Physical Access Control is Essential to Uptime

If you’ve ever made an in-person visit to your well-protected server or other device in a colocation facility or data center, then you know firsthand about security. The hand scanners, the thumbprint readers, the man-traps, the security guards, the metal cages — all the security features that make data centers feel like a secure prison. […]

Increase Uptime with the Right Code Deployment Strategy

Faster is not necessarily better. The push to launch new applications and services as quickly as possibly can cost you in the long run. A 2013 Gartner study predicted that ineffective software release management would cause 80% of production environment incidents in large organizations in the next few years. If keeping your network or applications […]

How to Combat Ransomware to Stay Online

Recently we discussed the heavy cost of ransomware, both in the form astronomical ransoms that have been paid recently as well as the cost of dealing with the aftermath of an attack.  When it comes to most serious cyberattacks, a pound of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  The truth is that in most […]

Major CenturyLink Network Outage to Close 2018

We end the year with a major CenturyLink outage that started early Thursday morning for many and spread across the country, according to reports on Reddit, GeekWire and Newsweek affecting Internet, 911 services and other internet-dependent services like waves and VoIP. The outage also affected other providers who lease long haul connectivity from them, such […]

Those Vulnerable 3rd-Party Web Services

Just when you think things are getting safer on the web, somebody comes up with a startling claim and spoils your party: “Our analysis paints a somewhat bleak situation on the state of modern web ecosystem.” That’s the conclusion of a 2016 study conducted by Carnegie Mellon University. The full title is worth noting: Oh, […]

Global Internet Tracking Sites

As much as we like data, it’s very easy to become lost in it. But what if you could see the whole picture? That’s the idea behind internet tracking dashboards. They come in all shapes and sizes. Some are used only to demonstrate the global reach of internet security services, while others can provide useful, […]

The Basics of DCIM

We have remarked several times in this space about the tremendous changes in the data center in such a short period of time. Not only are device footprints shrinking and functionalities converging, but the way that hardware and software are managed has become more comprehensive and streamlined. Now the same thing that has happening to […]

Market Surveys from Disaster Recovery Journal and Forrester

“I only believe in statistics that I doctored myself.” Winston Churchill said a lot of things, but despite the rumors, fact checkers don’t believe he really originated this saying. It is actually a common joke in the German language that the Nazi propagandist Goebbels misattributed to the British leader. Another false quote did not really […]

Drilling for Disaster Recovery

On an Air Force base in San Antonio, Texas, two men walk into the base exchange. They show their IDs to the clerks, don Halloween masks, and proceed to play the part of terrorists. “This is a drill! We want liberation!  This is only a drill!” Airmen shopping in the facility give them funny looks, […]

Environmental Monitoring Just Keeps Getting Better

A data center has many components, but none are more critical than the environmental monitoring system. The technology infrastructure may be state-of-the-art, but if such things as heat or moisture are left unchecked, then all that expensive equipment could fail and cost unnecessary expenses and downtime. Data center managers must have an all-of-the-above strategy that […]