Posts Tagged Colocation Services

Understand Cloud Computing?

Jan 13

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It is not necessary that you have to be a tech guy to learn about Cloud Computing, nowadays everybody knows everything about  Cloud Computing. Cloud Computing is just like the previous technologies which changed the whole concept of web world, like Internet, Web 2.0 and wireless computing. They completely changed the way we work and live. These technologies made it easier for us to make our way into public consciousness using articles, magazines and other polar press items. Cloud Computing helped tech industry rejuvenating, authorizing consumers and making the field equal for small and large business. But before going for Cloud Computing you should analyze what your business need. Cloud Computing can be different for business that  is lively and can be different for dormant one. The conduit to liveliness needs a change of attitude from internal to external internet based technologies. This what is known as Evergreen IT. According to this new definition there is no option for working systems where heavy work is done using old systems that are so costly and complex that often people change their business. Evergreen IT generates possible ways to energizing new IT capabilities that works perfectly for your business and that to without disturbing your business path. There are three basic concepts of Cloud Computing, it helps us to understand what are the sore points of business for the large organizations. But first we should understand what Cloud Computing really is? It’s a basically a model in which a company outsources the management and ownership of the some part of the companies IT.

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Drawbacks of Cloud Computing

Jan 12

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Its Cloud Computing which allows you to access all your documents and application anytime and anywhere in the world. Releasing you from detaining you from desktop every time. Cloud and computing and Colocation services are seen as future of web world. But nothing is perfect in the world and just like that cloud computing is not for everyone, there are several pros and cons associated with cloud computing. Here is brief descriptions of which type of user can enjoy the benefits of cloud computing  which should avoid using cloud computing. Few of the disadvantages associated with cloud computing are:

High Speed Internet  Required -  Cloud Computing’s performance in slow speed internet connections is absurd. Slow connections like dial-up make is Cloud computing  a pain for the user or it can be say it is impossible for the users to enjoy cloud computing on slow connections. Large documents and web-base applications need a lot of bandwidth to download. Is you are using a low speed internet connection then you may feel Cloud Computing will take more than a lifetime to be operational on that type of connection. In simple words Cloud Computing is not for slow connections.

Constant Internet Connection – Cloud Computing without proper internet connection is just like lifeless body. Because you are using internet for accessing both your documents and applications, in case if you don’t have an internet connection you can’t even access your documents. Departed internet connection means no work on the cloud computing and areas where internet connections are slow and are unreliable it can affect your business. Cloud Computing simply stops working without internet connection.

Limited Features – today many web-based applications are not fully featured when compared to their desktop versions. Just for an example there are n-number of things which can be done using Microsoft PowerPoint with the help of Google Presentation’s web based feature. Basics of using Microsoft PowerPoint on Cloud Computing are same but it lacks many of the advanced features of PowerPoint. If you are specially fond of power features, you will not look at cloud computing.

Data Stored is not secure – All the data in Cloud Computing is stored on Cloud. Its your duty to make sure how secure Cloud is? Whether only authorized persons are slowed to access to your confidential data. Concept of cloud computing is new and even if hosting companies say that the data is secured it can’t be a 100% truth. If you will see theoretically data on cloud computing is unsafe as it is replicated along multiple machines. In any case if your data goes missing you don’t have any chance of local or physical backup. Simply depending on cloud can let you down and there is always a risk of failure. In order to save the data only solution is downloading all cloud documents on your machines. However this is a lengthy process and every time your documents upgrades you will have to download a new copy of the application.

