Evolve Your Business with the Help of an IT Broker
The IT Executive's Dilemma The world is going digital and at a dizzying pace. For instance, you don’t have to drive long to deposit your checks anymore, now you can do it from your phone. The way we interact with the world is changing, therefore, we expect companies to evolve at the same pace. Companies must transform and embrace new technologies to stay viable, relevant, secure, and competitive.
StrataCore Is a Certified Great Place to Work
We are proud to say that we have received Fortune magazine’s Great Place to Work Certification for the second year in a row.
Cryptocurrency: Between Scams and Salvation.
The cryptocurrency boom is at an all-time high. If you're not familiar with the word, you've probably heard about the most ubiquitous cryptocurrency: Bitcoin.
Fortune and Great Place to Work® Awarded STRATACORE
Seattle, WA — Great Place to Work® and Fortune magazine have honored StrataCore as one of the 2021 Best Small & Medium Workplaces™. This is StrataCore’s first time being named to this prestigious list, this year coming in at 56th place. Earning a spot means that StrataCore is one of the best companies to work for in the country.
UCaaS Market Report - The Industry that is Growing Exponentially
The global unified communications market size is expected to reach USD 167.1 billion by 2025. In 2020, this market has grown 29.1% and an average of 7.1% quarter over quarter, which also is equivalent to $13.1 billion according to Worldwide Quarterly Unified Communications & Collaboration Q View.
Why You'll Fail in Cyber Security.
Last year, I personally mentored 164 people transitioning into security or moving upward in their security careers. That's 164 personal relationships where we met (digitally) face to face and talked. That doesn't count social media direct messaging or anything else. Just one-on-one time talking.
Preparing your Business for the Post COVID-19 Era
When the first COVID-19 vaccine appeared, we all began to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Finally, one of the toughest stages in human history seemed to be over.
Are you a Transformational Leader?
The technology industry is a world of innovation, inspiration, and remarkable stories. However, we don't always remember that this industry has also been shaped by great leaders, like you.
What is an IT Infrastructure Assessment, and how do you do one?
As the world keeps moving faster, there will be a higher demand for your IT infrastructure in terms of speed, performance, security, reach and scale.
Key Questions to Ask for a Successful Application Assessment
An Application Assessment will set up indicators to measure the usability, cost, quality, performance, and risk of applications.
The Secret behind a Successful IT Infrastructure Outsourcing Project
There’s a secret formula that helps thousands of businesses to outsource their IT Infrastructure Solutions, and that also saves millions of dollars in the process.
Getting competitive advantage with the right IT Infrastructure solutions
One of the greatest questions that all IT professionals must answer is: How can I gain a competitive advantage for my business?
StrataCore 2020 Year In Review
2020. What a year. So many unique challenges and opportunities. Before I highlight our Top Ten 2020 projects, I’d like to share one of my favorite quotes as I believe it’s a good reminder for myself and for all of us: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” – MLK.
The Yes, Sir! Mentality: 4 Strategies to Fight Groupthink in your Organization
Think about what your staff would say if they were asked about some of the problems within your organization.
StrataCore is part the Top Washington's Most Equitable Workplaces
StrataCore was recently awarded as the number 11th in the ranking of Most Equitable Workplaces in the State of Washington.
Data Center Decommissioning: Everything Needed for a Successful DECOM
A successful data transfer decommission doesn't need to be difficult-- but it does require some forethought. Dismantling a data center involves getting rid of everything (their intangible data and the physical storage for it) in that center; and if you'd rather not tackle problems from the same DECOM for months or years to come, there are some basic goals to pursue.
Party Foul: Ransomware Groups Target Everyone
The last three weeks have been high profile for ransomware attacks in the US. The outdoor navigation company Garmin was hit in late July with a huge ransomware attack and paid multiple millions of dollars to a hacker group in Russia known as Evil Corp. While most of us know Garmin for fitness apps, the real impact here was that pilots were unable to update or download new maps from Garmin’s flight navigation server which is a MAJOR safety issue! Just last week, the Maze hacker group locked the camera manufacturer and multimedia company Canon offline. According to Maze, stole 4 TB of sensitive data. To date Maze has only proven marketing content. With as fast as Canon came back online, most practitioners surmise that they paid the ransom. This week the Sodinokibi group who run the REvil malware set announced that they stole over a terabyte of data (including substantial intellectual property and client data) from Brown-Forman, the US liquor conglomerate that owns brands like Jack Daniels, Finlandia, and Sonoma-Cutter wines among others. Brown-Forman confirmed that the data had been ex-filtrated but are not currently pursuing paying the ransom. It appears that neither Evil Corp nor Maze are specifically targeting intellectual property but are using intellectual property and or blocked access to leverage high ransoms.
Data Center Design & Construction – 5 Crucial Design Elements
Data centers are vital to the web. They host the equipment that keeps the internet. They feature racks of servers, lots of cables, and a range of other equipment. The equipment stores the information that you find on websites and other online platforms. They have to stay on and run all the time smoothly, or else these platforms will be inaccessible. Data centers are designed to keep the servers powered and operating at optimal levels. A data center has to meet certain requirements to be deemed efficient and reliable. So, what exactly goes into data center design and construction?
Tiers in Data Center - the 4 Classification Tiers Explained📈
An Updated Overview of the 4 Tiers in Data Center Classification: Modern companies rely on their data centers. Without adequate performance from a tier in data center, a business could lose sales, suffer crippling downtime, and even succumb to damaging security breaches.
The Evolution of High-Density Data Centers
Large floppy discs evolved into smaller, more compact, and larger capacity data storage units, much as the computer itself evolved from room-sized machines into laptops and tablets. Now we approach the next evolution in data processing and storage with high-density data centers. A sequential evolution of technology, there is still much mystery surrounding how high-density works for the operations, cost, and effectiveness of business data centers. Discover answers to some of your frequently asked questions here.
5 Benefits of Colocation Services
Colocation services help small and large businesses cut back on large capital investments, maintain higher uptime, bolster security and benefit from a large IT team. One of the key benefits of colocation services is the ability to expand a business without worrying about facility leasing or construction costs. You'll be able to enjoy the benefits of a large IT department for a fraction of the cost and eliminate a lot of in-house responsibilities at the same time with data center colocation.
Creating a Strong Data Center Migration Project Plan - Best Practices
Create a successful data center migration project plan to ensure your business data is secure and your infrastructure is up to date. More businesses continue to choose data center colocation to increase data center security, make maintenance easier and decrease costs and labor of in-house systems management. While migrating to a colocation center might seem like an easy choice, knowing how and when can often be confusing. Learn more about the process and follow our tips for creating your own data center migration project plan.
