In today’s fast paced business world, many businesses find the growing need for various data center solutions for their day-to-day operations. Whether you want to implement cloud computing for your offices and remote employees or you find that it’s time to take control of your web presence, Telecom Agent Solutions is here to help.
TAS Data Center Services Are As Follows
Colocation
Colocation is sometimes referred to as “co-location,” “colo,” or “collocation,” and “server colocation hosting.” These services, while terms may vary, are identical. If you own your own data server equipment, but you’d like to enjoy faster speeds, greater uptime, and overall reliability, then colocation may be a great option for your business.
Colocation server hosting happens when you rent space in a data center and your server is taken there to be connected. Some options that are available for housing your server equipment include rack mounting, cabinet space, and private cages.
Generally, when choosing rack mounting or cabinet space, your server will be housed in available space amongst those from other businesses. While these are usually very secure, you may want to opt for a private, locked cage reserved for your equipment only.
The data center will ensure that your server is kept cool, is kept online during any problem phases with redundancies for power and connectivity, is monitored, and kept secure. All of this is provided in addition to providing power and a fast, reliable Internet connection.
Cloud Computing
This data center option is relatively new, but it is one of the best new technologies to come along in a while. The cloud refers to clusters of shared services — hardware, software, information, resources — and it is sometimes also called “virtualization.”
Cloud services are comprised of three important components: Applications, platforms, and infrastructure. The great thing about cloud computing for businesses is that they do not have to carry the burden of upgrading hardware and software, maintaining computer equipment, or hiring staff to take care of all of those things.
One well-known example of a cloud computing service is the Google suite. People and businesses can access Gmail email, collaborate on documents and share a calendar with an easy to use interface from nearly everywhere there is an Internet connection.
Cloud options aren’t just restricted to those that Google provides. A business can use cloud services for payroll, word processing, accounting, maintaining spreadsheets, editing video, editing web applications and sites, and much more. You can either choose to hire a service like Google or Microsoft (Windows Live) which will provide all of the software solutions, platforms, and infrastructure or you can obtain the services of a cloud computing business like Rackspace. Rackspace provides cloudservers, cloudsites, and cloudfiles to customers so that they can install or create and maintain their own applications.
Dedicated & Managed Servers
A dedicated, or “managed,” server is housed in a data center, much the same as your own server equipment would be if you chose to go with colocation. The difference is that you don’t own the equipment and you don’t need to worry about maintaining it. This type is sometimes referred to as “managed hosting.”
Like colocation, you will have access to your own, private server with a dedicated Internet connection. It is somewhat like the difference between owning your own home and renting one. The cost of a dedicated server is a little higher per billing term (monthly, quarterly, or yearly) than colocation, but you do not have to worry about the costs of maintaining the equipment.
If you want the ability to maintain your own server, but you don’t want the hassle of equipment maintenance, then a dedicated server is an ideal solution. Many hosting providers offer a wide array of equipment and operating systems to choose from.
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A Content Delivery Network, or “CDN,” is a network comprised of several “Points of Presence” that are accessed by end users to retrieve digital content provided by you. These types of networks can provide your customers, website visitors, or employees with the ability to access your content without having to experience the result of bottlenecking and congestion.
For instance, if your business has a corporate website, a video streaming service, and a backend interface for employees to conduct their various duties, a single server might not be nearly enough to handle all of the traffic, let alone have the processing power to keep up with demand. A CDN, however, would be a network of servers that would allow many to access streaming video while others browsed the corporate website, and your employees did their work without impeding each other.
Video streaming is just one example of content. Other examples include websites, Flash animations, photographs, software, downloadable media, applications, mobile media, Internet radio, and software. The dispersal of congestion that a CDN provides will help your business maximize the bandwidth you purchase while keeping customers happy and coming back and keeping employees productive in a positive working environment.
Online Data Backup & Storage
While none of us likes for it to happen, computers can sometimes fail. It’s annoying enough when it’s a personal computer used for recreation, but when business computers are affected, it can be devastating. Whether irreparable damage is caused by viruses and worms or physical damage, such as fire or water, an online data backup service can mean the difference between a short downtime and a long shutdown.
Data backups can be as often as you want for all of your data or just some of it. For instance, if you could get away with systems becoming unrecoverable as long as all of your address book contacts, financial information, and supply lists were kept intact then an end of the day online backup service could be used to backup just that information offsite. You can even backup several systems worth of data daily or weekly.
Online data storage can be used to help speed up recovery after a computing disaster, but they are best utilized to archive, manage, store, and retrieve files. By using an off-site data storage service, you and your employees can work remotely while still having access to pertinent data and the data is also protected from virtual and physical damage.
Online data backup and storage can come in the form of a dedicated server and this is one of the most common options these days. However, autoloaders, disk-based backup systems, tape libraries, and virtual tape libraries are still in use and can provide an extra layer of protection for your important and sensitive data.