Tony Froelich | FIBERTOWN BLOG

5 Top Reasons to Use On-Site Service from Data Centers

At FIBERTOWN, we offer our colocation clients an on-site service we call our “hands and eyes” support.

Clients often utilize this service during natural disasters, like Hurricane Harvey and Winter Storm Uri, but we also offered significant support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here are the top 5 reasons our customers continue to ask for on-site service from our 24/7 tech staff.

Reason #1: Better use of time and budgeting

If your business is located in Texas, you may have come on-site to one of our data centers to set up your IT equipment or move it from your previous environment.

But when you have something like a hardware reboot — the simple turning off and on of hardware to reset the equipment and get it back online — is it really your best use of time to drive or fly to our data center to do it yourself?

The best business acumen will say budgeting for that short trip doesn’t make fiscal sense. It’s better to utilize the expert on-site FIBERTOWN staff to handle the in-person fixes.

You can also ship your hard drives or devices to FIBERTOWN data centers, and we can install them for you. Save your tech the trip.

Reason #2: We take care of the repetitive tasks

In an IT environment, small changes that need to happen for hardware aren’t always difficult — but they are necessary.

For example, tasks like labeling or racking devices — placing devices into cabinets, plugging in power and connective cords are important. They must be done correctly and accurately, but not necessarily by your own personal techs.

These are great tasks to hand off to our hands and eyes team.

Reason #3: Cheaper than sending IT staff to fix

Troubleshooting is always going to be part of the IT daily tasks.

Whether it’s a new configuration or devices, testing and fixing are just part of the business process.

If you need someone to console or plug into devices, discover what errors the device is showing, and work with your team on fixes — we have the skilled staff to handle it.

Instead of sending your own team, or hiring a third party, you can rely on the 24/7/365 staff that knows the ins and outs of our data center environment and can get you back on track quickly.

It’s a simple way to save money on your bottom line.

Reason #4: Convenience

When you’re in the middle of the workday, canceling meetings and interrupting the flow of your day to make your way to your data center is a hassle.

Convenience is key.

You can rely on the FIBERTOWN staff to help you with those on-site swaps that need to happen for your IT department.

We can help swap bad memory or hard drives to avoid excessive downtime.

Or, we’re able to reterminate or relocate cabling. Direct our staff to swap out bad cables or move cables to different ports or different devices, and we’ll get it done for you quickly.

Reason #5: Gives your staff time to focus on higher-level tasks

Being able to see the long-term vision for your IT staff is vitally important.

Every team has concurrent projects that have solid deadlines.

Giving your staff the time they need to focus on those higher-level tasks keeps projects on time and staff on point.

For customers who have a lot of data storage needs, we can handle tape rotations, store tapes on-site, or pack up tapes to ship to off-site storage.

Prepared for the upcoming hurricane season

At FIBERTOWN, we help companies address two key factors: maintaining the availability of your critical technical systems and work area recovery space.

Customers look to FIBERTOWN and our team of disaster recovery experts to maintain 100% up-time.

Our hands and eyes service is just one way we continue to help our clients when they need it most.

Call us today, and gain peace of mind knowing you can handle any disaster that comes your way.

Hurricane Season is Coming…Are You Ready?

No one likes to think about hurricane destruction. But it’s a real consideration in the Texas Upper Gulf Coast region. As we say, “Plan now. Be ready later.”

Our disaster recovery center allows you to do just that! FIBERTOWN is more than a data center. We help companies prepare their employees and equipment before disaster strikes.

Hurricane season officially begins June 1^st in Texas. Are you prepared?

FIBERTOWN’s Disaster Recovery Center

What does it mean to be a data center and a disaster recovery (DR) center? As a data center, we provide redundant power and cooling for hardware and blended bandwidth with multiple entries into the facility. And we maintain a 100% uptime SLA on it all!

As a DR center, we take things even a step further. FIBERTOWN becomes your hub if your infrastructure is affected by disaster. Below are common questions (with answers!) to highlight some of the ways we serve when a crisis occurs.

People and Work

>> What happens when my remote workers lose power/internet at home? Where do they go?

If you’re a DR center client, your team, whether they’re on-premises or remote employees, have a place to work at our business continuity offices.

