Data | 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.

Location, Location, Location – Why Bryan-College Station, Texas is Ideal for Colocation Services

The real estate adage “location, location, location” describes why FIBERTOWN’s Bryan-College Station data center is an ideal site for colocation services. Below, we outline four reasons why your company should consider our data center perfectly situated in the heart of eastern Texas.

Reason 1: Bryan-College Station is Located between Major Cities

FIBERTOWN’s Bryan-College Station data center is located within driving distance of the four biggest cities in Texas. It is about 90 minutes from Houston, two hours from Austin, and three hours from San Antonio and Dallas.

Because we’re near major cities, we’re also located close to major carrier hubs and Internet Carrier Exchanges. For our colocation clients, this proximity means lower latency (i.e., less lag time) and a constant Internet connection. There’s no need to be physically in one of the major cities if you can be there virtually.

Reason 2: Bryan-College Station Provides Safety and Accessibility During Weather Events

Our data center is located outside of the hurricane danger zone, as well as outside of tornado alley. As for accessibility, there are multiple routes from every major city to Bryan-College Station. Take interstates, state roads or, heck, even country roads.

Our proximity to multiple roadways eliminates the “one road in, one road out” scenario. With some prior planning, road construction, ice, downed trees and power lines, and heavy evacuation traffic won’t keep you from getting to our colocation site at Bryan-College Station.

Reason 3: Bryan-College Station is Home to Universities and Diverse Industries (and Less Slowdowns!)

As the home of Texas A&M, Bryan-College Station is rich with research and technology innovations. In fact, Amazon, in conjunction with Texas A&M, will be testing its drone delivery system here.

We’re also home to large healthcare groups and robust manufacturing industries, plus one campus of Blinn College.

Bryan-College Station has become a hub for diverse internet carriers wanting to meet the technology needs of these various entities. For FIBERTOWN customers, this means less slowdowns.

Reason 4: Bryan-College Station Offers a Small-Town Feel with Big-Town Services

At FIBERTOWN, we want to offer a small-town, personable feel while providing world-class service. A staff member at our Network Operations Center (NOC) is only a phone call away – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

For example, if you need help connecting your office in one of the big cities to our data center in Bryan-College Station, call us. A member of our NOC staff will answer the phone or respond to your email. And within a short time, usually 15 minutes or less, you’ll have an answer or help with your issue.

You are not another number to us. We pride ourselves on customer service by real people, staffed in our centers.

With this small-town feel, we provide big-city services, though. We offer anything from our blended bandwidth product to a diverse transport option from our provider partnerships. And if your office is in Houston, you can ride our Point to Point between our two sites and co-locate in each of our data centers! (We have a data center in Houston too.)

FIBERTOWN Invites You to Visit Bryan-College Station.

We’d love to give you a tour of our data center at Bryan-College Station. With its proximity to major and minor highways, it’s accessible. It’s built to withstand high winds, yet located outside of tornado alley and away from the coast to avoid hurricanes. The area is rich in technology and research so it attracts quality internet and power providers. That’s a win-win for our customers.

And on a personal note, come see what life is like without concrete and pavement everywhere! We boast a lower cost of living and are an easy day trip to any major city to relive your big-city life.

Use the contact form here to start a conversation about our Bryan-College Station data center. We’d like to hear from you.

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Small Town Data Center Means Big Support for Customers

Small business, small towns, small groups – the relationships built in the “small” are the most powerful because they’re the most intimate. In “small” settings, you get seen. You stand out.

One of FIBERTOWN’s data centers is located in Bryan, Texas, a small city with about 90, 000 people. Bryan is about 100-170 miles from Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, and Austin. It’s also located very close to College Station, a slightly larger city, giving the Bryan-College Station area a population around 250,000.

FIBERTOWN deliberately chose the small city of Bryan, Texas as a site for one of its colocation centers. Our team knows to not count out small-town data centers. Here’s why.

Benefits of Colocation Centers

Before we delve deeper into why “small” is a “big” reason to choose FIBERTOWN for data protection, we’re reminding you of the benefits of colocation centers. The prefix “co” means together, jointly, and sharing.

