One of my all-time favorite movies is Top Gun. Remember the scene following a training exercise when Maverick tells Goose, “I feel the need…the need for speed.” That line is being lived out today as enterprises focus on the pursuit of the lowest possible network latency. This is coupled with the continual demand and introduction of data rich applications, and especially true when considering colocation or moving to a third party data center.

Market demand for ultra low latency networking is growing rapidly. While traditional applications can tolerate more than 100 milliseconds of one-way packet latency, a growing number of applications such as interactive video conferencing, network gaming, high-performance computing, cloud computing, and any kind of algorithmic trading can be sensitive to much lower latency requirements.

Low latency networks for distributed applications have become a competitive advantage especially in regard to institutions with trading platforms, where the slightest delays in trades impacts profits.  Therefore, great consideration must be taken on the network connectivity between where the applications run and their end user.

With latency becoming more of a significant issue, an increasing number of organizations are choosing to use third party data centers to host their applications.

Why?

An agile data center that understands the business demands of its customers from both a LAN and WAN perspective will have already done its homework and be able to offer access to a significant number of best-in-class low latency carriers.

Telco carriers within colocation data centers must meet strict requirements for bandwidth and most importantly, latency.  This “leg work” alone can save you valuable time in your decision making process and help eliminate much potential heartache in the future.

However, latency requirements alone are not usually enough to justify the decision to move to a third party data center…for most companies. Consider this example to help make justification a little easier.

If you’re business is involved in any kind of trading with a financial impact on your bottom line, then ponder this recent estimate from TABB Group, a financial market research and strategic advisory firm.

If a broker’s electronic trading platform is 5 milliseconds behind the competition, it could lose at least 1% of its flow. That’s $4 million in revenues per millisecond. Up to 10 milliseconds of latency could result in a 10% drop in revenues.

Latency is a business issue. Improving the speed at which your company does business from a data perspective is an operational decision that must be taken seriously.  In some cases, placing your applications in a third party data center for the reason can be justified.

For your enjoyment!

It’s of vital importance to have your company’s data and mission critical systems protected and accessible before, during and after a disruptive event. We have all seen the dollar amounts associated with downtime, but for a number of reasons many organizations continue to adopt the approach “we will be OK.”

According to the 2010 hurricane forecasts, this is not the year to assume you will be OK. We are already seeing activity with Hurricane Alex.

U.S. meteorologists at the National Hurricane Center released the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season forecast calling for a very active season with 18 named storms, including 10 hurricanes. The leading research team for hurricanes based at Colorado State University provided additional support of this forecast by stating of those 10 hurricanes, five were expected to develop into major hurricanes.

Whether you believe the probability of the research or not…the real question is if your organization is ready for a repeat of some of the past events to hit the Texas Gulf Coast?

Have you made the necessary plans to continue operations regardless of the severity of the disaster?

This season is going to be an active one, so make sure you have answered the following questions and backed up those answers with a written plan that has been exercised through real-time DR drills.

Are your assets protected and backed-up?

Be prepared. When an event occurs, you can rest easy knowing your job is not at stake because your company will not be able to access the applications or data it needs to continue operations. Or even worse, that data will be lost or destroyed.

Have you verified the effectiveness of your emergency response?

This takes practice. As a youth sports coach, I tell athletes that practice doesn’t make for perfect play, but rather “perfect practice” makes for perfect play. In the case of youth sports, millions of dollars is not at risk. When it comes to your organization, it is.

Have you mitigated your risks?

Not everyone has the financial resources to guarantee zero downtime, but you can minimize the risks your company is willing to take. One example is the location of your IT infrastructure. The costs are relatively the same to have your IT assets in a data center, a safe distance from the Gulf Coast, versus housing them onsite. Yet many organizations have not mitigated this risk.

Are you ready to continue doing “business as usual” when an event occurs?

Think business continuity, not disaster recovery. In most cases, a disastrous event is not long in duration, but the aftermath and clean-up can take days and even weeks. If prepared, your only concern will be for your own personal belongings and not whether your company can continue to access and use applications, which drive the business.

If you are part of an organization that deemed yourself lucky following events such as Katrina, Rita, Wilma, Ike or Allison, then hopefully you have heeded the warning and are completely prepared for a repeat. Based on this year’s forecast, a repeat seems more likely than ever. With the proper planning you and your organization can be one of the success stories.