The cloud migration exodus has begun and for many firms the benefits of cloud computing outweighs the risks. Cloud computing directly addresses a multitude of challenges enterprises face today. The cloud is an open source system offering infinite scalability and high on-demand availability to the user. The major benefits of the cloud are improved productivity and profitability. In fact, IT professionals boast hosting costs can be reduced as much as 50-70% by implementing a solid migration plan to the cloud. However, with all this good news, there is still one major concern and those are security concerns. The potential security risks involved in this transition can be avoided by developing a sound migration strategy to ensure that security is never compromised and the transition is actually beneficial to the company.

Issue #1: With More Adoptions Come More Security Issues

There are four basic categories of security when it comes to cloud computing and the challenges involved:

• Gaining a detailed understanding of the potential environmental risks (for example viruses, hackers and natural disasters)

• Making a proactive analysis of the consequences of and countermeasures to security breaches in relation to risks

• Creating a carefully planned implementation strategy for integrating security measures into all aspects of the corporate network, based on the understanding and analysis described above.

• User Authorization: Ensuring that access is limited to only those who have authorization and monitoring that access

All of the opportunities that come from cloud computing also include these security challenges that must be addressed and planned out ahead of time within your migration and adoption strategy. It is important that the CTO and senior company management be involved in creating these strategies, so all business units are considered from the start. To help this effort, there are many companies that offer managed security services and that specifically monitor who and how information moves in order to help build the best strategies. According to a Global Industry Analyst report, managed security services will reach $8.4 billion by 2015.

Growth in the Data Center and Data Management Industry

This industry has been around for a long time, but has also begun growing rapidly in recent years. As more data centers and management solutions come along, businesses have more opportunities to migrate to the cloud and improve their hosting services. However, more opportunities also mean increased risks and possibly new security challenges, which is again, why having an action plan in place is a must. The recent U.S. economic downturn caused many businesses to seek more affordable data center options, including a variety of hosting solutions. So considering a data center outfitted with managed hosting options would be ideal, as it offers all the benefits of an in-house server farm without the expense, maintenance, or staffing requirements, provided it meets your action plans which marry your business goals, infrastructure requirements and security policies.

According to an article from Datamation, more than 85% of the large data centers have expansion in the works currently or a plan that will be implemented by the end of 2012. What’s more is that there are also a number of new centers popping up on a regular basis. Growth always means two things: increased opportunity and increased risk. Preparation can protect you from the latter.

TELEHOUSE America is a data center and colocation provider also offering scalable IT support products, including security services, both inside and outside our facilities. TELEHOUSE America has 23 years of service in the industry, operating facilities in New York and Los Angeles. And with our sister TELEHOUSE organizations, we operate in about 50 global locations. These facilities ultimately provide clients with peace of mind in delivering the reliable access, support, and hosting solutions they need. Learn more at www.telehouse.com, …

“Where the world gets connected!” and ”Where the worlds IT gets managed!”

TELEHOUSE will be able to inform attendees about their acquisition of Databurg GmbH’s colocation facility, containing 220,000 sq feet of colocation space. The 43rd addition to the TELEHOUSE portfolio of premier global data centers is right in the heart of the financial center of continental Europe. It already impressively accommodates a number of Germany’s largest corporations. It also provides them with access to DE-CIX, Europe’s largest Internet Exchange with over 400 ISP’s and carriers.

Come visit TELEHOUSE at Stand 79! To learn more about this event read our press release at http://www.worldhostingdays.com/eng/.

TELEHOUSE America is proud to announce that its Los Angeles facility is now SSAE 16 Type 1 compliant, having successfully completed the rigorous independent assessment required of the SSAE 16 standard. The Los Angeles Center, located at 626 Wilshire Boulevard, completed a stringent audit of its internal business processes and IT controls, including physical security, environmental security, logical security, and network security.

The voluntary assessment further exemplifies TELEHOUSE America’s commitment to its customers. For many companies, an SSAE 16 compliant facility is a necessity when choosing a data center.

Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE) No. 16 is an internationally recognized third party assurance audit designed for service organizations. Unlike SAS 70, SSAE-16 is an “attest” standard, falling under the attestation framework, rather than the “auditing” framework of the SAS 70 standard. Service auditors first must obtain management’s written assertion and then express an opinion on the fair presentation of each facility’s system and the suitability of its design for the period covered by the report.

Currently, TELEHOUSE New York Chelsea, TELEHOUSE New York Broadway and TELEHOUSE New York Teleport data centers are undergoing SSAE 16 Type 1 audits. To learn more visit SSAE 16.

Built on a carrier class, high speed Layer-2 platform, LAIIX offers seamless switching fabrics at two important carrier locations in Los Angeles: 626 Wilshire Blvd. and 1 Wilshire. Internet service providers, carriers and content providers are able to cost effectively exchange IP traffic at speeds up to 10 Gigabit Ethernet, which allows reduced transit costs and increases overall performance.