Understanding Network Operations Center Options
A network operation center (NOC) is the heart of your data, responsible for data processing, digital distribution, handling financial and proprietary information, and the overall user experience. As a vital piece of your company's infrastructure, how the NOC services are managed for your company matters a great deal. Most organizations will need to choose between self-managing onsite NOC services, or network operation centers as a service (NOCaaS) in a data colocation center. Learn more about your organization options now.
StrataCore - 2019 Year in Review
We hope your holidays were filled with joy and that you’re ready for 2020. As we embark on the new year, we’d like to take a moment and reflect on key accomplishments from 2019. Last year, we worked on more than 600 projects - below are 10 notable accomplishments worth sharing:
Why Quality Construction Matters for Data Center Security Cages
Quality data center security cages keep your information from running wild. While it's true that your servers won't simply up and walk away, security cages can prevent a serious security breach. The last thing your company wants is private consumer or proprietary information running freely along the information superhighway. For that reason, you'll want to choose quality security cages when choosing a location for your servers.
StrataCore - 2018 Year in Review
We hope your holidays were filled with joy and that you’re ready for the adventures ahead. As we embark on the New Year, we’d like to take a moment and reflect on 2018. Our team is very grateful to work with so many fantastic clients and suppliers. In 2018, we worked on more than 700 projects - below are nine notable accomplishments worthy of sharing:
18 Questions to Ask a Prospective SD-WAN Vendor
Improve Network Performance and Architecture with Ease, Scalability, and Security Software-defined wide-area network, or SD-WAN, is a technology that is fundamentally changing enterprises’ approach to networking while driving a successful and scalable digital transformation strategy in the cloud.
14 Questions To Ask a Prospective CCaaS Provider
The right Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) provider can transform your customer service experience.
CCaaS Provides Superior Customer Experiences
The key to a company’s survival and growth is its ability to provide excellent customer service. Some of the world’s most influential companies, such as Amazon and Apple, have thrived by building a customer-obsessed culture, working from the customer-backward, and offering top-notch customer experiences throughout the customer engagement.
7 Key Questions to Ask a DRaaS Provider
Sleep Soundly with a Solid Disaster Recovery Solution in Place You wake up in a cold sweat during what should be a peaceful night’s sleep – your white noise machine sings sweet lullabies of waves crashing on the shore; the temperature in your room is a crisp 65 degrees. But your mind is racing, and you just know something’s amiss.
Why Companies Are Choosing to Outsource Their NOC
For most businesses, the success of your company depends heavily on your network and IT systems operating properly. To ensure stability, functionality, and security, it’s critical to have a highly capable resource continuously monitoring your systems, 365 x 24 x 7. Outsourcing NOC (Network Operation Centers) can help organizations of all sizes to monitor, measure, secure, and analyze their mission critical data, along with supporting micro-services, managing the network, and more efficiently run business applications.
Why Disaster Recovery in the Cloud?
Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) has grown from a niche solution to a crucial cloud application due to the cost savings and increased protection of digital assets. Managing production data is tough enough. DRaaS solutions help users avoid doubling that effort for backup workloads. That is one reason why DRaaS demand is growing at a 30% to 60% annual rate, though we think that rate is only going to accelerate as threats to data continue to be pervasive.
How Businesses Develop a Viable Blockchain Strategy
You've probably seen many articles about the future of blockchain technology and how it's going to change the Internet. That's great for the Internet, but how are companies determining if this technology would help improve their business processes?
Moving Unified Communications to the Cloud
For today’s enterprise companies keeping communication channels operating smoothly is necessary to the success of the business, whether the organization targets the B2B market or deals directly with consumers.
Blockchain Tackles Gaming and Enterprise Gamification
In a previous blog post, we explored how blockchain, a distributed ledger technology, is revolutionizing our lives. Just as the internet was a game-changer 50 years ago, blockchain is up-ending the way we do business, and not just as the underpinnings for cryptocurrencies in the financial industry. We’ve seen innovative uses for blockchain in healthcare, agriculture, shipping – and now gaming.
Disaster Recovery is STILL More Than Just About Backup
In the data center industry, we have been singing the mantra for over 10 years that Disaster Recovery is more than just about backup. Unfortunately, that message is still relevant today, possibly more so given the many different cloud options available for organizations of all sizes to quickly and easily backup data.
The CIO (R)evolution
There’s been a rapid upheaval in corporate America, with some job titles disappearing entirely and new ones rising to the top of organizational charts. In my opinion, the job description of a Chief Information Officer has potentially changed the most. In fact, a number of people argue that the position is obsolete, particularly with the advent of BYOD and personal applications, platforms like Salesforce.com and the use of offsite servers.
Embracing SD-WAN
SD-WAN is a technology that appears poised to upend the telecommunications world. Short for software-defined wide area network, the SD-WAN market is growing quickly and is predicted to top $8 billion by 2021. If you’re wondering why, the answer is simple: the use-case for SD-WAN is being fueled by the evolution of cloud and software-driven services.
Blockchain Panel Discussion - Video
Everyone's talking about blockchain’s untapped potential. Its touted benefits may include lower cost, risk, and capital requirements, faster transactions, more transparency and reliability, improved privacy, and unparalleled security, to name a few.
StrataCore Earns Industry Awards for Top Performance
StrataCore, the premier IT services broker for data center, cloud, connectivity and cybersecurity, has been recognized by its suppliers with awards for top performance.
Compute Power For a Cause
We’ve worked with many companies over the past few years that have made the business decision to move into or out of the cloud. As our client's businesses grow and change, we're happy to help them make sense of the ever-evolving marketplace to source IT solutions that enable them to meet their goals.
The Rise of CASBs
Late last year, industry analyst group Gartner issued a report on the market for Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB), a software service that’s not yet widely understood. The report included a startling statistic: by 2020, Gartner predicts that 60 percent of large enterprises will use a CASB to govern cloud services. Today, we’re at just over 10 percent usage.
Our Internal Communications Revolution
The digital communications wave has flooded the enterprise market with new tools that offer better ways for employees to collaborate, share data and conduct meetings. It’s reshaping how we manage our businesses; in fact, one could argue that the digital revolution is really all about people. The enterprise is being challenged to deliver new ways to communicate, from giving the Millennial workforce instant access to everything to a creating a secure channel for a dedicated project team in regional offices.
Introducing Blockchain-as-a-Service – and Why You Should Care
Blockchain is one of the most ingenious inventions of the last decade. The underpinning technology for digital currencies, blockchain is a methodology for enabling, recording and reconciling transactions across a completely transparent, ultra-secure distributed digital ledger. While its origins are rooted in the world of finance, blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize the way we conduct business in industries ranging from healthcare to shipping and more.
