IT Helping Hands and Collocation

Posted on by ldavidson

You are in need of a highly efficient security system that guarantees a comprehensive and robust means of protecting your information assets in data centers from accidents, natural disasters, vandalism, theft, and other incidents and catastrophes. For this, enterprise security involves having both physical as well as technical security, and we at Networx offer both to enable you to have strong confidence in managing your IT and business operations.

Networx provides you with a dedicated mix of security tools that can manage physical security through mantraps, bollards, access control systems, and surveillance systems. This will be essential for safeguarding.

For physical security, our facilities utilize a dedicated mix of security tools from mantraps, bollards, surveillance systems, and access control systems. This will be crucial for fortifying your premises from intruders and prevent key information assets free from the hands of criminal activities as well as from catastrophes due to natural or man-made causes.

Our technical security covers installing quality pro-active systems and counter-measures in place to avoid the possibilities of data loss or corruption. We tailor our enterprise-grade tools and security solutions to the meet the needs of both private and public enterprises through a variety of authorization processes and protocols, including multi-factor authentication. This ensures that only authorized staff members are given permission to access data center facilities.

We also understand that the security requirements for each enterprise vary. This is why we strive to make our security capabilities and solutions flexible so that can be easily adjusted according to your needs and fulfill your expectations. We work with you closely to make your data center facilities have the most efficient and robust security systems.

Among the data centers we offer are SUPERNAP data centers. The SUPERNAP 8 data center, for instance, is credited with Uptime Institute and has obtained its Tier IV Golf Operational Sustainability Certificate. The switch SUPERNAP 9, furthermore, has also gained widespread industry recognition by winning the Tier IV Design Certificate, Tier IV Constructed Facility Certificate, and the Tier IV Gold Operational Sustainability Certificate.

Collocation

Our collocation facilities offer cooling, power, space, and physical security features for the storage, server, and networking equipment of other firms. These are connected to a number of telecommunications equipment and network service providers easily and at low cost.

Collocation has grown dramatically in importance, especially for firms that need a sufficient amount of tools and equipment to fulfill their IT needs. Through collocation, companies can secure multiple advantages, one of which is saving a considerable amount of time arranging logistical support for the work, and instead allowing the IT staff to focus exclusively on the number of hours worked.

Other benefits include attaining significant scale advantages through having very large mechanical and power systems that range between 4500 and 9500 square meters, which equates to a range of 50,000 to 100,000 square feet.

The following presents a detailed list of collocation benefits that firms can achieve:

  • A fully functioning and predictable expenditure model
  • Extra capacity can be added swiftly and cheaply according to requirements
  • Improved access to power and space
  • Quality data center facility management via trained and experienced IT professionals
  • Shared networking via a developed and close-knit ecosystem of partners
  • A developed infrastructure for creating cloud strategies
  • Flexible or agile infrastructure to effective manage resources and assets during emergencies or effective planning
  • A comprehensive roadmap for data backup and recovery

The collocations facilities are offered to businesses on a term-basis, usually via contract as a retail rental business. Here are a few features:

  • Easily lockable cages or rack cabinets
  • Power is available in a number of formats, AC and DC
  • Efficient cooling to prevent premises and devices from damage or corruption due to overheating
  • Strong network connectivity – that can be utilized in a ‘house blend’ in which clients are connected to their own router via a colo provider, which is a customer of carriers, to multiple carriers, or as a ‘cross connect’ systems where access is available to carriers, to routers, or both
  • Robust physical security that includes a spectrum of solutions including badge and biometric access, video surveillance, secure logging, and other kinds of effective user authentication tools
  • Real-time performance tracking and monitoring for ensuring all aspects of the systems are functioning smoothly and any failures are detected and resolved instantly

In addition, redundant systems are also offered to help mitigate the problems when equipment and devices fail. Furthermore, there are plenty of scale economies that firms can benefit as a result of having access to multiple small and medium-sized businesses in a one-facility network. These are as follows:

  • Higher reliability for failed systems due to having redundant resources
  • Engineers monitor systems on a 24/7 basis
  • High network bandwidth and low network latency at minimal cost
  • Specialist IT technical staff, who are skilled and experienced that offer a range of service and repair service at a fraction of the cost for each client

There are various kinds of collocations customers. These are:

  • Web commerce companies that require cost-effective, redundant internet connections to use facilities in a safe environment
  • Established and large companies that use facilities and require data backup and business continuity solutions to counter disaster risks
  • Telecommunication enterprises that use data center facilities to exchange data with other similar companies and are in need of access to multiple clients. This is usually provided via a collocation facility in which multiple carriers provide data and serve as a ‘carrier hotel’; the existence of such a network is extremely beneficial to potential customers due to the value that is offered to them
  • eCommerce websites that require internet facilities to operate servers specific for processing online transactions in a secure and reliable manner

In general, collocation services provide features such as physical security, power, and infrastructure; Clients, on the other hand, have access to their servers and storage facilities. Other than this, the facility space pertaining to rack, cage, or room is leased and various collocation data centers, nowadays, are increasing their services portfolio to include managed services that complement their client’s strategic business goals and objectives.

