Archive for June 2012

AISN’s Redundant Power and Connectivity Protect Customers From Power Outages in Aftermath of Massive DC Storm

June 30th, 2012
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By Jay Atkinson
AIS Network CEO

data center reliability

Unplanned outages are costly. Redundant power and connectivity are critical values that managed hosting providers offer.

Can the AIS Network data center reliably maintain data availability when a massive storm hits?  Yes!

Last night, the Washington, DC, metropolitan area suffered a massive, highly destructive storm replete with high winds, thunder, lightning and heavy rains.  This afternoon, more than 1.3 million households and businesses across the area are still without power.  In fact, power company officials are predicting a “multi-day outage.”  All this bad news comes in the middle of a heat wave when weather forecasters are calling for dangerous heat levels and still more storms.  We sympathize with those who are still without power and who have suffered property loss.

Last night’s storm, which crippled many businesses with a primary utility power outage, underscores why it’s tremendously advantageous to host your mission critical data in an SSAE 16 Type II-compliant data center.  Outages are costly.  Customers don’t really care if there was a storm, an earthquake, a rolling blackout or some other issue responsible for an outage.  They  simply expect perfect availability of and connectivity to their data, and that is understandable.

Reliable, redundant power and redundant IP connectivity are two of the most important safeguards that a managed hosting provider can offer its customers, especially when a natural disaster strikes.  Yet, what many hosting providers offer falls short of that.  AIS Network’s Tier III data center in Virginia came through with flying colors and kept our customers’ data up and running.  No hiccups, just solid availability.

Choosing to move your mission critical applications and data from an on-premise hosted environment to a fully managed hosted environment within a secure data center definitely makes good economic sense but it’s also a decision that provides for more reliable protection against power and Internet connection outages.  That’s a critical value proposition.

Managed hosting support systems must be predictably available, and system availability is only as predictable as the availability of power to those systems.  When you host your data in AISN’s data center, you are choosing to add a level of built-in redundancy for failover protection during common and extreme conditions.  AISN facilities are designed for redundancy and high availability of power to our clients’ critical server systems, and high density Internet connections.  Clearly, to build this sort of environment for your data on-premise would be cost-prohibitive.

Some data centers promise redundant/ backup systems, but nonetheless, it’s still very important for a prospective customer to confirm precisely what that promise entails.  In some cases, a physical inspection may be necessary or advisable.  If you’d like to learn more about AISN’s data centers or take a technical tour, please contact us.

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SharePoint Users: Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Solves Common Business Challenges

June 29th, 2012
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By Jay Atkinson
AIS Network CEO

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 is here now.  How much do you know about it?

If you’re using Microsoft SharePoint 2010 or Microsoft SharePoint 2010 for Internet Sites or if you manage big data, then it’s likely that you are familiar with SQL Server.  This newest version of Microsoft’s premier enterprise database management system has numerous new (and quite powerful) features over the previous release, 2008 R2.

In fact, there are so many noteworthy improvements over 2008 R2 that it would take quite a long time to blog about them all.  Rather, let’s just examine how this new version helps you solve some basic business challenges effectively.

Why use SQL Server 2012?  As the foundation to the cloud-ready information platform, SQL Server 2012 will help businesses of all sizes unlock breakthrough insights across the organization as well as build solutions quickly and extend data from server to private or public cloud — all backed by advanced capabilities for mission critical confidence.

Not only does SQL Server 2012 help improve customer management, but it also may help you face a number of common challenges.  Let’s look at five:

SQL Server 2012

But how do you know if you need SQL 2012?  Many organizations are 24×7 operations.  They may have a global presence too.  But they all have one very important quality in common:  they cannot afford downtime.  Does this describe you?  If so, ask yourself some of these questions:

  • How is your current database supporting your needs?
  • Is the performance of your current database where you need it to be?
  • Are you planning a move to the cloud?
  • Do you see yourself introducing new mission critical applications or planning migrations within three months to a year?
  • How are you viewing business insights for your organization?
  • Are you planning any major projects within the next three months to a year?

These are all good discussion points that we’d be happy to help you work through in your effort to discover whether or not SQL Server 2012 would benefit your organization.