Cloud Mergers & Acquisitions – 2017 Recap
M&A activity in the world of "all things related to cloud" didn't disappoint in 2017. While there was only one blockbuster cloud service provider acquisition, it seemed like every week we saw a new merger or purchase in the news. Many of these were the purchase of cloud-related service companies by traditional enterprise hardware and service companies looking to move their businesses into the cloud era.
StrataCore Adds New Partner, KINX
The new partnership with Korean Internet Neutral eXchange (KINX) Inc., further expands StrataCore’s portfolio of international data center and network operators to enable enterprise companies deploying infrastructure globally.
GDPR Compliance in the Cloud
In a previous GDPR series we discussed who is subject to GDPR guidelines, security requirements, tips for preparing, and penalties associated. To keep going with this series, we partnered with one of our partners, UnifyCloud, to speak to GDPR compliance in the cloud. If you are in the midst of moving to the cloud or already have some applications or workloads in the cloud (SaaS, IaaS, PaaaS, etc.), we put together a web recording to address concerns around ensuring GDPR compliance when it comes to XaaS services and third-party CSPs such as AWS and Azure.
How Artificial Intelligence Can Help Detect Cyberthreats
Over the past few years it’s become clear that the fortress mentality of securing the perimeter and hardening the system is not effective in today’s cyberthreat environment. Even if you add in patching all your software, and randomize passwords, bad actors are going to get past your heavily guarded gate and into your network.
Network Mergers & Acquisitions – 2017 Recap
A combination of political transition, economic forces, and good timing may have helped to fuel the brisk pace of mergers and acquisitions in the telecommunications industry this year.
Data Center Mergers & Acquisitions – 2017 Recap
This is the first post in our annual IT services mergers and acquisition (M&A) series, we will also be covering telecom/network and cloud acquisitions in later posts. If you happened to miss last year’s data center M&A post, here is a link to it for old times’ sake.
Happy Holidays From StrataCore – 2017 in Review
We would like to take a moment to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you to our valued clients and partners for your trust and support. 2017 was a great year and we completed nearly 500 client projects.
StrataCore & QTS Deliver Customized Data Center Services
StrataCore, the premiere IT services broker in the Pacific Northwest, and QTS Realty Trust (NYSE: QTS), a leading provider of secure, compliant data center, hybrid cloud, and managed services, worked together to provide a high-quality data center solution to meet the unique business needs of a large, multi-billion-dollar retailer in the Pacific Northwest.
StrataCore Adds New Partner EdgeConneX
The Partnership with EdgeConneX further expands StrataCore’s portfolio of high quality Data Center providers focused on cutting-edge technology solutions for enterprise companies.
Data Security Challenges for Healthcare Providers
Cybercriminals have their sites on healthcare data. See tips for how to protect this sensitive information. It’s an understatement to say that data security is critical in healthcare, where a breach can not only impact an organization’s effectiveness and reputation but also affect patient privacy and—worst-case scenario—health and safety.
GDPR Penalties for Non-Compliance
This is the final post in a series of 4 on GDPR. Part 1 covered who is subject to GDPR requirements, Part 2 identified data security requirements, and Part 3 covered how organizations should prepare.
What the GDPR Means to Organizations & How to Prepare
This is Post 3 in a series of 4 series on the basics of GDPR. Part 1 covered who is subject to GDPR requirements and Part 2 identified GDPR data security requirements. In this post, we’ll look at what the GDPR means for enterprise companies and how they should be preparing for the deadline - May 25th, 2018.
StrataCore Announces New Partnership With Cyxtera
The New Relationship with Cyxtera Speaks to StrataCore’s Commitment to Build a World-Class Partner Portfolio to Enable Enterprise Services to End-Users Across the Globe.
GDPR - Key Data Security Requirements
This is Part 2 in a 4 part series of posts that will help to educate you on GDPR, including who is affected, key requirements, implications, preparedness, and potential penalties.
Cybersecurity Challenges Companies Face in an IoT World
Protect your company's assets in a world that's increasingly dominated by mobile technology and IoT According to Computer World, there will be more than 25 billion connected online devices by 2020. IBM states that roughly 785 Cloud apps are in use for the average Enterprise while only 60 of those are actually used on a consistent basis. What does this all mean?
Framework for GDPR Compliance
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) impacts every business in the European Union(EU) or doing business in the EU even if their headquarters are outside EU borders.
Are You Ready for the GDPR Deadline: May 25, 2018?
If your company is doing business in the EU, you must be aware of the impending European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) enforcement deadline on May 25th, 2018.
Savvy IT Teams Are Preparing For 5G Now
In today’s business environment new technologies are constantly being introduced that can revolutionize an entire industry overnight. Many organizations are realizing 5G may be the next big thing that will reshape how they operate.
Four Warning Signs Today's Deal Will Be Tomorrow's Problem
What you need to know before negotiating your next IT service contract. Taking calculated risks is something most of us are comfortable doing. We gauge the risk against the downside should everything go south.
StrataCore Saves WildTangent 40% on CDN Costs
Content Delivery Network (CDN) Contract Negotiation Case study
The Future of Lights-Out Data Centers
A new generation of “lights-out” data centers will be optimized for extreme efficiency, not for human access or comfort.
15 Redlines For Data Center & Telecom Contracts
Part of planning any long-term IT infrastructure purchase is establishing a baseline of operations for today and into the future.
14 Thoughts From 14 Years
This month is StrataCore’s 14-year anniversary. That means I’ve been in the industry for 21 years. I don’t feel that old but my gray hair tells a different story. In honor of our milestone, I’ve comprised 14 key beliefs, earned over 14 years since founding StrataCore:
3 Tips for Successful Cloud Management
Businesses of all sizes can benefit from having a fully integrated, reliable, secure, and cost-effective hybrid cloud deployment. If you have been tasked with the challenging responsibility of revamping an existing cloud computing strategy or implementing one for a growing business, there are some important best practices to keep in mind.
7 Reasons to Hire a Virtual CISO
Is your data safe from motivated cyber criminals? CIO Magazine boldly stated that companies that can't or won't pay big money for top-level security talent run the risk of joining the ranks of Target, Home Depot, and many other big brands that have suffered from damaging security breaches.
Data Center Efficiency: Containment
Many data centers use containment for maximum efficiency. This is a second post in a series on data center efficiency and how to achieve efficiencies in the data center, which could be anything from an on-premise IT room, colocation space, or a web-scale building.