Although there are many reasons that encourage business owners to choose collocation instead of developing their own enterprise data centers, the most cause for their decision is CAPEX, or capital expenditures, which are linked to the construction of a large building or operating a computing facility.

Typically, collocation data centers were immensely popular with private companies, mainly because of its data recovery benefits. However, it is now being utilized by cloud service providers a lot more frequently.

In addition, collocation is an extremely efficient solution for some enterprises, though there are certain drawbacks. The higher the distance in moving and manually touching devices, the greater tend to be travel costs. In these circumstances, clients that use collocation services are locked in long-term contracts, which prevent them from the possibility of re-negotiating prices when they experience operational difficulties.

For this reason, it is essential that companies evaluate their collocation service level agreements (SLAs) to judge whether they are in a position to oversee and manage a lack of cash and funds due to unexpected hidden charges.

Benefit of Managed Service Provider s

Posted on by ldavidson

Most businesses are limited by the initial investment which is required to develop the working structure of the organization as well as to create its physical elements. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) in the IT industry used to face the same dilemma initially, as a lot of capital was required to establish physical resources such as network centers, servers and database systems that form the backbone of most IT services.

Recently, MSPs have new partners available to them that allow them to overcome their limited financial capacity to rapidly expand business from the first day onwards. This allows them to spend more in organizational hierarchy as well as in developing more complex products and aggressive marketing strategies.

Here, we compare the traditional model of IT services which have front end costs and compare it with the new model where third party hardware services are available for hire.

Analysis of Traditional MSPs

The analysis of a traditional MSP shows that the business starts with investing a great deal in static resources such as establishing a Network Operating Center (NOC) and similar facilities. There are also costs that are attached with recruiting the talent required to take care of these network facilities, although there is currently no revenue stream to cover their costs.

The business therefore, starts with a large negative offset and already has financial strain. As the MSP finds clients, it is able to use the hardware that it has, to take care of work each day. The organization also has to invest in new resources whenever it wants an expansion in the future or simply for maintaining the current network.

A simple look at the initial investment and the average time taken to reach customers reveals that most traditional MSPs run in the negative at least for the first year. They gradually start to make profits as customers come on board. The business has a lot of fixed costs that it has to pay regardless of receiving any business.

Business expansion is also difficult in this model as it requires reinvestment to buy new devices as well as more experts to maintain the growing network. The fixed operational costs are extremely corrosive in this model and dampen the profit making capability of the industry. These problems are reduced though, when we take a look now at the new model that MSPs can use.

Analysis of MSPs that Use RMM/NOC Partnerships

Now, if we compare the performance of modern MSPs who can form a partnership with an existing RMM/NOC service provider, we find that the dynamics of the business costs change completely. Third party services are usually based on the amount and time of resource used, which means that there are no capital requirements for taking these services from the other company.

An MSP which employs a third party NOC service can start its business operations from day one. These services are availed in exchange of a fee, which is far cheaper than having to install all the network services. The business quickly starts to make money as clients are found and in all probabilities, a partnered MSP will achieve a positive balance book in a maximum of two quarters.

It saves costs not only in terms of not buying the equipment, but it also saves money because very few experts are required to manage the offered services as the upkeep of physical devices is the responsibility of the NOC partner.

This presents a low risk model that allows the MSP to think innovatively about the services it can offer because it is sure that it can support any new service by simply renting out more utilities from their technology partner. This model reaches a positive cash flow very quickly and it has a much more sustained business structure.

This business model is excellent for expansion as well. Once an MSP starts to get more clients, it can develop better service models and expand by simply making a new contract to get more physical resources to support the new clients. It offers better profits and there is little chance of failure even if the number of clients is reduced.

A Brief Comparison

All businesses have variable expenses. They are difficult to control, but the real difference that appears between the two MSP service models is that you can confirm the fixed expenses in the third party technology partnership model. It is achieved by paying a fee to the partner who allows a business to have complete knowledge of its expenses.

This means that it is easier to control these known expenses and ensure that all the revenues that are received from the clients produce a profit for the organization. These new MSPs have their entire focus on product development and generating excellent customer relations. The first model depends on the greater utilization of the already available resources.

The traditional MSPs therefore, direct their efforts on both product development as well as an efficient use of the organizational resources. This divides the attention of the organization and results in reduced efficiency.

Outsourcing in this regard is quite helpful. An MSP can also use a hybrid model where it establishes a small amount of physical resources while also partnering with a third party for additional physical IT capabilities.

 

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