>> But do we share space with others on a first come, first served basis?

No, FIBERTOWN dedicates a space for your business, and it’s always ready for your team to work there. In this article about our dedicated work space, we give multiple reasons why your company should consider adding office space to your DR plan. In a nutshell, we’re not a co-working space, and our workspace is backed up just like our data center! Our infrastructure is designed to withstand disaster.

>> What kind of customer service do you provide during times of crisis?

We’re staffed with a knowledgeable team 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. As an example of our service, during Winter Storm Uri, the team from Centennial Arts, a website development firm, reached out in desperation as they’d lost power to their facility. They provide hosting services and wanted to mitigate any downtime for their clients. Within 24 hours of contacting us, our professional staff had them with up and running! Read more here.

>> Also, what about my family?

We maintain a list of nearby hotels and are here to make everything as easy as possible. Plus, there is a Subway on our block that’s backed up by our generator!

>> What if roads are closed due to downed lines and trees?

We chose locations for our data centers in Houston and Bryan-College Station because they can be accessed multiple ways. Route diversity is critical when selecting a data center and DR center.

Backup Power and Connectivity

>>We already have a backup generator. Why do we need yours?

Here’s the follow-up question we often ask in this situation – When did you last run your backup generator or conduct scheduled maintenance? Because our clients rely on a 100% uptime SLA, our backup generators are not an afterthought. We test ours regularly and perform routine maintenance. Read more here about our other preventative maintenance measures.

>>What about power, cooling, and connectivity backups?

Remember, our success as a data center is contingent on our ability to have power, cooling, and network connectivity when others don’t. We have backups to our backups! It’s worth repeating – We’re not a co-working space. We’re a data center with a DR center available to clients. Our buildings and the infrastructure within them were designed to withstand disasters.

FIBERTOWN is Ready for Hurricane Season

As you consider worst-case scenarios for your business, also consider a call with us. While we’re an optimistic company (been around for more than 25 years – lots to be happy about!), we believe in preparation.

With hurricane season approaching, we encourage you to ask yourself the questions above, plus the ones here. All are important to consider so your business and team keep moving forward, even when disaster strikes.

If you have more questions or don’t know how to start a DR plan, reach out. We can help! Contact us here.

Data Center Latest 0

FIBERTOWN’s Blended Bandwidth

A critical element for any business is network connectivity. In fact, a past Gartner study found that it costs businesses on average $5,600 per minute of downtime. Of course, this is an average, and the exact number fluctuates by industry and size of the business. Even with those considerations, the message is clear – lost connectivity is expensive! By using blended bandwidth inside our data centers, we ensure you have multiple sources of internet at all times, giving you peace of mind and cost-effective internet.

How Our Blended Bandwidth Works

At FIBERTOWN, we peer with the best internet service providers (ISPs) in the Houston and Bryan, Texas areas. By combining these ISPs in a single contract, we’re able to offer our data center and colocation customers reliable, fast connectivity.

Our blended bandwidth always comes from at least 3 providers, guaranteeing redundancy. If one service provider goes down, others are available as an immediate path for your data.

And our Forward-Looking Glass always allows your information to find and use the fastest path.

As an example of speed, our redundant, path-diverse points to point between our Bryan and Houston data centers average 2.3 milliseconds. (That’s fast!)

Benefits of FIBERTOWN’s Blended Bandwidth

Besides speed, there are other benefits to this service for our customers.

Resiliency. Unlike most carriers who build only one entrance for internet into their facilities, FIBERTOWN’s data centers have at least 2 fiber entries. And that means increasing resiliency. For example, if a utility crew accidentally cuts the fiber on one end of our building, you still have an internet connection because the other fiber entrance is not affected.

100% uptime. Due to the multiple carriers and multiple fiber entrances, we maintain 100% uptime SLA. The reality is that ISPs go down often and for a host of reasons – maintenance, card failures, weather, road construction, power outages, or a random guy with a shovel or backhoe cuts fiber.

By FIBERTOWN using multiple ISPs, you don’t go down when one ISP goes down. The very nature of our blended bandwidth keeps you connected.

