Tag: connectivity

Data Center 0 comments on Top 9 Considerations for Selecting Your Data Center

Top 9 Considerations for Selecting Your Data Center

At FIBERTOWN, we believe extraordinary service should be ordinary. You should seek this same level of client commitment when you select your next data center.

Below we’ve highlighted the most important considerations. To see the full-length document about choosing a data center, use this link.

The Most Common Considerations

Location. Your data center should be away from coastlines to avoid major hurricane damage, out of flood plains, and outside of known tornado alleys. It should also have multiple routes to it and be located within driving distance for many employees.

Connectivity. The access you get to multiple telecommunications carriers is a major advantage of contracting with a data center. Therefore, ask critical questions. Is the facility carrier-neutral with diverse points of entry? If you need a high availability (HA) protocol, ask if that is an option. Is a service like Megaport, a platform that allows for a direct connection to cloud providers, available?

Reliability. Learning about reliability, or uptime, is a must. For a data center to ensure uptime, infrastructure for backup power and cooling should be in place. Inquire what a data center’s uptime is and how they accomplish this. (Hint – It should be at least five 9s or 99.999%. We at FIBERTOWN go a step further to provide 100% uptime.)

Service Level Agreement. Well-written SLAs include an assurance about response time, security protocols, bandwidth availability, and more. The SLA should also include what steps the data center will take if it fails to meet the contractual uptime.

The Most Overlooked Considerations

The remaining five considerations are more nuanced. Technology professionals in your company (or you) will guide your search for a location, connectivity, reliability, and a strong SLA. But, the other five components of a great data center relate to the humans who run it.

We can write article after article about redundant systems, circuits, cloud providers, etc., but it’s humans who are at the heart of a data center.

We discuss in more detail these human factors – reputation, on-site staffing, timeliness, workspace accommodations, and the ease of doing business – in more detail here. We’ve included questions to ask and how to gain insight into a data center’s customer relations.

Have Questions? FIBERTOWN Has Answers.

FIBERTOWN is a data center with two locations (Houston and Bryan-College Station, Texas), and we’re proud of the services we provide. The Top 9 Considerations document is a guide for choosing the best data center for your company.

If you have questions about the guide or about FIBERTOWN, we welcome them.
Disaster Recovery   Latest 0 comments on 3 Ways FIBERTOWN Prepares Customers for Possible Blackouts

3 Ways FIBERTOWN Prepares Customers for Possible Blackouts

Due to the scorcher in Texas this summer, people and businesses have faced water and energy restrictions.

Hot temperatures place a strain on the electric grid, and electricity issues, in turn, affect your computer hardware. And when servers are interrupted, business comes to a halt.

In this article, we outline three ways FIBERTOWN helps businesses stay running, even when facing hot temperatures and rolling blackouts.

FIBERTOWN Offers Redundant Power and Cooling

FIBERTOWN is a one-stop shop, a single-source solution. We’re a data center with two locations – Houston and Bryan, Texas. And as a data center, we provide redundant power, cooling, and connectivity. With redundancy, you have a backup plan. And that means your business is not vulnerable when rolling (or unexpected!) blackouts occur.

In July 2022, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (or ERCOT) issued warnings of rolling blackouts expected for many Texans. The power grid was under strain. To prevent rolling blackouts from being necessary, though, the Council first asked citizens to not use large appliances between 2:00 and 9:00 pm and to adjust thermostats to 78 degrees on specified days.

Fortunately, these preventive measures conserved enough energy to make the rolling blackouts unnecessary (for now). But an important question remains –  How would a rolling or unexpected blackout affect your business?

At FIBERTOWN, both data centers are equipped with a concurrently maintainable cooling configuration so the cooling system is always available. As for power, we have concurrently maintainable, redundant power as well, plus generators onsite.

While others are stressed about possible power outages, our customers are not.

Disaster Recovery Means Preparedness for You 

We’re not just a data center. We’re a “disaster recovery and business continuity office space.”

At FIBERTOWN, we provide 100% uptime for business-critical systems, and that means fewer effects on your business in case of a disaster. And whether power outages are planned or are a result of disasters, our disaster recovery (DR) clients have access to a range of options. We can be your primary and secondary site, only secondary site, hot or tape backup and highly available (HA) failover. Plus, we have office space ready for your team to work if your location is without electricity.

Staying Connected

Another major concern with blackouts is network connectivity. Relying on only one provider to keep you connected may result in you being down during maintenance or an outage. FIBERTOWN offers our blended bandwidth.

This way, no matter what’s occurring with one or two carriers, you’re still connected. Furthermore, our multiple carriers enter our building via numerous points of entry. It’s redundancy on top of redundancy. And that’s the FIBERTOWN way.

FIBERTOWN Can Help

We want you cool-headed during blackouts and/or disasters. With our redundant systems, we ensure power, cooling, and connectivity for our clients. And this means business as usual for you…no matter the temperatures outside.

We’d love to tell you more about our services at FIBERTOWN. Complete this form to start the conversation.