How 3 Companies Saved Thousands Renegotiating IT Contracts
Cost Savings Use Cases In today's marketplace, businesses need to be adaptable, scalable, and very conscious of operational expenses, including IT budgets.
StrataCore Earns Eight Awards for Top Sales Performance
We are honored to be recognized by our channel partners with eight distinct awards for top sales performance in 2016.
3 Strategies to Increase Data Center Efficiency
What is data center efficiency, and how can it be improved?
StrataCore Hires Two New Executives
Over the last year, we have been heavily focused on expanding our channel to better serve our clients and sub-agents.
New Partners to Solve IT Infrastructure Requirements in China
Partnerships with China Mobile, China Telecom Americas and Zenlayer Further Expand StrataCore’s Portfolio to 15 Reliable Providers for Data Center, Cloud Services, Connectivity, and Security SEATTLE, Wash. — July 25, 2017 — StrataCore, leading IT services broker for data center, cloud, connectivity and security, today announced that it has established partnerships with three major telecom providers in China to accelerate companies’ inroads in this region by providing secure, reliable and cost-effective options, while simplifying the task of navigating intricate Chinese regulatory laws. These new partnerships are part of a strategic effort to expand StrataCore’s network in China, and bring the company’s portfolio to more than fifteen premier providers in the region.
Net Neutrality – The Continued Fight
Today, hundreds of the Internet’s most notable companies and activist groups are raising awareness about Net Neutrality and the new administration’s plans to remove the protections which were put in place by the previous administration in 2015. The day of action is an attempt to mobilize the users of these large groups to influence legislators and policy-makers to keep existing net neutrality rules in place. Some of the largest companies taking action are Facebook, Google, Amazon, AT&T (yes!), Reddit, Snapchat, Pornhub, Spotify and Vimeo, so the issue should gain awareness from millions of viewers.
Enterprise IT Making the Shift to Security-as-a-Service (SECaaS)
Cybersecurity is a frequent theme in today’s news with a steady stream of stories around data breach or the latest ransomware attack. A growing array of sophisticated, highly-motivated cyber criminals and less-skilled bad actors with access to inexpensive, easy-to-use tools, are outpacing the ability of IT and security professionals to address the constant evolution of new threats.
IT Industry News - June 2017
Technology, IT services, and providers are constantly changing in today's marketplace. It's hard to keep up with the latest news. Here are a few notable articles to keep you up to date on the latest news in Data Center, Cloud, Security, Tech Transformation, and more.
What You Need to Know About WannaCry
WannaCry is the most severe malware attack this year, and the spread of this troubling ransomware is far from over.
Tips for an Effective Disaster Recovery Plan
As you may already know, not all disaster recovery (DR) plans are created equal.
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Cloud Smackdown 2.0 [video]
Last week StrataCore and the Seattle SIM co-hosted an IT executive panel discussion on the topic of where to put your infrastructure.
Cloud & Unified Communications (UCaaS) M&A Recap - 2016
In previous posts, we looked at Telecom and Data Center acquisition activity from 2016.
Do You Know the True Cost of Your Cloud?
Cloud has become a fact of business life for many enterprise companies.
AWS S3 Outage ("high error rates")
AWS’s S3, a web-based, object storage service experienced widespread issues last Tuesday morning.
Data Center M&A Recap - 2016
Acquisitions significantly impacted the data center industry in 2016 and will continue to do so as competition increases and data center operators look to expand.
Does Your Business Need a Disaster Recovery Plan?
Is your business prepared for a natural disaster or power outage?
SaaS Market Trends to Keep an Eye On
Adoption of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is accelerating and many organizations are realizing the transformative benefits in 2017.
Biggest Hacks, Leaks, and Data Breaches of 2016
In 2016 we saw some of the worst data breaches in US History including high-profile victims, such as LinkedIn and Yahoo.
Top 5 Concerns for CIOs in 2017
Today’s IT professionals are under pressure to help their companies compete in an ever-changing marketplace. While revenue growth and cost reduction remain priorities, scalability, security, and the rapid adoption of new technology are also top concerns.
From the Russian Data Center Market with Love
Russia continues to draw investors from all over the world, as the sixth-most attractive country for foreign direct investment. The commercial market for data centers in Russia has been growing at around 25 percent per year over the last five years.
5 Key Provisions for IT Service Provider Contracts
Negotiating an IT services contract can be a long, complex, and arduous process.
Top Causes of Data Center Outages
A GCN article on causes of unplanned data center outages has some interesting stats.
Public Cloud Spending Trends & IaaS Magic Quadrant Results
Traditional IT spending may be shrinking, but the public cloud market is still going strong.
Secure Your Cloud - Taking a DevOps Approach to Security
The organizational friction between a business need to rapidly innovate.
What Does Brexit Mean for IT Infrastructure Companies?
It seems like a crazy decision by UK voters, but they did it.
Uptime Institute Data Center Tiers Explained
The data center is a dedicated space were your company houses its most important information and relies on it being safe and accessible. Before your company contracts with a new data center or cloud service provider, you should have a full understanding of what types of certifications they have achieved. Uptime Institute's tiered classification system has become the gold standard for third-party validation of data center critical infrastructure. The tier system offers companies a way to measure return on investment (ROI) and performance.
The European Data Center Market is Heating Up
The recent M&A activity in the European colocation market is consolidating market share amongst a few industry leaders while leaving smaller regional providers to concentrate on diversification or niche solutions. Some of the factors driving this recent activity are the changing data privacy regulations, increasing demand for high-quality data center space, latency concerns, and a need to differentiate – with footprint, connectivity or services.
Colocation in Hong Kong – The Springboard to China
Last month we hosted a panel event with IT Infrastructure experts talking about colocation, managed hosting, cloud services and security services on a global scale (the video stream can be found in this blog post). A lot of the conversation surrounded the new economic giant of the world, China.
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Containers & Cloud - The Basics [Infographic]
Container technology has taken the cloud computing market by force, as Cloud Service Providers and enterprise businesses continue to embrace Docker, CoreOS and others that enter the mix. Why is everyone going container crazy? Perhaps all the hype is for good reason. Containers are shaping up as breakthrough technology that some believe could rival the impact that virtual machines (VMs) have had in corporate data centers. The technology allows applications to be bundled in a lightweight container that can be run atop bare metal servers, VMs, or across a variety of hosted platforms. Their portability, combined with ease of spinning them up could be important for application developers and operators.
10 Common Disaster Recovery Mistakes
We recently came across this informative disaster recovery article posted by Cisco, and thought it was worth sharing. Written by David Alvarado, Regional Director of Service Delivery at Peak10, provides tips for success when implementing a DR strategy.
