Professional DCs much needed

Professional DCs much needed

Vishnu K. Mahmud, Contributor, Jakarta

A friend of mine told me the story of a certain company that
hosted its own web, intranet and e-mail server as well as an
international corporate database. It had a TV cable connection,
with all the appropriate hardware wired up, ready for its clients
and partners to access the newly christened network.

Then came the rising Jakarta floodwaters.

The power to the building went out, thus deactivating the
servers, the cable connection was down and none of the IT staff
could get to the office to handle the crisis.

In the meanwhile, their partners could not access the
database, client's e-mail to the company bounced back, and some
of the data was lost or corrupted. And the backup tapes were only
for the previous month.

Needless to say, this was an IT professional's nightmare.
Although the technology exists for companies and organizations to
host their own intranet/Internet servers, Murphy's law (anything
that can go wrong, will go wrong) prompts Chief Information
Officers to consider other alternatives for managing mission-
critical hardware and software.

To host your own company IT infrastructure (including e-mail,
intranet or database hardware), you would, at the very least,
require state-of-the-art servers (for clients to access your
content), emergency power generators (if the electricity goes
out), multiple Internet connections (if one Internet Service
Provider (ISP) goes down), adequate firewall protection (to keep
out those pesky Internet hackers) and 24-hour support (if
anything else goes wrong).

This is where professional data centers (DCs) come in. Not
only do they host your servers and Internet connections, they can
also provide 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week support for power,
connectivity, security and network administration. The best data
centers can offer uptime guarantees as close to the highly
regarded "five nines", or 99.999 percent, as possible.

Data centers were once thought of as hosting hubs for Internet
sites, such as portals, e-commerce shops and home pages. With
their invested infrastructure, DC's can also manage a complete
company network. With organizations outsourcing their Information
Technology departments, Data Centers are the ideal partner to
professionally maintain the servers and networks for a national
conglomerate spread across the archipelago.

Need more information about Data Centers? First, find out what
type you require, with the best being the "Carrier Class", which
meet the highest service standards currently available.

What kind of emergency management does the DC have for power
and security controls? Do the environmental controls conform to
global standards for humidity monitoring or is it simply a split
air-conditioner? What kind of fire management systems does it
have, is it hardware-friendly or only water (for putting out
fires)?

What kind of Internet bandwidth can it provide? How many
redundant national and international connections does it have to
ensure network uptime? What kind of managed and professional
network services does it have to help the company effectively
achieve its IT goals? What kind of backup technology and disaster
recovery management does it possess?

These are just a few of the questions vital to professionally
maintain Internet and corporate servers. By following
international criteria for data centers, client corporations can
be assured of maximum uptime through a combination of facilities,
connectivity and value-added services. By entrusting their
servers and networks to professional data centers, businesses can
concentrate on reaching their corporate goals without worrying
about IT infrastructure.

Each Data Center can offer a customized Service Level
Agreement (SLA) to suit any organization's needs. From simple
hosting of corporate Internet sites to full-scale national
networks, the Data Center provides assurances when dealing with
complex information technology.

There are many data centers in Indonesia, with BizNet, Global
Hostnet and InternetIndo as a few examples. ISPs may also host
websites and corporate networks with their own internal data
centers, even though their primary business is to provide Web
connections to users and corporations.

Many people consider data centers a high cost for running a
corporate network. I would disagree. If you need mission-critical
services, with a guaranteed national and international
connection, a data center should be considered. The fees should
not be considered as a "cost" but as an investment, since the
professional services and facilities of DCs are highly treasured.

Any corporation that shares data with offices or departments
outside their immediate premises should consider data centers for
data hosting, disaster recovery, security management, server
uptime supervision and peace of mind

This investment is worth its weight in gold, should another
natural disaster strike the power and Internet infrastructure of
Jakarta. It would also give your IT Manager something less to
worry about.