TELEHOUSE America also operates the New York International Internet Exchange (NYIIX), which interconnects with LAIIX. NYIIX recently exceeded 200 Gigabits of traffic and offers connectivity through several key buildings in New York including: 111 8th Avenue, 60 Hudson and the three TELEHOUSE data centers: TELEHOUSE New York Broadway, TELEHOUSE New York Teleport, and TELEHOUSE New York Chelsea.

Recently, TELEHOUSE America has hosted a series of webinars targeted at unraveling the mystery of peering. A replay of the webinars can be seen here: Peering 101 and Peering 102.

To learn more about TELEHOUSE America’s peering exchanges please visit our peering website or contact us.

Businesses all over the globe are quickly moving towards the cloud in order to eliminate the cost of managing server infrastructure and easily increase their capacity. TELEHOUSE and KDDI’s cloud solutions provide companies with a dedicated infrastructure platform, which is housed, connected and managed within TELEHOUSE’s premium colocation facilities to host their most mission-critical applications. The Telecloud Virtual Data Centre offers an efficient approach to on-demand IT delivery with immediate start up. Telecloud VDC platform is located within a highly secure Tier 3 data center connected to the well-known London Internet Exchange with access to a highly robust network infrastructure that has one of the lowest latency connections in the area. This is ideal for businesses of all sizes looking to gain fast virtualization deployment. Currently, TELEHOUSE facilities in Europe are offering this solution.

To read more about TELEHOUSE and KDDI’s cloud solutions take a look at our brand new Telecloud brochure by clicking here! You can also read the press release by visiting: http://www.realwire.com/releases/KDDI-and-Telehouse-launch-Telecloud. Need help finding out which cloud service is right for your unique business? Contact us at 718-355-2500 or at sales@telehouse.com.

TELEHOUSE and KDDI Europe showcased Telecloud at the Cloud Expo in Europe on January 25-26th, 2012 at the National Hall, Olympia, London at Stand #891. A perfect venue for sharing this exciting news with a global audience! To learn more about this event visit: http://www.cloudexpoeurope.com/.

Another key area driving this growth is related to a 39% investment by larger data centers as they beef up their infrastructures to stay current with the latest technologies. It is estimated that storage spends accounted for 25% and Ethernet networking accounted for 21% of the overall spends. Both end-users and customers of those data centers will reap the benefits of these results, as they will have increased options, enhanced capabilities and access to added features going into 2012. For Telehouse, we led a complete build out of our Telehouse Cloud Computing Complex in Hong Kong that will showcase one of the most powerful data centers in the region. Likewise, our Telehouse West facility far surpasses the industry standard for renewable energy, ‘Green’ commitments and localized data center environments on a per rack basis.

Read more about this trend in Q3 of 2011. To find out how TELEHOUSE can enhance your data center infrastructure in 2012 please contact us.

As the bulk of industry knows these days, a solid web presence is vital to survive in the business world. As a result, companies need to source solutions that excel in handling all website processes because of the business impact they have. Here, again is the quandary of choosing either a dedicated server (host) or managed hosting.

First, we’ll define.

Dedicated Hosting: This is a form of web hosting in which a company opts to own or lease an entire server housed in an off-site datacenter dedicated solely to its uses, and not sharing it with anyone else, such as in a shared hosting (or cloud) environment. With dedicated hosting, the company must possess technical knowledge, and perform all system administration and management activities on the server either directly or remotely.

Managed Hosting: This is a form of web hosting in which a company opts to own or lease an entire server, housed in an off-site datacenter dedicated solely to its uses, and not sharing it with anyone else, such as in a shared hosting (or cloud) environment – BUT this equipment is fully managed by the hosting service provider. With that, the provider renders full control over the hardware, software, maintenance, security, monitoring and backup services, etc. This option is most ideal for companies that do not have adequate in-house IT staff necessary to maintain its equipment or manage the systems and applications.

Second, we’ll evaluate cost difference.

Managed hosting is more expensive than dedicated hosting, but it has quite the potential to lower down the costs that are essential in helping a company maintain its overall IT infrastructure. For instance, having the servers managed by the data center facility can free up requirements related to the company’s IT staff and/or other means of physical resources. With this, companies can save in the long run on such expenses, and something even more precious than money – TIME. A great array of time consuming activities can be moved onto the ‘shoulders’ of the host server/data center and companies can spend more of its time focusing on other (money-making) areas.

Third, we’ll decide what type of hosting suits what type of company

For companies that have mission critical server needs, but do not have the in-house staff necessary to maintain these servers, managed hosting is clearly the best solution. While it may seem initially more expensive, it is definitely the more cost-effective way of deploying and managing IT resources (servers, routers, etc.) rather than hiring and managing staff to do the job. Another plus of utilizing managed hosting, instead of hiring a staff, is that the provider typically delivers a higher quality, more consistent level of service than the actual client can deliver themselves.

