What is the price of data? Calculate your business’s monthly cloud costs. A large aspect of planning a cloud deployment is calculating your monthly costs. There are numerous ways to minimize expenses with upfront planning and diligent research. Below are some simple steps to follow. Consider the total cost of ownership (TCO) of your organization’s applications. Conduct a...
Cloud Adoption’s Top Concern: Business Continuity Organizations are increasingly citing business continuity as a primary driver for cloud adoption. With the growing use of commercial SaaS apps taking place at these companies, homegrown cloud-based solutions and mixed/hybrid cloud IT infrastructures as well as cloud-based solutions have become an effective way for IT departments to deliver scalable, highly available services...
Outsourcing Your DR is a Money-Saver Are you looking to save costs in your IT budget? Then outsourcing your disaster recovery may be a good option for you, according to an article on datacenterjournal.com. Computer Economics recently released its “IT Outsourcing Statistics 2015/2016” study, which found that the outsourcing of disaster recovery ranks the highest for successfully lowering...
The public cloud is available to anyone, any company, anywhere. It allows data storage, compute and applicable services to be available based only on what you need or use, which is an attractive benefit. But how do you truly know if public cloud platform is the right option for your company? The public cloud may be right for you...
Choosing a Data Center Location When choosing to build a new data center, there are a multitude of factors that should be considered in the decision-making process. Establishing a fully redundant and secure data center requires a significant capital investment as well as a commitment to ongoing operational expenses for support, and maintenance. However, a key step in...
The adoption of the public cloud continues to increase. More and more companies in various industries are incorporating a public cloud strategy into their long-term IT plan. The shear amount of data being accumulated and stored makes public cloud computing the best option for most companies. According to an article on thewhir.com, “[more than] 90 percent of the world’s...
Migration Services Undergoing a migration to a new data center or a colocation provider for the first time is a daunting task. It is time-consuming and takes impeccable planning down to the smallest detail. So how do you go about establishing a strategy that will allow a smooth transition of your hardware and IT environment? Prepare, Prepare, Prepare...
Public Cloud Security When deciding between a public, private or hybrid cloud offering, companies often consider the security risks involved. The name alone can make some people think the public cloud is not nearly as secure as a hybrid or private offering but is that really true or is the public cloud secure enough for your company’s data? The simple answer...
Budgeting for Cloud Services The trend to migrate to cloud computing continues to grow. Most likely, your company is somewhere in the midst of its migration plan or about to begin one. Budget for cloud computing costs now as your enterprise continues to migrate its IT infrastructure to a solely cloud-based platform. A Goldman Sachs study published in January estimates...
Fight Cyber Crime with Business Continuity A strong business continuity plan can help prevent or reduce the risk of a cyber-attack. Seventy-two percent of small and mid-sized business survey respondents said they expect to increase their investments in business continuity over the next 12 to 24 months to prevent cyber-attacks, according to an article on TalkingCloud.com. (The survey included...
Six Questions to Ask A Prospective Colocation Provider Once you have determined that colocation is the right strategy for your business, choosing the best qualified provider is the necessary next step. While this may seem like a daunting task, conducting preliminary due diligence and knowing what questions to ask during the vetting process will help establish a framework for...
What do Data Breaches Really Cost? When sensitive or confidential data is lost or stolen and subsequently put at risk, then a data breach has occurred. The consequences are severe to your company’s reputation and bottom line. In 2014, it seemed like every few weeks there was another company that had its network hacked leaving personal information and their...
SaaS Cloud Computing With more and more companies transitioning more and more data and mission-critical applications to the cloud, the adoption of software as a service is becoming a dominant force in the future of data centers. According to a 2014 survey by North Bridge Venture Partners, in conjunction with Gigaom Research, the adoption of SaaS among its respondents...