So, a colocation center is a shared location. It houses servers being used by many other businesses. These companies share the space and services provided by the colocation center. In doing this, companies reduce their costs.

Without a colocation site, businesses need to build and maintain their own data centers, as well as staff them. As you can imagine, that’s an expensive prospect and, frankly, not one many companies can afford.

Besides cost, the level of protection provided by a colocation center is another benefit. At FIBERTOWN, our data centers have N + 1 power supply, onsite generators, a backup fuel supply, priority access to emergency fuel, UPS capacity available, smoke monitoring systems, hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) 125 fire-suppression gas, and much more.

The best part of all of these features…our FIBERTOWN team manages them. As our customer, you focus on your business, and we focus on keeping your business’s IT running..

A final, very important note about colocation centers – they allow your data to exist offsite of your business. This is critical. If your building and hardware are destroyed due to fire or a weather event, your business can move forward because your data is stored securely at our colocation center. It’s risk management at its finest.

(You also may want to read about how we protect our clients’ data during tornadoes and hurricanes.)

Bryan, Texas Data Center is Situated Perfectly

Bryan, Texas is the ideal distance from four big cities. Bryan is about 90 miles northwest of Houston, 170 miles northeast of San Antonio, 100 miles east of Austin, and 170 miles south of Dallas. One these metro areas is probably home to your business.

Bryan’s distance from these booming areas is advantageous for a few reasons. One, as we discussed in the previous section, storing your data in an alternative location, away from your physical building(s), is a great idea. It puts literal space between your data and any disasters affecting your business at home.

But, not too much distance. Bryan, Texas is relatively close to these four metro areas. If employees from your company need to visit our Bryan-College Station Data Center, it’s a doable drive.

At FIBERTOWN, we offer disaster recovery services AND business continuity office space. Bryan’s distance from San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas make these offerings viable for many companies based in these metro areas. Don’t let a disruption stop your employees from having a safe place to work.

Also note, our FIBERTOWN Bryan, Texas Data Center has access to two separate, geographically diverse, frequently tested utility substations. Its primary substation also feeds the utility
company headquarters.

Our colocation center is strategically located to provide customers an offsite location for their IT infrastructure, but close enough to make a day trip.

Nimbleness

In the opening paragraphs, we addressed the “bigness” of being small. When you choose data centers in smaller cities like Bryan, Texas, you get the benefits of small town life. Our FIBERTOWN team knows YOU. We learn about your business and your team. Because of this, we serve you better.

Our team is able to be nimble, adapting to your needs quickly. If you want to know a great example, check out this article about how we helped Centennial Arts, a website and development firm, move quickly to our colocation site during Winter Storm Uri in 2021. A small, expert team like ours can adjust fast, and that nimbleness is required in businesses and events that move at the speed of light.

Furthermore, we allow for custom contracts. It’s one more example of being nimble. At FIBERTOWN, we don’t make you fit in a box or “do it how it’s always been done.”

Why FIBERTOWN’s Bryan, Texas Data Center

We at FIBERTOWN recognize the power in small-town business. Big businesses, perhaps like yours, enjoy benefits because our Bryan, Texas Data Center is located in a small city.

You get to situate your companies in the metro areas where the workers and supply chains are. All the while, your data is stored securely offsite by a team of experts and in facilities designed for this purpose. FIBERTOWN’s colocation center in Bryan, Texas is away from the coast, protecting it (and your data) from the brunt of hurricanes. But, we’re in driving distance.

Plus, we relish in “small.” It allows us to be nimble – move fast, provide custom offers – and that’s a benefit to our customers.

If you want to know more about our Bryan, Texas colocation center (or the one in Houston, Texas), contact us.

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FIBERTOWN Keeps You Connected with Blended Internet, Cross Connects and Megaport

Do you remember the cell phone commercials from the early 2000s, “Can you hear me now?” The actor traversed insane environments (high snowdrifts, torrential rain, skyscrapers, etc.) while talking on the phone, and every time, he stayed connected. He never lost phone signal.

