Category Archive for : ‘Hardened Data Center’

Managing IT can be complicated, and picking the right solution for your business can be a lengthy process and decision. The good news is that there are a variety of options that can be tailored for your business; the bad news is that a lot of different companies will try to sway you in the direction that will make them the most money.

Instead of telling you which IT model is best for you business, let’s take a look at each model definition objectively:

Cloud computing: Commonly known as SaaS, IaaS or

Lifeline Data Centers is proud to introduce the Midwest Internet Exchange (M-IX), an Internet Exchange (IX) based in Indianapolis, IN with facilities in several data centers throughout the United States. One of the goals of the Midwest-IX is to bring Bilateral and Multilateral peering to an expansive network of data centers, along with keeping local Internet traffic within local infrastructure and reducing Internet Service Providers’ cost through an Internet Exchange Point (IXP).

If you are an ISP, content provider, Cloud services provider, or anyone else who needs to exchange traffic with other

Since 1991, October is observed as the National Energy Awareness Month in America. It was first targeted at private and government sector organizations, but this year, the focus is on the US data center industry. The industry consumed 91 billion kilowatt hours in 2013. According to NRCDC (National Resources Defense Council), this consumption is expected to rise at a rate of 40% every year through 2020, rising to 140 billion kilowatt-hours, costing businesses $13 billion dollars and releasing 150 metric tons of carbon. Here is how businesses can manage energy

The recent cyber crime rate is reason enough for data center and business owners to take action. Here are some recent headlines that sent shivers down the spines of business owners:

Home Depot reported a loss of 53 million email addresses.
The Target breach is reported to have an estimated cost of $1 billion.
Michaels had a theft that resulted in the loss of 3 million+ payment cards.

Since 2007, the cyber insurance industry has witnessed a $400 million growth. Here are three best practices for data security for your enterprise.

Storing Customer Information: There are as many

A data center is meant to serve your business’ data needs, and some of the most important aspects of data centers are uptime, preparedness for disaster recovery and customer satisfaction. The data center may be equipped with the most hi-tech superior performing systems, but, for some, it also needs to have that extra something when it comes to execution and delivery.

Here are some important metrics that help in monitoring and tracking data center productivity.

1. Database Administration

As much as 20% of every organization’s IT budget is being spent on database administration.

Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) tools have now become essential in the data center, as compared to the luxury that they were perceived to be a few years ago. A well-suited DCIM tool can help solve the complicated issue of real-time capacity planning faced by data centers. Key parameters that make up a data center’s landscape, such as power, rack space, network connectivity and cooling, can be monitored so that optimal levels can be reached. The data center environment is dynamic and small changes to one factor can easily cause havoc

Every data center security manager has nightmares about his or her network being attacked. But some have more peace of mind because they feel confident in their data center infrastructure and because they have every inch of their network covered with the right degree of protection in place.

Part of covering that network requires scanning tools which tell you about vulnerabilities in the data center. Here are a couple of free network scanning tools that could be valuable in your data center.

OpenVas: One of the more sophisticated network scanning tools, this scanner

Data center cooling is one area that has been garnering a lot of attention because of the ever-increasing processing power of these data centers that results in more heat generation. With increase in power and hardware, air-based cooling techniques are struggling to keep data centers cool and enterprises are forced to look for alternatives.

Today, data centers across the planet are turning to liquid-based cooling solutions to keep the mercury under control within the data center infrastructure, so that highly sensitive electronic components do not get damaged due to the excessive heat

Capacity planning, when done correctly and on time, can bring in a great deal of efficiency for a data center. Capacity planning, at its core, is a simple exercise that can introduce clarity in handling data center operations.

There are three simple steps to capacity planning:

Decide on Service Level Agreements (SLAs): Data center managers and customers need to work together to help quantify expectations on the output from the systems. Service level agreements are typically defined in terms of throughput, response time, and workload levels. Number of requests expected per given

In this day and age, Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) is needed for data centers to scale professionally. Tools, standards and best practices are available today so that the internal organization, monitoring and administration of the data center facility becomes easier. All devices are intelligently monitored and controlled by the DCIM system. Using an Ethernet wire solution to tie all of these devices together leads to additional overhead of cabling, cooling, switches and even rack space.

Modern solutions have tested and are now proponents of Wi-Fi technology as an answer to the additional