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Going Global - Taking Tech Worldwide [Video]
Growth companies will inevitably reach a point where they look to expand their customer base outside of the United States. This global expansion is accompanied by the need for infrastructure services to enable the success of these growing technical, sales and administrative teams. Whether it’s a global WAN/MPLS network, data center colocation, managed hosting,cloud or security services, there are many factors to take into consideration when sourcing IT infrastructure internationally. Weigh your options carefully before opening an office, securing data center space, or deciding to outsource managed services in a foreign country. This recorded panel discussion will bring clarity to the global infrastructure market and assist with making the best decision for delivering your company’s technology services overseas. Watch the video now. During this panel, industry experts discussed: What you need to know about US-EU Safe Harbor Advantages/disadvantages of sourcing in specific countries – i.e. Luxembourg, Ireland, China, Russia, India, Australia, and LATAM Contracting concerns Minimizing risk – political and economic Real-world use cases
5 Tactics for Successful IT Outsourcing
Companies of all types and sizes outsource IT projects to trusted vendors.
Tips for Managing Productivity During March Madness
It’s that time of year again, March Madness is in full force.
Network and Hardware Vendors, M&A Activity 2015
We saw a record number of mergers and acquisitions in 2105, many technology-based companies were looking to either grow specific verticals and service segments or just consolidate resources in order to gain efficiencies. The level of competition in this industry is high and there is a lot of pressure to innovate in order for companies to survive in the marketplace.
Security Service Providers, M&A Activity 2015
As cyberattacks grow more and more sophisticated, IT security has become an arms race with businesses scrambling to keep up with the latest attack method. In a response to this trend, security providers are increasing the sophistication of their solutions, and in some cases acquiring other security specialist companies in order to expand their offering. The managed security sector will continue to see fast-paced growth, valued at $14.3B in 2014 with expected growth to $31.9B by 2019.
Unified Communications Service Providers, M&A Activity 2015
Similar to what we have seen with other cloud-based service providers, Unified Communications companies have been merging in an attempt to gain market share and become more competitive. This market will continue to evolve as technology changes, new applications emerge, and more enterprise companies invest in updating their communication capabilities in the coming years. We look forward to seeing the evolution and who comes out on top.
Cloud Service Providers, M&A activity 2015
The cloud front has been active with mergers and acquisitions for the past few years, it’s no surprise that 2015 brought more consolidation to this marketplace. The highest price tag of the year was an acquisition for$67 billion, paid by Dell for EMC, including its VMware virtualization software. Some analysts predict that the high valuations of technology companies seen in recent years will fade or even crash. We look forward to seeing how the cloud industry changes in the coming years.
Data Center Providers, M&A Activity - 2015
The data center/colocation industry was not lacking for mergers and acquisitions activity in 2015.
Five of the World’s Most Unique Retrofitted Data Centers
The words ‘cool’ and ‘data center’ may not automatically compute in your mind, but taking a look at some of the world’s most unique retrofitted data centers below might change that for you. Some modern data center providers are focused less on traditional data center spaces as security needs, eco-awareness, and the need to accommodate non-traditional hardware increase.
Network Service Providers, International - M&A Activity in 2015
Many international telecom companies were on a mission similar to their US counterparts last year - build scale and cut costs. Much of the consolidation activity centered on whittling down the number of telecom companies per country. In many European markets there are often four or more competitors. Some international executives were also looking abroad at US-based telecom companies that might be acquisition targets. In the US there are fewer competitors and a larger share of profits to be had.
Network Service Providers, US – M&A Activity in 2015
Telecommunications is one of the most profitable and rapidly developing industries in the world and it’s regarded as an indispensable component of the utility and services sector. Why all the M&A action within this industry? This type of activity can be helpful to Telecom companies that are interested achieving greater market share and maximizing economies of scale. The majority of Telecom Service Providers understand that M&A is a quick way to grow their footprint.
Top 7 Cloud Influencers You Need to Know About
We wanted to share a recent blog post from one of our partners, Cloudyn.
The US-EU Safe Harbor Framework Collapsed
The recent decision made by the European Court of Justice to invalidate a major, 15 year-old data-sharing agreement sent shock waves across the Atlantic. American companies like Facebook, Google, and Twitter that have historically transmitted information between the US and Europe may be prohibited from doing so in the future.
10 Things That Make Network Engineers Grumpy
It doesn't look like network engineers are going to get much rest in the coming year.
Tips for Developing a Cybersecurity Strategy
An organization’s cybersecurity policy and controls must be created so they are easily adaptable to new emerging threats.
Is SDN Right For Your Network?
Software Defined Networking (SDN) has attracted a great deal of attention from service providers, enterprises, and industry associations.
Future IT Planning: Data Center Trends
Over the last few years big data, mobility, virtualization, and cloud computing have radically transformed enterprise IT. If you have started to think about your future IT planning, below are a few key data center trends to take note of for the coming year:
Data Breach Prevention Tips From the Experts
It’s not a matter of if, but when we hear about the next big data breach revelation.
Cloud Security Report
Our partner Alert Logic provides managed security and compliance solutions for over 3,000 customers across the globe. As part their cybersecurity research practice they review threats and attacks against their vast customer base looking for insight to share in their annual Cloud Security Report.
Wanted: Cybersecurity Crime Fighters
It’s like the Wild West out there for companies trying to protect their data and systems from cyber criminals. Data breaches, with multi-million dollar consequences are happening every day. Cyber criminals are becoming savvier, and their costs are going down. C-Levels are being held accountable for damaging and costly hacks and executives are scrambling to recruit the best security talent to protect their business.
Is Your Infrastructure Prepared for Joaquin?
Hurricane Joaquin is on the way: Is your infrastructure disaster proof?
IT Industry News - Service Provider Partners
For those of you looking for a quick bite of IT industry news with your breakfast, here is what our IT Service Provider partners have been up to lately:
The Story of Cloud: Past, Present, and Future
What started in 2006 with Amazon Web Services has mushroomed into a multibillion-dollar industry, and its transformation has been profound.
Harden Your Infrastructure & Code With DevSecOps
If you are a company that has joined the DevOps movement to integrate code and infrastructure deployment, it's likely you (or someone in your organization) have had some concerns about information security. In an effort to release products faster or reduce time to market, information security gaps can become a problem for any company. Security monitoring tools haven’t been able to keep up with the fast-paced changes being made by DevOps when releasing new features or products.
![Mitigating Multi-Vector DDoS Attacks [infographic] - Featured Image](https://www.stratacore.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Blog_Images/Multi-vector_DDoS_Mitigation.jpg?width=325&name=Multi-vector_DDoS_Mitigation.jpg)
Mitigating Multi-Vector DDoS Attacks [infographic]
Over 80% of cyberattacks use a multi-vector approach to disable a network or servers.