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Three Steps To Secure your Data Center

Jan 12

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Its Cloud Computing which bought server-oriented, virtualization and new Internet applications. With Cloud Computing Data Centers are now more active with flexible boundaries. However this change towards Cloud Computing also added new levels of intricacies. IT managers now have to work more hard in order to secure equipments in Data Center so that precious data of the customers will be safe from spiteful attacks. Organizations are now asked to check all the operations in a Data Center are working correctly, also all the equipments are secure. Not just the equipments and applications but technologies, people and policies should also be kept under the eye of organization which are required to keep the Data Center active and functioning. Based on the expert views there are few points or steps which if followed can secure your data center against all the malicious attacks and also make it  more active then ever. Here are the steps:

Set up a secure zone for Network

Once the physical security level is installed the real hard work of securing network  starts. Securing network systems begins with development area followed by test subnet which is separated from the traffic of the development area. Production which is the third area is considered as the most boring area and most of the efforts and time of system administrators is wasted in this area. Since this zone works on approved production equipments administrators are asked to imply new systems to control production network. Administrators can organize virtual or physical systems to the sub-networks which are attached to the virtual area network. Other than that strict rules related to outgoing and incoming traffic are also deployed. Before applying rules managers of Data Center should find out the different requirements of the different business which are handled by sub-networks. For example traffic related with production should be restricted to irrelevant websites and other services like e-mail should use ports with outgoing links. Wireless access points should be avoided in Data Center because even with two factor authentication and wide working radius they are difficult to control. In the security of Data Center there are three steps to be followed, first one is operational framework is ensures global information grid is available which should have integrity and protection. Technical protection is second and third and last is certification and accreditation of applications to be used in data center.

Physical Access should be Secure

Each layer and system in your data center is important, secure access to every room of your Data center. It is seen that commonly data center managers start with other complex tasks like controlling access to systems and mostly forget the physical security measures and concentrate on network side. In a perfect security systems, measures should be taken at every point of the Data Center. Physical security for a Data Center includes ID cards, fenced campus, bio-metrics system and video surveillance, specially for the outer entrances of the Data Center. Inner Layers doesn’t need all security measures mentioned above and two important security measures should be taken care of are video surveillance and biometrics. One more important type of access to the inner parts of the Data Center is proper locking on the server. This is done to avoid any accidental error which can be caused by any wrong person working on the servers.

Organize Communication among security devices in Data Center

Cloud Computing and Colocation services has changed nearly every style of working in web world, security is also included. Most important thing in cloud computing is securing the data that is flowing between client systems, virtual machines within the data center and also between two data centers. In order to secure everything something more than port protocols is required like application identification technology. Application identification technology apply signatures which helps in determining which application is peer to peer program or a shareware program. Application denial of service attacks should also be included in your security measures. Traditionally denial of service of attacks was programmed to fight of attack by using the “black hole” technique. Drawback of this technique was that administrators have to remove all the traffic from the server that is under attack. Nowadays there are other solutions available which helps in determining which traffic is legal and which is illegal.

Taylor Momsen

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Importance of SQL Server Replication

Jan 6

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Just like the SQL Server replication of SQL server is also important. SQL Server replications allows administrators to divide data to various servers all over an organization. Importance of replication can be understood by following below given reasons:

Offline Processing – there are many users round the world who wish to change data from your database on a machine even when their status is offline i.e. when they are not connected to the network.

Redundancy – with the help of replication you can build a fail-over database server, in case of any failure it can pick up the processing, even on a minute’s notice.

Load balancing – with the help of replication you can divide your data on large number of servers and thus you divide the query load between those servers. Replication therefore helps in enhancing the quality of the server.

SQL Replication Importance of SQL Server Replication
Snapshot Replication – it works just like the name indicates. All what publishers have to do is take a snapshot of the entire replicated database and share that with subscribers. Snapshot replication is not used by most of the administrators because of the reason that snapshot replication is resources intensive process. Most commonly snapshot replication is used in those database which rarely undergoes any change. Other use of snapshot replication is to establish replication between systems at the same time as updates are broadcasted with the help of combined replication.

Merge Replication – this type of publisher allows subscribers to make changes independent to the database. Spatiality of these two applications is that they can work without network connection. When connected again the merger replication feature confirm changes made on both sides and make changes in each database. In the case of changes contradict with each other, there is a provision of conflict resolution algorithm which concludes the suitable data. Most common users or merge replication are laptop users, who didn’t get chance to connect to the publishers continuously.