Circuit installation speed. Most ISPs take 30 days or more to get a connection to a customer. They must configure it, plan capacity, and physically run the cable. With FIBERTOWN, though, we can have you connected in 2 weeks or less. (Sometimes, we can even do it the same day!)

Temporary bandwidth. Due to our connectivity infrastructure already being in place, we also can offer temporary bandwidth. We can configure and install up to a 10Gbps circuit quickly, even if you need it for only a few months.

Secondary or backup circuit. The reality is – If you’re a data center customer, you’re already preparing for the worst. You refuse to let power failures, winter storms, or hurricanes catch you unprepared! That’s why we encourage data center customers to consider FIBERTOWN’s blended bandwidth for its primary or secondary circuit. It’s the best way to plan for the worst.

But, We Don’t Only Offer Blended Bandwidth…

We strive to be a one-stop solution for our customers. Because we have strong, long-standing relationships with other technology providers, we often can assist with other needs.

If you’re having difficulty connecting to another data center or to the cloud of your choice, we can help!

Worried about cybersecurity? We’re only a phone call away.

Are you in need of new hardware? Talk with us.

Want help with monitoring your internet connectivity outside of our data centers? We offer monitoring services and would be glad to assist you. (Our NOCs are staffed by experts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.)

We’re proud of our blended bandwidth capabilities, but we’ve worked hard to be helpful in other ways too.

FIBERTOWN is Ready with Blended Bandwidth

To summarize, blended bandwidth is a must when your business relies on internet connectivity (which is most organizations these days!). With our blended bandwidth, we’ve peered with multiple ISPs to offer you a redundant, reliable, and fast way to move data. By “blending” ISPs, we’re able to reduce costs for you too. In other words, you save money because we’ve negotiated with the individual providers.

If you have questions or want to learn more about our blended bandwidth (or other services mentioned in this article), use this form to contact us.

Data Center Service Updates 0

Hands and Eyes Support Services – Remote Data Center Management for Your Company

At FIBERTOWN, we try hard to listen to customers’ comments so we can better tailor our services to their needs. A remark we hear often from companies is how helpful Hands and Eyes Support is to their IT departments.

Our customers rest a lot easier knowing we’re ready to help if they need us!

In this article, we describe our Hands and Eyes Support services. If you’re hunting for the right data center and colocation site, this article will help your search.

(We also suggest this checklist as a guide or read more about it here. Furthermore, we’ve been at this business for over 25 years. We’re well versed in the latest technology but believe personal service is the most critical component and should never waiver, no matter the newest trends.)

Each FIBERTOWN Data Center Customer Gets…

First off, every FIBERTOWN data center customer, just for being a client of ours, receives – delivery receipt/package handoff, report preparation (power usage, network, etc.), secure access coordination, security camera review, and power troubleshooting.

Also, every customer gets a human response within 15 minutes or less when there is an issue. This makes us very different from most data centers! That’s because we staff our network operation centers (NOCs) with professionals 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And if we can fix the problem in under 15 minutes, there’s no additional charge. (Almost all requests are completed within this time frame so you don’t have to make a trip to the data center!)

Components of FIBERTOWN’s Hands and Eyes Support Services

Our Hands and Eyes Support option takes our already great service and elevates it to the next level.

We gave this service its name because the personnel in our 24-hour, 7-days-a-week NOCs become the “hands and eyes” for your IT department. In other words, you remotely manage your equipment in our data center using our knowledgeable personnel.

And, boy, is this support helpful! It includes everything listed below plus much more.

Server reboot
Device component replacement
Tape rotation
Visual inspection
DNS changes
Hardware installation or removal
Vendor escort
“Call me from my rack” requests
Crash cart support

How Does FIBERTOWN Hands and Eyes Support Work?

To take advantage of our Hands and Eyes Support, simply notify us that you’re ready for this premium level of service. Our number is 979.393.9100, and our email is info@fibertown.com. From there, we’ll schedule a call to discuss more details – pricing, the number of hours needed by your company, etc.

And if you decide that Hands and Eyes Support is not for your company at this time, don’t worry. Every service listed above is available to each of our clients by billable hours.

Our goal is always to give customers peace of mind. Our Hands and Eyes Support is just one more way we can do this.

Author: Tony Froelich