Insight

In late 2018, Marriott informed the world that around 500 million of its customers had lost information to cyber thieves from 2014-2018. This data breach was large and went undetected for four years. Their information needed to be more secure and not as easily accessible. Other massive data breaches have affected millions of people and cost companies millions of dollars in lawsuits, all because they had a weakness in their security that hackers were able to exploit. One way to help prevent data breaches is by selecting a secure data center to store your data.

When you're searching for a data center to house your business's critical information, make sure the data center is compliant with your industry. You alone are responsible for ensuring your business data is secure at all times, so it's vital to be discerning when choosing where that data is stored.

If you're in Florida areas such as Orlando, Space Coast, Tampa, or Daytona Beach, here are reasons why you should be searching for a data center that meets compliance standards.

What Exactly Is Compliance & Why Is it Important

Compliance standards, also referred to as data center security standards, help ensure that data centers are using best practices for data protection. Standards vary between the different types, but there are several types of compliance that data centers can be audited and assessed for to prove that they are secure enough to store various types of ...

When considering a data center, there are many options to think about, but one that should be looked at is whether or not the data center is carrier neutral. A carrier-neutral data center offers multiple options for connectivity, whereas a non-carrier-neutral data center only has one option.

Here are some reasons your business in Orlando, Space Coast, Tampa, and other Florida areas should consider using a carrier-neutral data center for your colocation provider.

Why Is Carrier Neutrality Important?

Carrier neutrality is very important to a data center customer, as it gives options for blended connectivity. A non-carrier-neutral data center only leaves you with one service option and limited connectivity options. With a carrier-neutral data center, the business gets several advantages over a non-carrier-neutral data center.

Advantages of Using Carrier-Neutral Data Centers

Using a carrier-neutral data center has many advantages, including:

• It is cost-efficient to the consumer
• Offers increased flexibility
• More competition means there is a better rate negotiating position
• More capability for the data center to interconnect
• Reduces the risk of downtime as multiple connectivity options can step in should the first one fail for any reason
• Redundancy
• Increased scalability means that depending on the business needs, you can easily extend your network and/or grow it faster
• The more carriers at a facility means it’s...

As businesses search for options to store their data, they need to know what options are available to them. Many options exist, such as colocation, virtual private servers, and shared web hosting.

Each option offers different features, but colocation is one that may need a bit more explanation for those who are new to the concept of off-site data storage. Businesses in Orlando, Space Coast, Tampa, and other areas of Florida should consider colocation for a number of reasons.

What Exactly Is Colocation

Colocation is the term for a data center facility where businesses can rent their own space for servers as well as other hardware. These servers store their data in a secure area that provides redundant power, redundant cooling systems, networking, and physical security.

To provide the ability to connect to your servers, the data center can provide a direct connection to the carrier of your choice (carrier-neutral) or can provide the internet connection, which can be from a dedicated internet service provider (ISP) or blended from multiple ISPs.

What Is a Colocation Data Center

A colocation data center is a building that houses rentable racks and cabinets that store your equipment. The building itself has high physical security to protect the equipment inside. The data center facility has redundant power, meaning the power system is backed up by ...

Considering a switch to virtual desktops or remote desktops involves many factors for a business, including cost, needs of their employees, and computing and storage requirements.

If your business is in Orlando, Space Coast, Tampa, or surrounding areas and is looking into the option of virtual desktop hosting, then here is a comparison between virtual desktops and maintaining on-premise personal computers, servers and related hardware which, for the purposes of this article, we will refer to as “physical desktops”.

Virtual Desktops Benefit Both Remote Employees & Employers

More and more businesses are starting to employ remote workers as telecommuting increases in popularity. Around 50 percent of the U.S. population works remotely at some point during the week, according to Forbes. Those remote workers are often accessing company files via their personal computers, meaning your business may not have control over their security at home.

Using a virtual desktop provided by Colo Solutions allows businesses to assert more control over security of their data. Your virtual desktop data is stored at a secure data center and you have the option to set security policies and protocols to prevent the data from being downloaded to anyone's personal device. So, if an employee's laptop is stolen, the data is password protected and your company data is still protected.

So, you have built yourself a small data center for your growing business. You have a few servers and things seem to be going alright — but could they be better? Even if your data center is supplying your needs right now, a good business-mindset would keep you focused on ways to improve your business and stop wasting money. Unfortunately, you might not even know the ways you are wasting money, so we have put together a small list of reasons you are simply letting your money slip away by not using a data center for your company’s IT needs.

#1: Bandwidth

Bandwidth is a huge factor when running a successful data center, as you may have already figured out. Unfortunately it is not usually unlimited for any individual business with access to only one internet service provider, neither is it very cheap. Not only are data centers located in areas where a number of high-quality internet providers overlap, they have more purchasing power than you, and can therefore negotiate better prices. Another wall that may prove to be annoying is that lying high-bandwidth fiber can simply be out of reach for most businesses with small data centers. This is because the price of laying fibers just to reach your business is often estimated at $10,000 per mile.

Here is another thing to consider — If you think that the simple cost of your monthly usage is the only way your business will be paying due to bandwidth, then you are sorely mistaken. As your business grows, you...