IT Security: Data Breaches and Prevention Tactics
The WTIA recently hosted an IT security panel discussion on data breaches and how companies can work to prevent them.
Leap Second, Just a Blip on the Radar
In an effort to sync up with the gradual slowing of the earth’s rotation we experienced what is being referred to as a “leap second” yesterday at midnight Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Apparently this leap second could’ve been bad news for computer systems around the globe. The last leap second, which took place in 2012, brought down Gizmodo, Reddit, Yelp, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Gawker, and StumbleUpon, among other sites and apps. Although Amazon did experience an outage yesterday, it appears that it was unrelated, and most US companies were more prepared for the extra second this time around.
Industry News: IT Tradeshow Summary
It’s summer in Seattle which means the trade show season is in full swing.
M&A Activity Heats Up In the Cloud World
If you are running a company that has anything to do with security, big data, or IoT, you are looking pretty attractive to larger suitors right about now. This year has been the jam packed with merger and acquisition activity; we’ve had the biggest run of M&A activity since the dotcom bubble. Companies in every industry are looking at digital transformation as the way forward into the global economy, and the companies that sell solutions to address this transformation are hot items.
Why Businesses Choose Luxembourg
Since the 70’s many US and foreign multinational companies have taken advantage of the business-friendly tax laws that Luxembourg has to offer.
Get the Most Bang for Your Buck- IT Sourcing Made Easy eBook
The competitive landscape is changing, and IT departments are challenged to keep up with shifting business needs. It's critical that your infrastructure allows your company the adaptability and scalability needed to be successful in today's marketplace. The problem is - who has time to ensure they are sourcing the best IT solution to fit their business and infrastructure needs?
Webinar: Secure, Maintainable, Hybrid Cloud Deployments
Industry experts are predicting a huge growth rate for Hybrid Cloud.
Is the Venom Vulnerability More Bark Than Bite?
Venom, announced recently by security intelligence firm CrowdStrike, is a vulnerability affecting the floppy drive emulation code used by many virtualization platforms. It looks like Venom will not be as big as Heartbleed, the vulnerability discovered last year that allowed hackers to grab data from the memory of servers running affected versions of the open-source OpenSSL encryption software. However, VENOM is of particular interest to cloud-users everywhere as it is one of a very few vulnerabilities at the hypervisor that compromises the security through isolation promise of virtualization-based cloud infrastructure.
Container Technology Madness - Part Deux
Container madness is still in full force with more big name vendors like AWS, Google, Red Hat, IBM, Microsoft and VMware jumping on the container bandwagon that Docker got rolling. The madness is also fueled by container technologies driving changes in the conversation around cloud computing.
Weighing Your WAN Optimization Options
For many companies, the number of bandwidth-heavy applications is growing, while the budget to support these workloads is shrinking. Traditionally, an MPLS solution was used to minimize latency and ensure reliability between remote locations. While easy to use, this type of solution can be prohibitively expensive for some budgets and time consuming to implement. Companies are frequently switching to an Internet connection in place of a traditional WAN link for at least one, if not many locations. Utilizing a standard Internet connection and site-to-site VPN instead of MPLS for certain locations can save money and accelerate provisioning timelines. One downside of using an Internet connection for this type of service is the possibility of poor performance. By definition it is a best-effort type of service. WAN optimization can help solve this problem.
The Future of Network Technology
The rapid pace of IT innovation makes it hard to keep up with all of the latest and greatest technologies. When it comes to networks, much of 2014 was spent discussing Software Defined Networking (SDN), and more recently Network Functions Virtualization (NFV). Now it seems the hot topic in network conversation is Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO).
![There's a New aaS in Town: Security-as-a-Service [Infographic] - Featured Image](https://www.stratacore.com/hs-fs/hubfs/SECaaSInfographic.jpg?width=325&name=SECaaSInfographic.jpg)
There's a New aaS in Town: Security-as-a-Service [Infographic]
It’s time for organizations of all sizes to prepare for a more complex landscape of cyber threats: very large volumetric attacks, application attacks that target specific critical resources, and low and slow attacks that may occur below the radar.
Q1 Newsletter: 2015
Q1 Panel Event Recap: Cloud vs Colo Smackdown New Infographic: Security-as-a-Service Featured Blog: Cloud Closed - A Rundown of Shutdowns Featured Article: The Allure of Singapore - The World's Second Gateway to China
Huge Power Outage in Amsterdam- Is Your Datacenter Prepared?
Whether an outage is caused by bad weather, an overtaxed electrical grid, a backhoe accidentally hitting a power line, your data center needs to be prepared for power loss. Downtime matters, and downtime prevention matters. Most large businesses lease space with Tier 3 or Tier 4 data centers due to the level of redundancy associated with those Tiers. Learn more about the difference between Data Center Tiers.
![Where to Put Your Infrastructure in 2015 [video] - Featured Image](https://www.stratacore.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Cloud-vs-Colo-twitter.jpg?width=325&name=Cloud-vs-Colo-twitter.jpg)
Where to Put Your Infrastructure in 2015 [video]
Last week StrataCore and the Seattle SIM co-hosted a panel discussion at the Big Picture in Seattle. The topic was: Cloud vs Colo Smackdown – Where Should You Put Your Infrastructure?
Protect Your Company Against Cybercrime
Cybercrime is on the rise. Companies, large and small, are falling victim to a fully weaponized web that provides bad actors with simple tools to perform their dirty cyberdeeds. Thanks to the Internet’s inherent anonymity, widespread reach, and disjointed law enforcement status Cybercriminals have a lot to gain – and enterprises have a lot to lose.
Party like its 3.14.15 9:26:53
This coming Saturday, March 14th is a special day for math geeks and nerds alike - Pi Day.
Data Center Billing Models Made Simple
As a company we have toured and fully evaluated over 200 data centers worldwide.
Cloud Security and Privacy for the Consumer & the Enterprise
As part of the WTIA’s IT Security event series, they hosted a Privacy of the Cloud panel discussion at KPMG last week. Our very own Director of Cloud Strategy, Lee Pallat, was one of the panelists, along with Co-Founder of Déjà Vu Security, Akshay Aggarwal, Founder of Rhino Security Labs, Benjamin Caudill, and Manager at KPMG, Kerri Murphy. If you missed the event, you can read a recap on our blog, or watch the video. Interesting discussion about privacy and security related to the cloud and how it’s changing businesses, IT departments, and consumers.
