We think you’ll agree that business technology is expensive. Protecting the investment you made on your technology assets by continuously keeping software up to date, and staying on top of routine maintenance will make sure the best possible life span for your technology. Murphy’s law will no doubt try to upset your carefully crafted plans, therefore make sure to include these considerations to help you keep your data and infrastructure as protected as possible.
Data Center Environment
Data centers are the most important part of your business network. Because of the large amounts of information stored in a data center, these business nerve centers are the front line for protecting technology investments. A good data center environment includes the following:
- Disaster Resistant Construction – Earthquake, flood, fire, tornado, hurricane, mold; these and other natural disasters can destroy IT infrastructure as easily as any other infrastructure. If at all possible, locate data centers in regions where there is minimal risk from natural disasters, and make sure that the construction of data centers exceeds your area’s possible disasters including precautions such as fire protection and security systems system that are tested regularly.
- Temperature/Humidity Control – Data centers should be between 65 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit with constant airflow and ventilation. Humidity can make your servers work harder than necessary as well which is why relative humidity should never reach more than 60%.
- Static Electricity Monitoring – It takes less than 25 volts of discharge to fry the components within your IT equipment. Having a static electricity monitoring system in place will protect your investments from this silent but deadly technology destroyer.
- Carrier Diversity – Although many businesses build relationships with one telecommunications carrier, this is a risky proposition for a data center. Great data centers connect to multiple carriers to reduce and cut downtime due to carrier problems.
- Integrated Power Solutions – From green power to backup power supplies, a proper data center power solution is designed to have minimum impact on your bottom line and on the environment while providing reliable service in all power situations.
Backup Power Supply
Data centers and other essential networking infrastructure must have their own backup power supply. For businesses that market internationally, nationally or even regionally, the costs of power-caused service and data interruptions are large. In today’s 24/7 access environment, customers expect access at all times, even if your company’s power is down. From batteries to backup generators, properly planned power back-ups are essential for technology protection.
Redundancy
Carrier diversity, RAID level servers, multiple data storage locations…redundancy is necessary to make sure that your business is minimally affected by disasters. Regular offsite or cloud backups prevent the risk of on-site events causing data loss. Redundancy in RAID servers (RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks) prevents the irreparable loss of data due to a hard drive crash. Redundancy in network carriers prevents a temporary loss of data accessibility and a customer service nightmare.
Cloud Backups
As large companies (think Google, Amazon, and Microsoft) have increased their data center capacity, they offer their own systems for data storage, with their full security, power backups, redundancy, and carrier diversity. This is the nature of the cloud, and companies who want to build safe data systems would be wise to use the cloud for creating backups: this prevents risk from all non-apocalyptic events.
Power
Provisions made towards technology protection should also include the prevention of damaging power surges by deploying one Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) per workstation. While many businesses can survive if each workstation is shut down for a day or so because of power shortages, a power surge can fry hard drives and ruin days or weeks of work, depending upon your business’s backup systems.
Data Security
Security includes both physical and cybersecurity. From vandalism to hacking, both network and data security must be addressed as well to protect against damage to your business IT systems. A great security system uses the best processes, firewalls, and encryption technology to protect your data. Each of these areas of technology requires careful consideration, systemic management, and the right infrastructure. For more information on IT investments, their security, and protection, please contact us today and continue reading our blog.