The premise of the commercials was simple – If you’re our customer, your calls won’t drop. We keep you connected.

At FIBERTOWN data centers, we keep you connected too. And similar to those old commercials, we do so during insane events – hurricanes, tornadoes, ice storms, and more.

In this article, we’re sharing three ways we make sure you never lose network connection and always have access to your data…fast.

Blended Internet – What is it? Why is it important?

Blended internet is like the phrase suggests. It blends, combines, and brings together multiple internet providers into a single service for the data center customer. As a FIBERTOWN client, you don’t have access only to AT&T, for example, but to AT&T, Cogent, Comcast, Lumen, and more. See here for a list of our internet providers.

Blended internet is an important option for several reasons. First, it’s more time effective and easier for the data center customer. We at FIBERTOWN manage the connectivity for you and provide one invoice for the billing cycle (i.e., you don’t receive bills from multiple providers). You have a single point of contact when you need help, saving you time and frustration.

Second, FIBERTOWN’s blended internet offers Smart Routing. FIBERTOWN’s Smart Routing factors, in real-time, latency, transit costs, jitter, and more to send your data the smartest (i.e., the most efficient) route. Blended internet typically moves traffic the shortest path so your data gets to its destination the fastest.

Third, blended internet offers you more reliability. Our data center already provides you with redundant power and cooling. But why stop there? Blended internet completes the redundancy trifecta, so you stay up while others are down. With multiple network providers at your service, failover is already configured. This also means you no longer need to buy a backup internet circuit.

In summary, due to our strong partnerships with internet service providers (ISPs), FIBERTOWN offers blended internet that gives you peace of mind. Failover configurations, redundancy, and faster routing are just some of the advantages.

Cross Connects – What are they? How are they useful?

Do you remember in the early days when we actually plugged into the internet? We used an Ethernet cord to attach our device to the phone line in the wall where the internet lived. For the time we were plugged in, we had internet, 56Kbps internet, and it was glorious.

Cross connects in a data center are like the early days of the internet (but more sophisticated, obviously). Cross connects use cables like Ethernet or Fiber Optic to connect one unit to another unit in a data center. You may see it described as a “point to point connection.” A common example is when trading companies utilize cross-connects between servers in a data center to ensure trades are made quickly.

Cross connects are beneficial for a variety of reasons. Two of the most apparent are reliability and fast traffic. With a hardwired connection, the only variables are the connection points. Cross connects are not subject to wireless traffic congestion, which reduces latency and improves data security.

Megaport – What is it? Why is it important?

Megaport is similar to what the word implies – a port that offers big capabilities. Megaport, through a single gateway, gives customers access to cloud services like AWS, Office 365, Oracle, Google, and many more. Essentially, Megaport does the complex tasks like housing ports worldwide and performing maintenance, while you enter the global cloud simply through a single port.

At FIBERTOWN, we’re proud Megaport providers. Through our partnership, we offer your business cloud connectivity that is fast, agile, and scalable. You are able to contract it through us to avoid more contracts and invoices. Let Fibertown be your pass-through and enjoy the same service for the same price without having to read and sign more legal documents!

Advantages to Megaport include a fast spin up, reduced latency, more secure data, and cost-effectiveness. (You pay for your port on your FIBERTOWN billing cycle, meaning you do not sign a contract with Megaport.)

FIBERTOWN customers enjoy redundancy and reliability for cloud services without the hassle of cloud maintenance and complicated billing. Megaport makes cloud connectivity easy. We and our customers like that.

Why Choose FIBERTOWN

“Can you hear me now?” was a popular phrase in the early 2000s because of the phone commercial. And the premise is still an important one for businesses. Without connectivity, customers are not served because data is compromised or is moving so slowly that it’s not useful.

FIBERTOWN data centers in Houston, Texas, and Bryan/College Station, Texas provide customers with reliable connections. Through blended internet, cross-connects, and Megaport, we keep you connected and business moving forward.

To learn more information about these offerings and how they’re beneficial for your business, contact us.