IT News– Tech Trends, Cloud Activity, New Products & Service
Here is a quick rundown of a few newsworthy articles that people are talking about it the world of IT, including cloud computing trends for 2015, some M&A activity, new products/services being offered, and organizations leading the technology pack.
![Don’t like your Cloud Vendor? Wait a second [podcast] - Featured Image](https://www.stratacore.com/hs-fs/hub/282679/file-1585549172-jpg/27373270_s.jpg?width=325&name=27373270_s.jpg)
Don’t like your Cloud Vendor? Wait a second [podcast]
I was on my way home the other night and wanted something to listen to while sitting in traffic, so why not a podcast. Here is a summary of The Structured Show podcast that kept me entertained while parked on I-90. Thank you to the hosts Barb Darrow and Derrick Harris. “If your cloud provider’s lineup leaves you cold, you can jump ship. Or you could wait a minute because things could — probably will — change. There’s already been a ton of consolidation — the acquisitions of MetaCloud, Eucalyptus, Cloudscaling et al by Cisco, HP, and EMC respectively.
Enterprise IT Can Learn from Top Athletes
Top athletes use an agent to help them get to the best team, at the highest price, with the most future incentives. An agent also helps athletes to find and negotiate endorsements from sponsors. These negotiations require innate knowledge of deal making, finances, and contract law. Many agents are also lawyers which enables quick negotiation to secure contracts with the lowest risk and best terms.
Nor'easter or Not - Everyone Needs DR
With the latest “Storm of the Century” approaching the Northeast, we thought it might be a good time to post a few disaster recovery tips and lessons learned.
Hosted Private Cloud Service Provider
There is a new Forrester Wave report out that focuses on hosted private cloud solutions.
The Best of 2014 - The Advisor
We wanted to recap a few of the highlights from our blog, which included a fair amount of M&A activity, new cloud related technology products, and a bit of Shellshock.
Cloud Closed - A Rundown of 2014 Shutdowns
Cloud 2015 is off to a stuttering start with Verizon’s announcement of up to 48 hours of downtime for maintenance. Notifications have been going out to all Verizon Cloud customers with predictably unhappy responses. While the twitterverse is in a bit of an uproar, Verizon has performed similar maintenance in the past and states that ONLY 24 hours of downtime is expected.
Out with the Old, In with the New - IT Trends
It’s that time of year, and we couldn’t resist jumping on the industry recap bandwagon.
Docker’s Growing Ecosystem and the New Container World
Docker, the container technology that finally made it, is the hot tech topic of 2015.
Shadow IT Leads to Cloud Governance Problems
Remember the days when IT was in control of all hardware and software brought into the business?
Cloud Adoption is Reshaping Today's IT Departments
Cloud adoption is changing the way companies address their business requirements, which in turn is reshaping the role of IT. The flexibility, agility, and cost efficiency of cloud-based solutions are making more sense to businesses that desire the ability to quickly respond to shifting business priorities and market conditions.
Use a Broker to Source IT Services- Webinar
We presented sourcing tactics for a Sourcing Interests Group webinar last week.
Why Apple Wins in the Enterprise Today
Over the course of its nearly 30 year history, Apple has gone from early innovator to niche player to near bankruptcy to marketing success to enterprise dabbler to consumer product giant. This week Apple announced its first foray back into the enterprise space, AppleCare for Enterprise.
DiraaS - Directory-as-a-Service Offers User Admin in The Cloud
The newest entry in Amazon Web Service’s ever-growing product portfolio is DiraaS, Directory-as-a-Service. AWS announced their latest service offering, AWS Directory Service, positioned as both an alternative to and integration with Microsoft’s industry leading Active Directory. Active Directory, and open standard alternative LDAP, allow computers to join domains, authenticate users, group users, connect to printers and other network services. Centralized directory services greatly reduce the amount of administrative work to manage an organizations users and their access to necessary services. DiraaS takes this vital corporate function and pushes it to the cloud.
5 Ways to Become the Next Big Thing in Big Data
Ninety percent of all the data in the world was created in the past two-three years, according to SINTEF independent research.
The Split Up Wrap Up
It seems like the news of late has been heavy with acquisition activity - Cisco bought Metacloud, SAP bought Concur, HP bought Eucalyptus' cloud computing software, etc. As of last week, activity has shifted to break up mode for several companies. In Silicon Valley, it seems that breaking up is easy to do.
Seattle Cloud Startups Bucking the Consolidation Trend
With all the recent news about Cloud Consolidation, it's interesting to note a couple of recent developments in the Seattle cloud scene. Blue Box, an OpenStack based, Private Cloud as a Service company announced an additional $10 million in funding from a "large publicly-traded technology company" today. Yesterday, 2nd Watch, a Liberty Lake (that's an extension of Seattle, right?) based, AWS cloud migration and management company announced a new CEO, Doug Schneider, and $10 Million in VC funding.
Cloud Consolidation Continues - EMC Acquires Cloudscaling
The great OpenStack Consolidation of 2014 continues as storage leader EMC agrees to acquire Cloudscaling for under $50 million (per Bloomberg). Cloud M&A kicked off 2014 with Red Hat’s $95 million acquisition of integrator eNovance. The above photo, which pictures Cloudscaling CEO Randy Bias (on left) should look familiar as we used it in last month’s post about HP’s acquisition of Eucalyptus and CEO Marten Mickos (also pictured, on right). Cisco’s followup deal to buy OpenStack private cloud vendor, Metacloud, took place just a few weeks later.
Industry Insights - Just In Case You Missed It
Here are a few interesting articles from last week - including Gartner 2015 tech trends,cloud security, DCIM tools, and the APAC network roundup. Gartner lays out its top 10 tech trends for 2015 The Internet of things, and everything that's part of its universe, including smart machines, pervasive analytics, and 3D printing, are on Gartner's annual list of strategic technologies for the year ahead. The list, presented today by Garner analyst David Cearley at the firm's annual Symposium/ITxpo, is focused on merging the real world with the virtual one, what that means for analytics and the type of IT that has to emerge to deal with it.
Preparing IT Infrastructure to Overcome Any Challenge
While the IT organizations of many companies pride themselves on having 99.999% uptime, there always comes a time when the very systems they depend on are suddenly unavailable.
OrionVM Wins Big with Next Gen Cloud Technology (IaaS)
OrionVM is an Australian-based and US-based Cloud Service Provider focusing on delivering new technology in the marketplace. In early 2010, OrionVM was born in a dorm room of UTS (University of Technology, Sydney). They hatched an idea to build an IaaS company using a completely new technology blueprint. Over the last few years they have worked hard to keep the innovations coming and keep their company on the leading-edge of cloud computing.
