We all know that recovery planning for disasters is an important task for organizations of all sizes and industries. This can be a time-consuming and complicated process, but many organizations do eventually create a plan that meets their recovery objectives. “Ahh, now we can sleep better at night!” these IT and business leaders tell themselves. The DR plan is put...
Disaster Recovery managed services disaster recovery planningMany IT strategists today are promoting the simplification of IT as a path to better business outcomes. The consensus among them is that complexity can hurt business. Siegel + Gale’s Global Simplicity Index says the world’s top 200 companies lose about 10% of their profits every year due to excess complexity. The SAP whitepaper “Leading Your Organization out of...
Cloud ComputingThe European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) became effective May 25, 2018, and with it came a flurry of privacy policy notification updates from websites, other digital publishers, and more, all of whom are tasked with ensuring that any sensitive user data collected on EU residents – even as a sub-processor – is handled and processed according to...
Security and Compliance Cloud Computing Data Security managed servicesIT strategy is more complex than ever, thanks to all the software as a service (SaaS), cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and multiple platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offerings available today. In the past few years, cloud-first strategies proliferated resulting in hybrid IT environments in which some computing workloads were outsourced and others were not. Reasons for a cloud-first strategy often included...
Cloud Computing Multi-cloudWith a success strategy focused on organic growth, Expedient has expanded from two dozen employees and one data center in 2003 to now comprise nearly 300 employees and 11 data centers in seven cities, all of which offer award-winning infrastructure as a service and managed services. Our President & COO Shawn McGorry talked with the Pittsburgh Business Times about...
Disaster Recovery Cloud Computing Infrastructure as a serviceOff-balance-sheet operating lease financing is used by many companies to manage spend on IT infrastructure. Many companies use this vehicle, also known as an operating lease, to flatten IT infrastructure spend and minimize risk of asset ownership. But the leasing rules are changing. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and International Accounting Standards Board are eliminating off-balance sheet leases for...
Cloud Computing IaaSThe Healthcare Industry’s Requirements for a Cloud Service Provider While data security and availability is imperative for any organization, it is especially true for those in the healthcare industry, whose access to personally identifiable information (PII) such as birth dates and social security numbers requires strong data security measures – and can present security concerns and complexities as these...
Healthcare Security and Compliance Cloud Computing managed servicesOn a recent episode of data center podcast The Hot Aisle, Mark Thiele of Apcera talked about the dangerous belief among some business leaders that IT is created to reduce the cost of IT. Sounds ridiculous, but it happens in so many organizations that this belief deserves more attention. Certainly, a good IT department has a responsibility for efficiency. But if...
managed servicesInformation technology organizations have been pursuing business-IT alignment for as long as businesses have used computers. Wikipedia defines business-IT alignment as: A dynamic state in which a business organization can use information technology to achieve business objectives – typically improved financial performance or marketplace competitiveness. Some definitions focus more on outcomes, like the ability of IT to produce business value,...
Infrastructure as a serviceCelebrating Expedient Day in Pittsburgh! Customers, local dignitaries, and business leaders joined Expedient in Pittsburgh on January 25, 2018 for the public reveal of the Nova Place (formerly Allegheny Center Mall) data center expansion. Hundreds of guests enjoyed tours of the data center and even more joined us for food, drink, and networking with vendor partners – including Cloud...
Disaster Recovery CloudWhen we meet with companies to discuss the value of migrating from traditional on-premises IT to cloud infrastructure, business stakeholders and financial teams are often skeptical. Historically, these stakeholders have viewed the IT budgets and project plans in terms of previous budgets and transactions. When companies previously bought hardware, software and implementation services, the shopping list was simple: Capital...
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