data storage | 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.

Recent Tornadoes are a Reminder for Disaster Preparedness

Was your business ready? Was your data protected? Did service continue as usual? On March 21, 2022, tornadoes and high winds wreaked havoc on towns around Austin, Texas.

These swirling winds produced the now-viral video of a teenager driving a red Chevrolet truck spinning on its side and then, milliseconds later, righting the vehicle. After several terrifying moments, the lucky teenager was able to drive away as the tornado crossed the highway and continued its destructive path.

Protecting human life is the most important goal on days like March 21. But, protecting your business’s data and critical IT infrastructure in a wind-resistant data center keeps you off the road so you don’t become the person in the truck.

At FIBERTOWN, we specialize in disaster preparedness for businesses and plan ahead to give you peace of mind.

FIBERTOWN Withstands High Winds

Our two data centers – Bryan, Texas, and Houston, Texas – are made of steel-reinforced concrete and can withstand winds over 100 MPH. They are located away from the Texas coast to lessen the possibility of hurricane damage and outside “tornado alley” but near multiple highways to allow greater accessibility during an event.

Ready with a Power Supply

At FIBERTOWN, we give customers backup generators onsite and an uninterrupted power supply. Our backup generators are encased and protected from the elements. Plus, we offer secure connections for roll-up generators.

Our data centers have fuel onsite to run at max load for 24 hours and are a FEMA-rated fuel supplier, meaning we will get fuel before others to keep the power on. With these features, businesses are able to continue serving their customers, even when tornadoes or other disasters cause power outages to surrounding areas.

Servers Stay Cool During Disasters

One of the main jobs of a data center like ours is to protect computer servers. Because of all the data they hold, their protection is critical! We have N+1 or greater cooling redundancy in our facilities and house servers in a hot/cold aisle design. Our chillers are also connected to our generators, so they keep cooling your gear through an emergency event.

Capacity for UPS

An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is an essential element to data protection for your business. If utility power is cut, you need power while the generator starts. By using a dedicated battery to protect hardware from power outages and spikes, you can prevent downtime and data loss. This is always important, but disasters like tornadoes place even more significance on a UPS. Fibertown’s UPS is constantly monitored and maintained with monthly load tests and a preventative maintenance schedule that exceeds OEM specs.

Why FIBERTOWN?

As a FIBERTOWN client, you have access to data centers, disaster recovery services, and dedicated business continuity office spaces. FIBERTOWN offers a “calm” before, during, and after the storm.

Our concurrent and redundant data centers ensure 100% uptime for cooling, power, and security. This means you can continue to communicate with customers and employees while business moves forward.

In Texas, tornadoes are a reality. Preparedness is key. Partner with FIBERTOWN; we’re experts in disaster preparedness.

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4 Key Facility Areas to Prepare for Winter Weather

As January winds down, cold spells continue to march across the country.

It begs the question: Are you prepared for the late arrival of winter?

Winter weather has now arrived in full force around the Gulf Coast and Southeastern US, and some are having flashbacks to Winter Storm Uri and the subsequent freezes.

Is your facility prepared for any winter weather that comes your way?

Here are our top four concerns to be prepared for as winter rolls on.

Be prepared for whatever winter brings

While there’s no guarantees with weather — it’s best to be prepared for anything. If you haven’t already, check on these important areas of concern.

The potential for severe weather as cold fronts move through. Are you prepared for severe weather to impact your power supply? What emergency plans does your facility have in place today? Make sure you’ve removed debris and secured any stored material in preparation for high winds.
Back-up generator maintenance. Are your battery and charging systems ready for a 30-degree temperature swing overnight? Do you have block heaters operational to keep engines ready to start during cold weather? Are your coolant systems at appropriate mixture/levels to survive a hard freeze?
Cooling and HVAC systems. Are your chillers and chilled water systems insulated and freeze protected? Make sure your humidifiers are operational and prepared to add humidity. The goal here is to prevent static electricity from low relative humidity as cold, dry air dominates. What about your rooftop systems and drain/plumbing; are they freeze protected?
Uninterruptible power supplies (UPS). Are your UPS well maintained and ready to support a critical load? For example; during an unplanned utility outage or generator issue?

Plan for the worst

We get it — investing money in “precautions” and planning for the “what-ifs” sounds like a lot of dollar signs on the chance of a possibility.

But, trust us, you do not want to be on the other end, wishing that you had been prepared.

Did you know the average cost of downtime can be up to $11,600 per minute? That can really add up quickly.

In winter weather, temperatures can go from 80 degrees to 30 degrees in less than 12 hours.

At FIBERTOWN, you can be sure that we are always prepared for the worst. Our customers depend on it.

Do you have a backup plan?

Putting your emergency plans down on paper ensures that everything goes smoothly when you need to activate it. And make sure everyone has access to the plans — in an offline environment.

Year-long diligence with preventative maintenance will help prevent failures when unplanned outages occur.

For you and your employees – prevent a bad day from getting worse! If your company is working from home, what is the plan if the internet goes out?

FIBERTOWN is prepared with disaster recovery office space should you need it. Contact us today to chat about specs and your needs. We’re here to help!

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How Does Your Data Center Stack Up?

Choosing a colocation provider is all about reducing risk.

Clients want to reduce the risk of a power failure, data loss or interruption in service.

When customers are looking at a facility to consider for colocation, it’s important to do a deep dive.

Redundancy in power, cooling, and networking is vital, but what about the facility’s operations?

Do you know the future goals and plans of your colocation provider?

FIBERTOWN’s company direction and goals

Here at FIBERTOWN, we have been a stable and reliable Texas-based data center operating since 1997. We’ve been here for 25 years, and we plan on being here for another 25.

We’re proud of being Texas-owned and operated, and we love helping other Texans achieve their business goals.

You can depend on FIBERTOWN to be a financially stable business partner with a large network of experience from our partners.

Our goal at Fibertown is to make the extraordinary the ordinary. That’s why we give a human response to every request within 15 minutes. We strive to aid in our customer’s success in all we do.

Can you say the same about your provider?

Risk aversion: Using a colocation/data center

In 2021, where you store your technology matters.

Redundancy in power, cooling, and networking is key.

For FIBERTOWN, our power redundancy is 2N or greater, and our cooling redundancy is N+1 or greater.

With our networking, we use multiple carriers to create our blended bandwidth. If one carrier goes down, the others will continue to transport. For a visual example, think of sending a certified letter to someone and the FedEx delivery truck breaks down. With blended internet, UPS is right there to take the package to the final destination rather than losing the package forever.

We strive to have no single point of failure. If one part of the chain breaks down, another is there to pick up the slack and maintain our 100% uptime.

We offer our clients a 100% uptime Service Level Agreement (SLA). Other competitors offer 99.999% (or the five nines), but we go above and beyond that to offer 100%.

All of these reasons illustrate why our colocation and data center customers love their experience at FIBERTOWN. Make a more informed decision. Download our FREE checklist to begin comparing your data center criteria.