Transactional Replication – best advantage of Transactional replication is it allows database to undergo any change on a regular basis. With transactional replication publishers can monitor changes occurring on the database an then transmitting those changes to the subscribers. This kind of replication can work immediately or on a periodic basis.

SQL Replication 2 Importance of SQL Server Replication

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What is DCML (Data Center Markup Language)?

Jan 5

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The Data Center Markup Language or better known as DCML is a an XML based condition which is used for representing main contents of data centers and also the information used in managing all those components. With the combination of OASIS DCML is developed by Data Center Markup Language Interest Group. Development of DCML started in early 2004, when it was first seen in its draft form. To understand DCML can be used for linking a server monitoring system with server provisioning system. By doing this next time when a new server is provisioned it will be monitored automatically. In such case the DCML document that is transmitted to the monitoring system includes information regarding the IP address and all the other special services running on that machines and special ports that will be monitored as well. Other important information like the application server belongs to and in the case of server goes down whom should be contacted . All the information is imported into the system of NOC personnel, which can use in the case of any alert occurs. Framework specifications of DCML are used to define overall concepts structures and approach to DCML’s manipulation of all the Data center elements along with policies governing their management. DCML allows people and systems managing data center and other IT environments to exchange policy, operating information and configuration in a standardized manner which works on a wide range of products and processes. Below given are the few process which are possible with a given set of unified DCML description:

  • Replace or remove components
  • Permit communication between various data center management systems
  • Expansion of functions like adding services or servers
  • Configuring and reconfiguring newly added software and hardware

DCML What is DCML (Data Center Markup Language)?

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Automation in Data Centers

Dec 28

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In early processor era Data Centers was intended to maintain single centralized platform with only a single operating system. These Data Centers were usually related to only few applications. In those days computer workloads were well understood and well controlled, irrespective of the fact that Data center management was complicated. Those days are history now and today’s data centers are now have countless servers which are running n-number of applications with various operating systems. This complexity in managing data center is dangerous and in many organizations it the level has fallen to a risky level. The ability of data centers managing complex computer workload is falling day by day. Adding to the woes the observing bodies now demands that whole IT operations of an organizations should be monitored more strictly. In a Data Center each supportive function is separate from other supportive function inside an IT department and they do not coordinate with each other. Just for an example the group taking care of data management does not coordinate its activities with network management. This lack of incorporation can be blamed on the uncontrolled growth of the industry. When in the initial stage Data Centers were never expected to grow such huge. Even many Data Centers are experiencing lack of space. If you go through the below given points it will be clear why a volatile solution is needed:

  • Efficiency is required in the use of resources and power consumption.
  • Virtualization techniques should be implemented to facilitate resource productivity.
  • Observation and security of multiple servers.
  • Process management should be changed in contrast to the industry needs.
  • Business process which are circulated in highly distributed environments should be encouraged.

In this age business world has became more and more active then before. Often an organization is seen with a network which is spread amongst its suppliers, partners and customers an that needs a perfect management. With time as companies will depend on these networks it is crucial to manage the networks associated in a active and expected style. Though requirements for different business are different but what every business expects from the Data Center is all the same, like excellent level of the staff  and expected costs. On the first impression it looks simple but it actually gets complicated when new connections are demanded and  new applications are added on the demand for new suppliers, customers and partners. Those business which fails to provide new technologies soon get obsolete from the demand.

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Rightsizing Servers

Dec 24

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Commonly people consider performance with speed. If go deeply and find the meaning of the word performance in dictionary it will be defined as how good something performs the functions or actions for which its is assigned. When you are dealing with servers in Data Center, you should care for more than speed. Traditionally speed is measured according to latency and response time. Cost effective measures are also important. To understand this more fact take an example of automobiles or cars, there will be different customers. One who are interested in mileage will not care for speed of the car. What they want from their car is maintainability and all other criteria related to economy. Going the same way when you look at servers you care more for performance per watt, performance per dollar per watt and performance per dollar. Data center admins discover the definite energy consumption and how much work is done with that energy.