Managing storage is becoming increasingly more difficult as the amount of data is exploding with the Internet of Things and as that data becomes more critical. Many companies are finding that they need to transition to the cloud or virtualized storage, and the rate of adoption is rapidly growing. The “Managing Storage: Trends, Challenges and Options (2013-2014)” report by EMC,...
Will the IoT Mean More Data Centers? The Internet of Things (IoT) is exploding! An estimated 35 billion devices serving 7 billion people will be connected to the Internet by 2020. That means a significant amount of data will be transferred, downloaded, uploaded, etc., every second of every day. Keeping with this workload will be a primary focus for...
Many businesses colocating or using cloud storage still depend on their internal staff to manage their own systems. IT infrastructure must be managed, but at what cost to your business? Imagine the list of projects your staff could complete if it weren’t for the day-to-day, mundane requirements of internal systems management. In the midst of focusing on running your business,...
Data Center Efficiency Going green continues to grow in popularity as many companies and industries look to adopt “green,” eco-friendly policies in the workplace. The data center industry is no different. Colocation providers will need to modernize and become more energy efficient as requirements, and expectations for green facilities continue to grow. Data centers are one of the fastest-growing...
What Does the Future Look Like for Colocation? The future looks bright when it comes to data center colocation. The annual revenue for the global colocation market is expected to continue its upward trajectory but the key will lie in local markets as competition heats up. According to a recent report by 451 Research, the global colocation data center...
“The most important part of working in the Operations Support Center is giving people the best possible customer service while quickly and efficiently solving problems.” -Sam Larkin, Expedient Engineer, Operations Support Center Every hosting provider should guarantee around-the-clock support and customer service through the management and monitoring of infrastructure and cloud services, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,...
Expedient is excited to announce that the Grand Opening of the Memphis data center is slated for July 2015. The addition of the Memphis data center provides our customers the ability to leverage another geographically diverse location. Expedient now operates 10, soon to be 11 data centers in Baltimore (2), Boston, Cleveland (3), Pittsburgh (2), Columbus, Indianapolis and Memphis all...
In response to customer demand, Expedient is now offering a new archival cloud storage service: Evermore. Many businesses have large warehouses of data not regularly accessed, containing information that may need to be reviewed in the future. Rather than spending the valuable time of your employees sifting through data now, Evermore can be used as a low-cost archival storage plan...
Data Center Checklist 100% uptime, security/safety, 24x7x365 support and a Tier IV Data Center rating; sound familiar? It probably does, since this is the type of marketing lingo most data center providers use to attract customers. These assertions are important; however, beyond technical support and physical security, how can you be sure your data center provider has all of...
The Ideal Cloud Architect A cloud architect is a computer science professional that helps a company strategize the best ways to use cloud computing platforms efficiently and securely. Cloud architects don’t actually construct the cloud computing environment - rather they come into an existing cloud platform to help a company leverage its effectiveness in the best ways and maximize efficiencies...
Enhancing Data Center Security Standards When looking at the recent news surrounding technology vulnerabilities, you’ll notice the headlines are mired with announcements ranging from intrusions, to data breaches as well as an increase in cyber-crime-related incidents. The future of IT is extremely promising but it is also rife with hazards and the increasing threat of fraud and crime. To...
What Are the Differences Between Backups and Disaster Recovery? Disaster recovery planning is an integral part of any business’s IT strategy, and is becoming more prevalent as security breaches and network outages have become common threats, and the cost of downtime has steadily increased. In the beginning stages of disaster recovery planning, decision makers are often mistaken...
New Slim-Line 2.0 Cages = Great Space and Cost Savings Opting for a secure, private cage in a data center environment demands a lot of space on the data center floor, making it expensive for the customer and taking away valuable floor space that can no longer be used by other customers. Traditional cages don’t make optimal use of...
Data Center Security Those seeking a dedicated cage environment with a hosting provider are sometimes under the false impression that caged floor space is more secure than other physical options. A common perception is that a dedicated cage environment provides an unparalleled level of security as well as the ability to meet auditing requirements; both viewpoints are not necessarily...
