work directly from the data center location where they can be supported by data center staff, or businesses have the ability to rely on a full complement of managed services to carry on their IT operations.

Moving to a data center saves more than money; it protects the time your business needs to invest in other opportunities to keep your company on the leading edge.  

Find out if DataCenter.BZ’s enterprise-class, carrier-neutral data center could assist the reliability and profitability of your business. Please contact our sales team at sales@datacenter.bz or 614.515.5880. 

Just in case another hurricane hits Ohio…no, really, Ohio’s been hit before.

Currently the East Coast is picking up the pieces from Hurricane Irene and in the preparations leading to landfall we heard about many areas of New York City and up and down the coast evacuating and data centers waiting for the strong winds and storm surges (http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2011/08/26/ny-data-centers-prep-for-hurricane-storm-surge/). Even Con Edison had warned that it was prepared to pre-emptively shut off power in low-lying parts of NYC, including some electrical utility substations along the waterline of Lower Manhattan.

Although “Ohio” and “hurricane” seldom coexist in the same thought, remember that back in 2008 Hurricane Ike (which, by the way, was our nation’s third-costliest hurricane ever) made more than just its presence felt in the Buckeye State.  By the time Ike hit Ohio, it was still throwing around 75 mph winds, or sustained winds equivalent to a Category One hurricane. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Ike)

For those who did not live through Ike, it took our state more or less by surprise and left over 350,000 customers in Central Ohio alone without power, many for days on end, and overall forced Ohio to declare a state of emergency. Now, due to the diligent and extensive design and preparations that go into a purpose-built telecom facility like DataCenter.BZ (which in addition to our carrier-neutral data center built to Tier IV standards also houses data center operations for multiple local telecom carriers), our facilities were completely unaffected, and we have many stories about the IT folks and corporate executives who showed up throughout those days and nights (including many non-customers!) seeking help with keeping their communications and IT operations going.

In the event another potentially devastating storm decides to try to take on Ohio, DataCenter.BZ remains prepared and, as they say, it’s all in the preparation. The data center is built to Miami Dade-hurricane standards, with a double, independent standing-seam roof system, reinforced concrete walls, California earthquake-rated floors, walls and ceilings, and so on. Now, if either of the independent utility grid feeds serving the complex are affected, multiple 2-MW generators are on-line and with the addition of Alternate Feeds Utility Service (like a large hospital), every data center power panel has a minimum of 4 input power feeds and DataCenter.BZ does not employ ATS but rather a more sophisticated (and expensive!) Russelectric bus design.

Regarding flood threats, DataCenter.BZ (along with AT&T, Sprint and other key telecom assets serving central Ohio) is located at the geographic highpoint of Franklin County, and further the facility’s raised data center floors are 24 inches higher than the rest of the facility and more than four feet above parking lot catch basins.

Yes, Ohio remains one of the safest and most secure choices to locate mission-critical data center operations, but that doesn’t mean the state is always untouchable. Hurricanes and earthquakes can still hit, and that is why DataCenter.BZ has taken so many precautions to protect our customers’ operations from power/connectivity downtime. 

Did you just feel that?

Columbus, Ohio is all a buzz about the earthquake we felt earlier today.  While it was nowhere near the shaking felt in the Virginia/D.C. area—where the magnitude 5.9 quake was centered—it is something for Ohioans to talk about. Ohio is not prone to strong quakes, fortunately, mainly due to the way fault lines run in this part of the county.  See the following map for a better view of how Ohio shakes up to the rest of the country.

 

However, quakes do happen, as plotted in the following map, stretching back to 1875. Central Ohio, however, has experienced little activity relative even to other parts of Ohio.

 

That being said, while the way we designed and constructed our purpose-built facility may have seemed over the top it’s days like today that remind us all that anything is possible. Just like in 2008 when Ohio was hit by a hurricane (Hurricane Ike for those who don’t remember), Ohio does experience seismic activity.  While we don’t see the same force, and near the same frequency, as seismic activity in the western US, the Southeast, and elsewhere, we’ve incorporated many of the same features that protect buildings in quake prone areas.   Our raised floors and ceiling structures meet California earthquake standards, our internal building structure is flexing steel with exterior concrete barriers, and our facility overall is designed to Miami Dade hurricane standards. The ability for a building to move with the Earth’s motions (and high winds, etc.) is key to withstanding the toughest elements. 

There are many reasons Ohio is an ideal location for a high-availability data center, but just because nature’s fury doesn’t normally happen here doesn’t mean it can’t.  This is why DataCenter.BZ built its center to meet the toughest requirements.  Now we can simply say, did you just feel that?...and move on with our day.