Look at the performance of your CPU systems in real world. Mostly the memory sizes which are produced by used benchmarks is smaller then the amount of limited disk I/O. This is the reason why CPU utilization in the industry is so low and thus the balance of server systems are not well. Solution for the problem includes using balanced servers which use main platform resources like memory, disk, network and CPU in a right manner. Another option to solve the problem is to use fewer memory in order to have fewer disk admissions. Although this process adds a little cost to you but it can help you to improve the performance to a great level. Performance defines cost effectiveness of your business process. Along with performance and cost consider power too. Working of benchmarks may get affected by the working environments of your company. So it is suggested that these companies create their own workload process. These process will be more effective in finding out the activities of the applications used by your servers.

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Challenges in Operating Data Center

Dec 24

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Data center are important for every kind of business. Saving your data keeps your companies operating and nay downtime can cost you a lot of time and money. Maintaining a data center, running 24X7 is a big challenge and the companies which provide data center solution face many problems. Early when computer era started dedicated rooms were created to keep computer equipments safe, cool and free from other contaminants. Only these dedicated rooms later evolved into Data Centers. As the computer era was developing very swiftly, various departments congregated these dedicated rooms to form earliest data centers. With dot com bubble client-server networking become significant for IT companies and the dedicated rooms were changed to higher designs. Now these dedicated rooms are grown up into fully managed Data Centers, and maintaining these is not easy and include several challenges like:

Operating cost of Data Center

Cost of operating Data center is very high and companies often got shut down due to this factor. Companying a large data center with all the essential equipments is not a small job. All the necessary equipments and servers are expensive. Companies providing data center solutions have to pay employees who are skilled in maintaining servers in Data center. Also those employees have to work round the day. Getting employees for a data center is very costly business. Solution for this problem is that instead of buying the equipment and hiring all the staff on your own, companies can use the service of some other data center providing their services. This process helped many companies to decrease their cost of operating with providing good service.

Physical Space

Early data centers were small not more than a room or few rooms, but as the industry grown larger and larger seize of Data center grew considerably and nowadays they cover acres of land. It is hard to manage the servers, important equipments and cables in a Data Center. Finding space for the huge data center is a big problem for many companies. You can outsource data center from other companies, instead of building dedicated space for large data center.

Reliability and Security Dilemma

Now even if the companies pass the challenges of staffing, equipment expenses, and physical space, companies still have to face the challenge of providing security and reliability. Reliability of a company is directly related to the reliability of Data Center and if the data center goes down for any possible reason it will affect the companies business. Security and reliability is only possible if the staff is properly trained and they security is at the right place. Another factor for good reliability of a data center is disaster recovery plan. Disaster recovery plan is the reason for the coming back of a company.

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Before Choosing a Colocation Facility

Dec 23

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In the jet age communication and data access are two most important factors for business operations. Email, messaging websites and servers have to be up 24×7 and they should be protected for business communication to function. Specially Data Centers which have servers with mission critical information. Most important are company databases and servers, which should be kept up at any cost. Important factors in a colocation facility are:

Redundant Systems
Systems used in colocation hosting should be redundant and at every point of working they should have proper capacity. Many people get confused with multiple units considering them as redundancy. Ideal configuration for systems used in colocation facilities should be n+1, which means that if there are two units they should run at 50% capacity, and in any case if one fails other will handle the load. Same if there are three units working capacity should be 66%.

Colocation facility Before Choosing a Colocation Facility

Best Connectivity

Major points which decides the Internet Connectivity of a colocation facility are as follows:

  • Total Bandwidth available for usage
  • Accessible Internet backbones
  • Uptime guarantee
  • Packet loss, jitter and Latency

Carrier-neutral access and Tier -1 carriers, tier-2 carriers all get access to internet using Colocation data centers. Carrier-neutral can be used by any service from any carrier but customers are requested to configure their own routing. Also customers are should maintain their own connections to Internet backbones. Tier-1 is used by Internet giants like AT&T for direct access. Tier-2 is used for routing traffic amongst the multiple Tier-1 providers. In these kind of tiers speed and reliability depends on how effectively traffic is routed. Tier-2 is preferred by most of the clients since routing is configured by the Colocation facility. Also it is more reliable because of the presence of backbones, these backbones network performance and uptime.