For companies who desire freedom to utilize more of their resources to increasing internal and external business development applications and minimize resources for controlling routine administrative and maintenance tasks, then dedicated hosting may be the better option.

Visit the TELEHOUSE website to learn more about premium colocation and managed hosting services.

The Modern Data Center

Previously, data center’s sold colocation services was based on space. Equipment was large and bulky, companies were paying for the real estate based on the square footage needed to house their servers. This trend has passed, the primary consideration for companies nowadays is power and whether the data center has enough power to service and cool them. According to research by DatacenterDynamics, a dozen years ago, data centers, on average, used 30 to 50 watts of power per square foot; while today’s facilities consume 150 to 225 watts per square foot.

Additionally, because data centers dominate power and cooling resources, there is an industry-wide push for them to be designed in an energy efficient manner. For example, designing a data center with recycled materials, raised floors for maximum cooling efficiency, and alternative natural power sources is the acceptable, ‘green’ way to go. And while ‘green’ stands for efficiency, the upfront costs to make a data center truly green are substantial.

If a company is looking to build its own data center, it’s important to keep these key objectives in mind:

• Capital Investment – Depending on location and amount of space required, companies should expect to spend millions of dollars for a reliable data center. According to HostDiscussion.com, the costs per square foot vary widely because of tier level, power consumption and square footage of white space vs. building square footage, redundancy, etc. There are 20,000 sq. ft. data centers that can be built for $11M but likewise, there are 100,000 sq. ft. data centers that cost $200M – it really depends on what the design intent is.

• Aim for Maximum Efficiency – Data center equipment should be configured in a way that allows for efficiency with regards to both operation and maintenance. This can be achieved through raised floors, hot aisle/cold aisle design and efficient rack structuring, all these factors will contribute to better efficiency and reduced costs.

Data Centers as Colocation Facilities

For companies who are considering designing a data center that will serve as a multi-tenant or colocation facility, (a type of data center that houses multiple customers’ servers within a shared infrastructure) below are the features that such data centers provide:

• Space
• Power (in a variety of formats)
• Cooling
• Security (video surveillance, 24/7 security staff, biometric/badge access, etc.)
• Storage (lockable rack cabinets/cages)
• Networking equipment of other firms, connecting tenants to a variety of telecom and network service providers
• Cost savings
• Redundancy (to eliminate/reduce risk of downtime)

Learn more about leading global data center provider, TELEHOUSE or contact us!

On November 7th and 8th, TELEHOUSE America was present at Streaming Media West, a conference and exhibition focused on the full online video world. Everything from content creation and management, to monetization and distribution was discussed among attendees and a variety of speakers from companies such as Microsoft, Adobe, Facebook, and Comcast.

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) and other technology supporting organizations such as hardware, software and encoding entities, made up a large portion of the guests. TELEHOUSE was able to show high-level individuals from this industry how our secure 42 global data centers with supporting network and scalable IT services solutions could be an asset to their unique business.

Overall, this was a great experience for TELEHOUSE! We were able to educate quite a few different media-related companies, while also learning more about their needs and future goals. To read more about Streaming Media West or to download videos of speaker presentations please click here. To learn more about what TELEHOUSE can do for media and gaming companies all over the globe please contact us.

Voxel, a leading Cloud and Hybrid Hosting Provider, sure has a lot to celebrate these days! In the past few months they’ve announced a brand new Singapore data center presence with our TELEHOUSE Singapore colleagues and new Singapore dark fiber ring; and the delivery of VoxCLOUD virtual servers to California.

Expanding in Asia

Voxel has been a valued TELEHOUSE customer since 2003, and provides our customers with access to top of the line cloud servers, dedicated servers, IP transit and transport, content delivery and managed hosting services. Voxel’s new Singapore data center not only meets the strong demand for hosting services from our Asian customers, but also from the Asian market as a whole.

Acquired from our TELEHOUSE Singapore-KDDI colleagues, Voxel’s new data center spans 1,800 square feet and will allow Voxel to provision 2,000 additional servers, strengthening its services offering with redundancy, disaster recovery and security-enhanced hosting options.

“This expansion will allow us to better serve not only the Singapore market, but also the extended Asian community including Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines,” states Voxel in its blog.

The Singapore data center will also serve as a hub for Voxel’s new dark fiber ring, connecting the TELEHOUSE facility, Equinix (SG1), and other major carrier hotels including Global Switch and Keppel Digihub. It will be lit with 80x10G waves of capacity and will provide fully diverse paths that allow for non-disruptive future capacity upgrades.

California Cloud

The new west coast VoxCLOUD hosting facility is also great news for Voxel and TELEHOUSE customers. With facilities on both coasts (in Silicon Valley and New York), US customers have next generation DR and redundancy solutions all based in the continental United States.

We are elated that our long standing customer, Voxel, has such exciting announcements! Read more about this news in Voxel’s Press Center.