Data Center   Latest 0 comments on 5 Top Reasons to Use On-Site Service from Data Centers

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.

Data Center   Disaster Recovery 0 comments on Hurricane Season is Coming…Are You Ready?

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 1st 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.
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.
Data Center   Disaster Recovery   Latest 0 comments on 3 Reasons Why Colocation Services are a Better Choice than On-Premise Data Centers

3 Reasons Why Colocation Services are a Better Choice than On-Premise Data Centers

Perhaps this is a strange start to a data center article. But consider these questions – If you had an aching foot, would you rather see a podiatrist or a general practitioner?

 If your vintage car no longer ran, would you rather a mechanic well versed in 30-year-old engines or a general mechanic?

 If you were running a marathon, would you rather shoes designed for distance running or just any pair in your closet?

 Most of us would choose the first option in each one. We would want the specialist.

And the “specialist” mentality is how we approach this next question – Should a business invest in colocation services OR build and maintain its own on-premise data center?

At FIBERTOWN, we’re experts at colocation. It’s our business. It’s our focus. We do it every day. All day.

And because of this laser focus, we’re effective. Unlike a company that’s pulled in lots of directions while building, staffing, and maintaining its own data center.

Below are 3 reasons why you should choose FIBERTOWN’s colocation services.

Reason 1 – Infrastructure is Ready to Go

Ease is the first reason you should invest in colocation services. On average, it takes 6 months to build an on-premise, or “on-prem,” data center. To build requires a specialized architect or engineer because of the redundancy needed for power, cooling, and connectivity. Any single point of failure can cause all of the other redundancies to be ineffective.

And of course, the cost of building, in general, has increased. But for materials and systems specific to a data center, these costs have been rising for the last 3-5 years. It is now 10 times the cost per square foot to build a data center compared to a standard office building. So, a low estimate comes to about $1,000 per square foot to build a data center.

We share these numbers to demonstrate the ease – the lack of hassle – you get when choosing colocation services over building an on-premise data center for your company. Even if time (or money) wasn’t an issue, what about the building know-how.

For example, redundant power (or multiple sources of power) requires different substations, plus generators, switchgear, and battery backup. These must be considered in the planning phase as they are very difficult to correct retroactively.

Redundant cooling doesn’t just happen either. Not only do you need enough chillers to cool your gear, but what if one breaks down and needs repair? Will you have an extra one ready to keep your gear cool while the other is being fixed? It gets VERY hot, VERY fast if the cooling fails.

And like power and cooling, redundant connectivity requires specialized engineering from the onset. A few questions to consider: Do you have more than one Internet Service Provider (ISP) coming into your building? Are those ISPs entering your building at different areas? Do they travel diverse paths directly outside of your building?

All of the specifics about power, cooling, and connectivity are already done at FIBERTOWN’s two data centers. The infrastructure is ready to go, and that makes it easy for you.

Reason 2 – Cost Efficiency

Utilizing the ready-to-go, state-of-the-art infrastructures at our colocation centers in Houston, Texas and Bryan, Texas is cost-effective for your company. (With the numbers we shared above – average time to build, cost per square foot, etc. – we’ve already hinted at this second reason.)

Contrary to an on-premise data center, a colocation center houses the servers and computer hardware of multiple businesses. This shared location also leads to shared expenses. Or, as we like to point out, cost efficiency for your company.

Multiple businesses share the cost to maintain redundancies within the facility (i.e., generators, cooling systems, and connectivity providers). THIS SHARING is what makes co-location work. Because without it, your company builds the center and then hires the people needed to maintain it.

For example, you need a team to run the generators every week, plus conduct load tests monthly. Parts will need to be fixed. Someone will need to plan for replacing equipment, as every piece has a shelf life. Within 5-10 years, most equipment will need to be repaired or replaced. The people and the parts cost money.

Oh, we also should mention insurance on the building, fire systems, utilities cost, and much more.

The good news, though – colocation services already factor in all of these costs and provide the needed services. The even better news – the costs are shared across all of the companies housed at a colocation center. And the best news, yet – a team of experts work at each FIBERTOWN facility. So, you’re not hiring your own data center team and determining health benefits, salaries, and vacation plans (so that someone is always working, which is imperative for a data center).

Simply put, building, maintaining, and staffing a data center is costly. Sharing a facility already equipped with experts and equipment is a cost-effective option for your company.

Reason 3 – Disaster WILL Strike, Not If 

Disaster recovery is an important reason for investing in colocation services. At FIBERTOWN’s facilities in Houston and Bryan, Texas, we have backup generators onsite, plus an uninterrupted power supply (UPS). We have N+1 or greater cooling redundancy and house servers in a hot-cold aisle layout. And that’s just for starters!

Our facilities are strategically located away from tornado alley and the Gulf Coast to prevent as much storm damage as possible. BUT, we’re near major highways for easy access and located outside of the flood plain.

Our two buildings were constructed to withstand strong winds, and our equipment is tied to the roof to keep it from lifting off the building in 100+ MPH winds. If antennas, cables, rods, and lights fly off, they can easily penetrate other equipment, leaving a large path of damage.

There’s also temperatures to consider.

We know it’s hot right now (over 100 degrees in Texas in July!). And our chillers are keeping things cool. But, will your on-premise data center run without fail during the cold, like in Winter Storm Uri? Will your generator be ready when the utility power shuts off for extended periods of time? Will your generator fuel line freeze up because you weren’t prepared for temperatures that cold for so long? Will you run out of fuel because you don’t have priority or because roads are iced over? How large is your fuel tank? Will it hold the load for 24 hours or longer?

All of these questions must be considered.

But also note, people often use “major disasters” as a reason for using data centers. BUT, what if a hard drive fails in the middle of the night? That’s a simple fix. Without a designated night team, though, no one notices for some time. That’s where our 24x7x365 on-site staff comes in for the win.

Will you have someone available 24x7x365? Rather than hiring someone to be there when this occurs, use FIBERTOWN’s on-site staff. (And simple hard drive swaps are completely free. Even at 3AM.)

It’s not a question of if a disaster will strike; it’s when. So, be prepared. Our colocation centers are ready for you.

At FIBERTOWN, We Specialize in Data Centers

Data centers are what we do. We don’t buy and sell stocks or fix broken bones. We make sure your computer hardware stays up…so your business continues to run. We’ve been doing this for 25 years, and we’ll keep doing it for another 25 (and hopefully more!).  

At FIBERTOWN, we’re staffed with experts. Our two facilities are fitted with the latest equipment and security to keep your servers and hardware safe and running. This is our specialty.

Reach out if you want to talk with us about colocation services. We’d love to speak with you. Use this form to start the conversation.