Colocation facility 1 Before Choosing a Colocation Facility

Control on Climate

Design of the colocation facility itself affects the performance of the systems used in the colocation facility. Air flow between rack rows should be controlled by the server rooms. Hot air generated due to the heat produced by the servers should be blown in one direction and cool air to keep the servers cool should exit from another direction. Only dedicated hot and cols air flow can save the servers from overheating and finally burning down. Cold sir and humidity is controlled by correctly sized and redundant climate control units. As we all know climate requirements for the server are strict and they only work properly when they are installed under suitable working environment. Servers need 50% humidity and 70 degrees of temperature. Both CRAC units and chillers for the server rooms should be included in a Colocation facility. Cooling capacity is calculated by total tonnage by the square footage.

Power Required

Power to the colocation is like oxygen to the humans, if it fails to perform then you are in deep trouble. UPS and generators should be used for backup and they are necessary to keep the network online. UPS are used when power is shifted from regular to the generators. Generators should be there 24X7 for immediate backup power. Power system of a colocation facility should be properly working and should have following features for perfection:

  • Redundant and multiple UPS because of the reason UPS fails very oftenly.
  • Generator which can handle at least 1.5 time the total building load

Equal Distribution of Traffic

Both hardware and logic of distribution has an important effect on connectivity. The way traffic is divided plays an important role in the performance of routing. If your distribution covers three below given points than it is perfect:

  • In order to continually adjusting routes to find the most effective one Performance based distribution is should be used. Performance based concentrates on performance rather then price.
  • Switches and routers should be redundant and be working on full working for the customers.
  • Distributions should be done between more than 4-5 clients.

Colocation facility 2 Before Choosing a Colocation Facility

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Enjoying Virtualization

Dec 23

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For most of the people server virtualization sounds something complex, but if you will go through it you will find it much more easier. Virtualization is considered as one of the mainstream technology and it is the popular solution for data center management for every type of company. Understanding the basics server virtualization allows you to run multiple guest  operating systems which can be either same or different on a host operating system on a physical server. Operating systems are divided in order to reside each application on its own virtual machines or virtual server on the hardware platform. Benefits associated with virtualization are endless and it is specially very much good for small business. Most important benefit is lowering the cost for the owner and it also includes many smaller benefits like:

  • Improve physical space in Data center and also reduce server sprawl.
  • Hardware maintenance cost is reduced since number of physical servers are  also reduced.
  • Speed up the network thus making provision for new services.
  • Performance and resource utilization is improved.
  • Applications are quickly developed and organized and downtime is avoided due to maintenance windows.
  • Flawlessly mange and scale the infrastructure based on various industrial demands.

Virtualization 1 Enjoying Virtualization

There are many software which helps in organizing server virtualization. Some of the most famous and most conveniently applied virtualization servers are:

Windows Virtual Server

Windows virtual server is loved by those who only want to have Microsoft type of environment, using Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 operating systems. There are two versions provided by Microsoft for its Windows Virtual Server 2005 Standard and Enterprise Edition. Enterprise Edition supports can host a server with as much as 32 processors. Standard on the other hand support server with only 4 processors. The enterprise edition can be downloaded free of charge.

XenSource

It is launched almost three years ago. XenSource is based on a open source project sponsored by Linux and known as Xen. It is a good option for those who like open source products then proprietary ones. XenSource proved itself in cost effectiveness but it still has to prove itself in quality service.

VMWare

It is the leading software of the virtualization process. Launched in 1998 it was VMWare which bought virtualization to the mainstream through  X86 computing platform. There are option for everyone from small to big business and at the wide range of price points. Features of VMWare are never ending and it benefit’s the host for every server environment.

Virtualization 2 Enjoying Virtualization

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