Blog: The Advisor

An Application Assessment will set up indicators to measure the usability, cost, quality, performance, and risk of applications.

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.

One of the greatest questions that all IT professionals must answer is: How can I gain a competitive advantage for my business?

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.

Think about what your staff would say if they were asked about some of the problems within your organization.

StrataCore was recently awarded as the number 11th in the ranking of Most Equitable Workplaces in the State of Washington.

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.

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 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?

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.

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.

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.