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.