Finally, I’d suggest three brief points for consideration:

1)  Mission Critical Confidence. SQL Server 2012 enables mission critical performance and availability at low TCO.  Consider that it offers:

  • A new integrated high availability and disaster recovery solution
  • Advanced performance speeds
  • Built-in encryption capabilities help protect confidential information without changes to the application

2)  Breakthrough Insight. Use SQL Server 2012 to unlock new insights with pervasive data discovery across the organization.  With SQL Server 2012, you can:

  • Empower business users to create visually rich dashboards or reports across heterogeneous data sources
  • Activate managed self-service BI, which easily balances an employee’s need for rich information and collaboration with IT’s need to manage the safety and confidentiality of information

3)  Cloud on Your Terms. SQL Server 2012 is useful in enabling you to create business solutions quickly – on your terms – across servers to private or public clouds. You’ll like that you can:

  • Easily move applications across on-premises and cloud with unlimited virtualization (available through SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition) and license mobility
  • Extend data across on-premises and the cloud

Are you aware of the significant improvement Microsoft has made to the licensing model for SQL Server 2012?  We’ll cover that topic in a future blog.

In the meantime, to learn more about how Microsoft SQL Server 2012 can help you stay productive and reduce costs, please just contact our office.  We’re happy to help.

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Cloud Security and Privacy for eGov

June 14th, 2012
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By Laurie Head
AIS Network Vice President

As we embark on a path toward cloud hosting for state government, I’ve been in search of solid resources that will help inform our new role as a contracted hosting provider to support Virginia’s eGov Services.

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers has been very helpful in this regard.  If you haven’t seen their site, take a look now.  NASCIO is an excellent resource for information about state government and technology, and they have made available a wide range of publications for download.

I particularly like NASCIO’s series of reports about leveraging cloud technology.  These reports — four so far — are designed for state chief information officers (CIOs) and other senior IT decision makers, and they highlight the cloud’s potential for reducing costs, optimizing system efficiencies, and enhancing overall service delivery.  They are as follows:

For a discussion of issues related to cloud privacy and security, last month’s report (May 2012) is excellent in its examination of how individual agencies within the state infrastructure are coming together and how “all of this activity is converging on a developing government strategy for maturing and harvesting the value of cloud computing.”  The authors use Delaware and Michigan as examples.

Further, the report outlines 12 recommendations for state CIOs moving toward the cloud.  According to NASCIO, state IT leaders must:

  1. Mobilize internal support for cloud adoption through education and awareness, while clearly articulating the new security and privacy risks.
  2. Weigh the benefits and risks of cloud computing in terms of cost versus security and privacy concerns.
  3. Continue to temper expectations about savings opportunities and to examine risks and requirements.
  4. Educate policy makers on the differences between consumer cloud requirements versus the industrial-strength requirements of state government.
  5. Examine the state’s standard terms and conditions for procurement and consider modifications to address cloud computing.
  6. Communicate and educate government officials on the terms of service presented and assumed for third-party cloud services.
  7. Start with a private cloud solution first, particularly where state data is highly sensitive.
  8. Develop an enterprise security policy that controls unauthorized use of cloud services while enabling legitimate business needs.
  9. Expect compliance issues and scan network traffic continually to uncover the use of unauthorized cloud services.
  10. Consider a cloud broker approach (i.e., develop roles specific for cloud management, like “broker” and “service portfolio manager” in ways that will enhance security/ efficiency).
  11. Work with the federal government to develop a common interpretation of security requirements so that comprehensive cloud requirements can be identified and relied upon.
  12. Stay tuned to the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) as it evolves and leverage approved vendors (i.e., the program will provide a list of approved cloud providers for states beginning their cloud strategy).

Thanks to NASCIO for offering some very valuable research.  I encourage you to read the report.  Let me know what you think by commenting here.

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SharePoint 2010 Security: Adding an SSL Certificate to Your Hosted SharePoint Site

June 11th, 2012
Posted by: admin

By Bill Peters
AIS Network Director of Sales

SSL certificates create secure (HTTPS) connectivity between your Web server and your visitors’ browsers.  If you are transmitting sensitive information via a Web site, such as Social Security numbers, credit card numbers or other personal information, you should secure it with SSL encryption to safeguard against others seeing your data.  If you do not use an SSL certificate, then you are vulnerable.

SharePoint Security

SSL certificates aid in ensuring data security for your hosted SharePoint site.

In a SharePoint environment, SSL certificates can easily be added to a hosted site in order to secure it.  There are different kinds of SSL certificates but I won’t address that in this blog.  Rather, this is about SharePoint 2010 security and the recent request by one client that we add an SSL certificate to his existing hosted SharePoint site with us.

