Colocation, Information Technology Blog

I was quite surprised to see that Google had a SuperBowl ad. It was interesting that they used local search three times in the commercial. I noticed that just about any regional or local search will trigger local results. The problem I see is that Google show's local results based on location and if you are located in the center of the city you have a big advantage. Even if you are in the top three organic results you are still pushed down the page by the map and the local results. Your seo efforts are very easy if you have a downtown city center relevant business.

Labels: SEO

Our online backup is located in four data centers and we have high desity clusters in each with extra server capacity. So if a company has virtualized their infrastructure using VMware or Microsoft virtual server or hyper V we could restore their servers and run them on our hardware in the event of a disaster. We are using Dell hardware which are easy to expand. The generation 3 1950 and 2950 can take 8GB sticks of RAM up to 64GB and the newer R900's we have deployed can hold up to 256GB of RAM and 4 cpu's. With the use of our high speed SANs recovery is quick and easy.
I remember back in the day when a migration took a weekend and a lot of pain and suffering, now it's as easy as copy and paste.

Labels: remote backup

Very highly optimized web site produced millions in sales and tens of millions in colocation leads is for sale. Domain has been online since October of 2004. Site has long track record of producing colocation leads. The web site holds and has held number one rankings in all the search engines for very relevant and profitable keyword phrases.
The site is also optimized for IT and managed services keyword phrases for web hosting, spam filtering and remote backups. The site is optimized globally, nationally and regionally in New York, Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Columbus, Seattle and Houston and can easily rank for more. Since the site is highly ranked new content will index and draw traffic fast. The web site produces highly relevant traffic.
This site is a great fit for a data center operator with multiple locations and over 20,000 sq ft in inventory.

Please call John @ 713 501 0241 if you would like more information

My girlfriend was searching on her new Google droid from verizon she was doing a seach on Haiti fund raising and she was taken to a virus scanner page and the popups started. Now she is getting the popup that her computer might be at risk when she opens the browers and while she is surfing. I can't believe this, i've never seen this on a mobile browser before and I've owned blackberry, windows mobile and apple.
As much as Google is putting into this I'm suprised that they don't have tighter quality control.

Labels: Droid

The big buzz word these days in the data center world is Tier 3, Tier 3+ design, Tier 4 ect...
Did you know that there is not a single tier 4 data center in the USA that offers public colocation? In fact according to the Uptime institude there is only one yes 1 Tier 3 certified facility in the USA.
There are some very good facilities that are not Tier certified that offer good services, but be careful of operators claiming Tier 4 design. To be considered Tier 4 you must have two primary power feeds online. Yes a lot of facilities have ATS (automatic transfer switch) but this is still a single point of failure. One other issue I had confirmed and worries me is that Tier certification only pertains to within the four walls of the facility. So a data center could have fiber, copper, and power coming into the facility on telephone poles. Which makes me ask another question - is the Uptime Institudes Tier certifications focused too much on power?
We use Internap because of the network and track record for uptime at all their facilities, but they do have good redundant power and cooling infrastructure especially at the 1301 Fannin data center.
When planning colocation for your company do some research on the facilities but also be realistic with your service level needs as to not under or over provision.

Labels: Colocation

Another great add on for the iphone, wireless bluetooth headset that actually works. I love the Iphone and Ipod but hate being tethered by headphones. The first generation of wireless headphone had their quirks but the Motorola's are almost perfect. They work great on the Iphone except I do have to put the headphones in pairing mode to get them to connect a lot of times.
Getting them to work on the desktop was a bit tricky. I did not have bluetooth built in and grabbed a Rocketfish micro usb adapter. At first since I'm using windows 7 I did not use the cd to install, second go around I did and now it work like a champ. Music does sound better on the Iphone and my software phone sounded OK.
I'm curious how well the headset will work in the data center with all the noice, with the Jawbone I have to cover my other ear. I'm curious how they will sound on the other end with all the all the background noise.
My New Years resolution is to get in better shape and the S9-HD's fit nice and snug they are a bit bulky in the back trade off I guess so you will not be able to lay flat on the back of your head.

Labels: Iphone 3GS

The best screen protector yet, $20 @ bestbuy but well worth it compared to hard plastic ones. This one is soft and flexible and has to dry overnight. Lifetime warranty you have to register on their site. Make sure you get a heavy duty hard case for you iphone as to prevent the screen from shattering. I found one at Target by Griffin that also has a belt clip/stand. The clip comes off so it is not as bulky.
Since AT&T service has been getting lousy again I've installed the app mark the spot to report problems to them. I just hope they follow through and fix it.

Labels: Iphone 3GS

Online Remote Backup Service for Desktops and Laptops
I've tweaked the website page for the desktop and laptop Fast Backup. We have also create two new unlimited plans a basic unlimited and unlimited plus where we replicate the users data to a second data center facility. If one data center is down via redirection servers the end user can backup or restore from the second data center. Our software also has an option for continuous data protection which most of the online backup services do not offer.

I've updated the page with our new service offering. I also found out that Internap, who we use for three of our data centers is now SAS 70 Type II compliant.
We are very excited about the new features we are offering. We now replicate all backup data to a second data center for our customers. If one of the data centers go down data will be backed up and recoverable from secondary facility. Continuous data protection is now an option for both Pro/server and the desktop client.
We now offer client software for Linux, Unix, Novell, and Mac. You can choose from four Data Centers to backup to Internap New York City, 365main/Internap Oakland, Internap Houston, Your Colo Columbus, Ohio which uses Internap flow control.

We've rebuilt Columbus and Houston and have added data centers in New York and the Bay Area San Fran/Oakland. We have plans to roll out Sydney, London, Chicago, LA, Miami, and Atlanta next year. We plan to use Internap and Internap partner data centers or data centers that use Internap flow control technology. All data centers must be tier 3+ design.
We've deployed a cluster of three backup servers in each city plus replication and redirector servers. All data is stored on RAID6 storage area netorks. Our backup software works with all versions of windows and includes agents for Exchange server and SQL. We also have client software for Mac and Linux.
Since storage and SANS have come way down in price we are passing this savings.

500gigs compressed and replicated to second data center $199

100gigs compressed and replicated to 2nd data center $89

For smaller/home users 40 gigs replicated $12 plenty of room for iTunes Better quality and cheaper than our competitors
Please call me at 877 614 host to set up a free trial

Labels: remote backup

After years of requesting they have added domain account roles. You can now assign helpdesk users and domain admins on model 600 and higher.

With sever virtualization quickly being adopted as industry standard it no longer makes sense to colocate unless you are already virtualized with ten or more guest on a host, but this will cost you in power. Today's quad core servers use lots of power so that even if you have a 42u cabinet you will probably only get 7 or 8 server running with drives. For a cabinet in a real data center with n+1 on all systems and a 5 or 6 carrier network blend your cost will probably be around $2250 a month. Can you get it for less? Sure, but what is the facility missing?

Swapped sans in Ohio and now have a pair of equalligics running at Internap Houston can't wait to get this config fully loaded down how well it will perform under high io. I'm impressed by the performance of the enhance tech san but not by it's lack of redundancy on the controller.
Although not bad we seem to lose throughput on the long haul to other cities. I get good routes and low latency. If I'm close in region I get full wire speed.

Still trying to get on the road to finish deploying new on-line backup service. Taking servers and SAN from Houston to Columbus and SAN expansion from Ohio to Manhattan and SAN from Ohio back to Houston. I wish I were flying but with amount of equipment and number of cities plus Murphy's law it's just easier to drive.