Tips to Improve ePHI Security in the Cloud for Healthcare Systems
As health care providers look to move their data storage to the Cloud, the importance of maintaining protection over that data grows.
VMware Product Announcements: 2 Steps Forward, 1 Step Back
Amongst the many revelations at VMworld this year were the renaming of VMware’s hosted cloud service product to vCloud Air and the announcement of their new converged infrastructure appliance, EVO:RAIL.
Industry Updates– Shellshock Bugs, Cloud Acquisitions & Reboots
Just in case you missed it - here's a quick look at a few top industry news articles from last week: Recap of StrataCore Blog Posts: Internet Shellshocked Today: Bash Vulnerability a Webwide Problem A vulnerability reported in the GNU Borne Again Shell (Bash) has been exploited and used to take over Web servers as part of botnet. This newly discovered security hole has been dubbed “Shellshock” and is similar to the Heartbleed bug that appeared last spring in that it allows anyone with knowledge of the vulnerability to exploit a large number of Web servers.
RTI study: Facebook's Data Center Delivers Huge Impact to NC
Facebook's data center in North Carolina has been producing about 5,000 jobs throughout the state. The social media giant has also been involved with the local communities awarding local non-profits and organizations $450,000 and PANGAEA internet for kids to have Wi-Fi to help with school work in their homes.
Internet Shellshocked: Bash Vulnerability a Webwide Problem
A vulnerability reported in the GNU Borne Again Shell (Bash) yesterday has been exploited and used to take over Web servers as part of botnet. This newly discovered security hole has been dubbed “Shellshock” and is similar to the Heartbleed bug that appeared last spring in that it allows anyone with knowledge of the vulnerability to exploit a large number of Web servers.
Desalination Plant & Data Center: Not as Odd as May Seem
The drought crisis in California’s Monterey County has prompted officials and entrepreneurs to consider building a desalination plant that draws from the Monterey Submarine Canyon, one of the largest marine canyons on the U.S. Pacific coastline.
The ABC’s of VPN Configuration
VPNs, or Virtual Private Networks, are used by companies to grant their employees access to corporate networks from their personal devices. VPNs provide an extra layer of security to such networks but in the past have been difficult for users to configure. Today VPN clients are often built right into operating systems and are available for most computers, phones and tablets. This article gives instructions on configuring VPNs for several frequently used operating systems.
VMware Announces OpenStack Compatibility
VMware recently announced two initiatives intended to promote its datacenter virtualization leadership. The first is compatibility with the Open Source Cloud framework OpenStack, and the second is a new partnership with hardware providers to build an easy-to-use, scalable, datacenter-in-a-box. Both are expected to be available soon and will enhance the functionality of the virtualization giant’s already powerful set of software tools.
How Will WebRTC Revolutionize VoIP Service?
Web Real-Time Communications or WebRTC is a communications service that supports real time communication, as well as instant messaging, voice, and other data communication. WebRTC enhances business communications without extra software and could be used for voice calls as well. WebRTC is said to be in its beginning stages, but is meant to expand to bigger and better things in the future.
The 4 Most Confusing Concepts in Networking Explained
Building and maintaining a network is a large complicated undertaking with many interlocking and moving parts. This article describes the four major components of a network - the address space, how it is subnetted and divided up, how routing is done between all the disparate networks, and how DNS works to map IP addresses to domain names.
Cisco's Intercloud Eats Metacloud
Though Rackspace declared it is no longer in search of a buyer, another two participants have announced their intentions. Network hardware giant, Cisco, has announced its acquisition of OpenStack private cloud vendor Metacloud. All of this coming on the heels of HP’s acquisition of Eucalyptus last week signals an uptick in Cloud M&A activity.
Simplifying the Complex: Datacenter Management Made Easy
Managing your own servers can be a difficult and time consuming task, especially for companies with thousands of servers. When you add security and compliance management to the mix, the task becomes even more daunting. IBM Endpoint Manager for Datacenters simplifies this process without the need for technical skills.
The Four Pillars of DCIM Integration
DCIM systems are critical to many processes within a data center and having them integrated is essential. This may seem like a daunting task and shouldn't be tackled in a single pass. Start with systems that will add the most value, and split up into four key areas from there.
![8 Tips for Putting Your DR Plan into Action [Infographic] - Featured Image](https://www.stratacore.com/hs-fs/hub/282679/file-1571754367-jpg/NPM-Top8TipsInfographic.jpg?width=325&name=NPM-Top8TipsInfographic.jpg)
8 Tips for Putting Your DR Plan into Action [Infographic]
In honor of National Preparedness Month - we wanted to share an infographic that Agility Recovery put together. It highlights the importance of having a Disaster Recovery plan and the steps you can take to to put your plan into action. What you'll learn from this infographic: How to rate your risk Tips for creating a crisis communication plan Get a template for creating emergency wallet cards Tips for conducting a simple disaster recover test
The Case for 'As-a-Service' Everywhere
We may be headed towards a nearly data center free future in which all computing infrastructure is consolidated in a handful of "uber" locations around the globe. The XaaS model is becoming more and more common due to the appealing business case for this type of service, such as OpEx vs CapEx, no need for staff to upgrade and maintain resources, and greater agility.
HP Acquires Eucalyptus, and Marten Mickos
HP has acquired AWS partner and private cloud solution provider, Eucalyptus, in a deal valued under $100 million, and tapped its CEO to head their cloud division. This is an...interesting move. Eucalyptus was one of the early available options for private cloud deployment, built to be fully compatible with AWS APIs. With the rise of OpenStack and CloudStack alternatives, which boast much greater adoption and industry support, the Eucalyptus star has faded. Eucalyptus chief executive Marten Mickos, right, at VentureBeat's 2013 CloudBeat Conference. Image Credit: Michael O'Donnell/VentureBeat
The Role of Product Leadership in Data Center Strategy
Rarely a day goes by in the data center sector without a new vendor springing up in the market or an existing business expanding. The reasons are clear: the market is buoyant and there is money to be made.
OpenStack Manages Growth & Governance
While most would agree that large-scale, open-source software projects require some form of governance, there are differing opinions on where that governance should come from. Though it is the preferred practice of some to concentrate directional authority in the hands of one person or a small group of people, OpenStack offers an alternative.
NASA Launches Massive Cloud Migration
NASA migrated 65 software applications, including its flagship NASA.gov website, to the cloud in 22 weeks, and the space agency is still in the midst of a massive deployment to the cloud. The initial migration was completed at what analysts called a breakneck pace, and now the fun has just begun, said the head of NASA's Web services.