In preparation, I asked him what domain name he wanted on the SSL certificate.   Unsure of my question, he responded, “Doesn’t the domain name have to match the domain of the (AISN) network?”

Here’s how I explained it to him.   In his case, the server hosting his SharePoint is a member server in the Active Directory domain called aisn.local.  Web sites which serve Web pages from this server (SharePoint included) can be addressed by either an IP address or a domain name.  This Web site domain is not the same type of domain as the Active Directory domain in which the server resides.  And actually, Active Directory domains such as aisn.local cannot be present on the Internet.  The ‘.local’ indicates to the Internet that it is a private, not a public, domain name.

That said, it is possible to have an SSL Certificate for either type of domain.  The real question is what are you going to use it for?  That was for my client to decide.

As I explained to him, if you intend to use the SSL Certificate for Server Identification, then we can get a certificate for you for “yournamehere.aisn.local”.  You would use this type of certificate when, for example, you remote desktop to the server.  It would guarantee that you are connecting to the right server.

If, however, you want to use the SSL Certificate for identification of your SharePoint Site, then you can pick any public name you want.  In this case, the domain must be registered publicly in order to get a public SSL Certificate.

So, for example, if you chose to address your SharePoint Site by the name “sp.yournamehere.com”, you would need to make sure that the domain name “yournamehere.com” is registered to you.  Then, you can define “sp.yournamehere.com” in IIS on your SharePoint server. You would also need to configure the public DNS for yournamehere.com such that the “host” known as “sp” points to the IP address on the server.

That explanation seemed clarify things for him.  I told him that I thought he was looking for the latter, but we do not know what his host and domain names are.  It appeared to me that he was addressing his SP site by IP address currently.  In order to assign an SSL certificate, it needs to have a full name.  We cannot register it to an IP.

Have more questions about hosted SharePoint 2010 and hosted SharePoint security?  Send me an email and I’d be happy to help.

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Outsourcing Hosting: Talking Points for the C-Suite (Part II)

June 2nd, 2012
Posted by: admin

By Laurie Head
AIS Network Vice President

We are often asked, “How do I make the case to upper management that outsourced hosting of our mission-critical data and apps is the way to go?”

AISN

If you are considering outsourcing your hosting, you may need to prepare some talking points for your C-suite executives.

First, because many businesses rely upon their Web site as their primary public face and their IT infrastructure as their office backbone, Internet downtime is simply not an option. “Always on” is mission-critical to business performance.

Next, if you are dealing with aging IT assets, growing application portfolios to manage, or capital spending cuts due to the economy, then you are like most businesses evaluating hosting solutions for your mission-critical data and applications, and we can help guide you through that process.  IT departments everywhere are finding it’s tough to do more with the same or even less staff.  That’s why hosting has major appeal.   It minimizes your operational risk exposure, makes your business more efficient and agile, and knocks down the high fixed cost of IT.

Here are some talking points to consider:

Better—Hosting decreases your risk

  • Frees up your capital for other projects
  • Guarantees you’re always online (with a 100% Service Level Agreement)
  • Helps you avoid poor server purchasing decisions
  • Offers complete scalability, freeing you to upgrade your server or capacity without service interruption
  • Deploys your solution rapidly and provides expert monitoring, 24x7x365
  • Allows you to focus on growing your business by managing operational and strategic risks that you would not be able to handle in the event of a catastrophic loss

Faster—Hosting extends your resources

  • Cuts your labor/staff training costs to stay ahead of the technology curves
  • Enables you to tap more expert talent, faster and for less cost
  • Allows your people to focus on core business needs that accelerate business growth
  • Provides instant staffing for the “what if” scenario that may occur
  • Improves your access to new technologies while eliminating the need to hire more expertise
  • Offers increased flexibility, so that your IT can be more agile and move as the business does

Cheaper—Hosting delivers the best dollar value

  • Delivers consistent, affordable IT coverage 24x7x365 with virtually no downtime
  • Eliminates big capital expenditures on hardware and data centers
  • Frees up your IT budget and staff for other strategic initiatives
  • Enables you to better predict monthly IT costs and therefore reallocate precious resources
  • Grows with you as you grow—at the same superior service level and without requiring you to over-purchase capacity upfront
  • Provides a quicker return on your investment that’s provable

Clearly, just how much you improve your risk management and exposure, efficiency, and cost savings depends on the hosting provider that you select.

We can help you draft your internal proposal or determine honestly how—and if—your company would benefit from hosting services—either traditional or in the cloud. Contact us!

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