Data Center Cost Considerations Cloud computing is an important part of many business infrastructures, whether it’s a few SaaS applications or a full-blown infrastructure. The company CIO may be pushing cloud initiatives hard, but before you reach the implementation phase, there are several cloud budget questions you need to address. 1. Would a Single Vendor Infrastructure Reduce Costs?...
Big Data & the Internet of Things’ Effect on Data Centers Smartphones, laptops, social networking, texting, emails, business, personal – regardless of the medium or setting, there is one common denominator that drives us to be reliant on these tools…data.. This is the reality of the age that we live in. Consequently, as our lives revolve around data, the...
How to Evaluate IT Performance the Right Way Socrates is known for saying that the unexamined life is not worth living. Today he’d likely say that the unexamined IT network is not worth maintaining. For companies considering a move to the cloud, it’s important to evaluate your company’s IT infrastructure to ensure your cloud provider’s services will meet your...
How Do Cloud Providers Decide How Much to Charge? You’ve answered all of your executives’ questions related to “why use cloud computing.” Now, they’re asking whether it’s more cost-effective to go with an Infrastructure as a Service provider (IaaS) than to build your own cloud computing platform. When you ask an IaaS cloud provider for a price quote,...
Data Disasters: Are You Ready? Few businesses that experience a service impacting disaster will escape unscathed. Such disasters may result in a loss of power to their IT environment, interruption to their network or hardware failure, which all may result in the loss of critical data as well as downtime or unavailability of key applications and IT environments. The...
Demand Drivers for a Cloud-based Data Center Managing a data center is a constant race to keep pace with various elements including, new technology, new security issues, requirements of new applications, power and cooling systems, ensure there is enough infrastructure to support the data that comes with a growing business. It’s also a constant race to maintain or minimize...
Internal Network Performance: Expedient Delivers Speed and Integrity Choosing the right cloud provider is a critical business decision that requires thoughtful and deliberate research. You want a provider that will not only monitor its virtual machine network continually, but also deliver consistent high-level performance. A recent Cloud Spectator study provides insights on the virtual machines (VMs) offered by...
Cloud-based Persistent Storage That Outperforms Top Brands Each day IT departments deal with both expected and unexpected responsibilities, ranging from typical storage monitoring duties to troubleshooting storage server problems. Eliminating some of these tasks to focus on more business-centric projects would be welcome to most IT engineers and administrators. The cloud makes that possible. For businesses interested in offloading...
Disaster Recovery: The Technology & Strategy You Trust You’ve most likely heard the adage; it’s not a matter of if IT systems will fail–but when. So even if you are confident that your organization is equipped to handle failure, or perhaps has even recovered successfully from an outage in the past, having the right recovery strategy in place is...
Preparing for Disasters: How to Create a Comprehensive Business Continuity Plan The creation and implementation of a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) can be a complex undertaking; however, it doesn’t need to be. The necessary steps, which may seem overwhelming, are easily broken down into a basic process that’s applicable to any industry. Not having a DRP or worse, not...
Maximizing vCPU Performance: When More Isn’t Automatically Better No matter what you’re purchasing, you want to get the highest return on your dollar. In a recent study, Cloud Spectator evaluated the virtual machines (VMs) being offered by several public cloud providers. The study focused primarily on how well the VMs performed in relation to their price tag, known...
Accessing Expedient Data Center’s newest Cleveland location is a little like entering an exclusive nightclub. Inside an unmarked building, a stalwart doorkeeper buzzes authorized visitors with valid ID through two sets of doors. The premises are constantly monitored with 32 closed-circuit cameras. Such measures are all for the sake of security, which is what the data center business is all...
If you haven’t heard, Expedient completed and went live with their third and newest Cleveland data center facility, adding 13,000 square feet of space. The new available capacity will accommodate the increased demand for cloud services and related managed hosting products as well as colocation services. With the new data center facility comes the opportunity for new relationships and the...
