Home > Resources > Articles > Best Practices For IT Infrastructure Rollout Projects

Best Practices For IT Infrastructure Rollout Projects

May 25, 2016 | 149 views

This is the third part in the video series that Tech Service Today launched. It's an educational video series for IT/Telecom Executives: CIOs, Directors, Managers and Network Administrators. These informational series takes IT project management teams through the best practices in planning and implementing IT rollouts for their businesses. Tech Service Today is a professional on-site IT & Telecom services firm that has extensive experience running 100s of IT projects per year. From these experiences, they developed a video series to help guide IT executives through this difficult process. These videos will address critical points to ensure efficient and effective IT project rollouts.

Spotlight

Fueled

The Fueled team is united by an unwavering passion for quality. We are a team of developers, designers, and strategists passionately pursuing the bleeding, hairsplitting, cutting edge of mobile apps. We're not here to work on just any apps or for any client. We come to work in the morning to build the best apps for the best clients. It's what makes us tick.

OTHER ARTICLES
STORAGE MANAGEMENT

Enhancing Rack-Level Security to Enable Rapid Innovation

Article | July 11, 2022

IT and data center administrators are under pressure to foster quicker innovation. For workers and customers to have access to digital experiences, more devices must be deployed, and larger enterprise-to-edge networks must be managed. The security of distributed networks has suffered as a result of this rapid growth, though. Some colocation providers can install custom locks for your cabinet if necessary due to the varying compliance standards and security needs for distinct applications. However, physical security measures are still of utmost importance because theft and social engineering can affect hardware as well as data. Risk Companies Face Remote IT work continue on the long run Attacking users is the easiest way into networks IT may be deploying devices with weak controls When determining whether rack-level security is required, there are essentially two critical criteria to take into account. The first is the level of sensitivity of the data stored, and the second is the importance of the equipment in a particular rack to the facility's continuing functioning. Due to the nature of the data being handled and kept, some processes will always have a higher risk profile than others. Conclusion Data centers must rely on a physically secure perimeter that can be trusted. Clients, in particular, require unwavering assurance that security can be put in place to limit user access and guarantee that safety regulations are followed. Rack-level security locks that ensure physical access limitations are crucial to maintaining data center space security. Compared to their mechanical predecessors, electronic rack locks or "smart locks" offer a much more comprehensive range of feature-rich capabilities.

Read More
APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE

Infrastructure Lifecycle Management Best Practices

Article | May 9, 2022

As your organization scales, inevitably, so too will its infrastructure needs. From physical spaces to personnel, devices to applications, physical security to cybersecurity – all these resources will continue to grow to meet the changing needs of your business operations. To manage your changing infrastructure throughout its entire lifecycle, your organization needs to implement a robust infrastructure lifecycle management program that’s designed to meet your particular business needs. In particular, IT asset lifecycle management (ITALM) is becoming increasingly important for organizations across industries. As threats to organizations’ cybersecurity become more sophisticated and successful cyberattacks become more common, your business needs (now, more than ever) to implement an infrastructure lifecycle management strategy that emphasizes the security of your IT infrastructure. In this article, we’ll explain why infrastructure management is important. Then we’ll outline steps your organization can take to design and implement a program and provide you with some of the most important infrastructure lifecycle management best practices for your business. What Is the Purpose of Infrastructure Lifecycle Management? No matter the size or industry of your organization, infrastructure lifecycle management is a critical process. The purpose of an infrastructure lifecycle management program is to protect your business and its infrastructure assets against risk. Today, protecting your organization and its customer data from malicious actors means taking a more active approach to cybersecurity. Simply put, recovering from a cyber attack is more difficult and expensive than protecting yourself from one. If 2020 and 2021 have taught us anything about cybersecurity, it’s that cybercrime is on the rise and it’s not slowing down anytime soon. As risks to cybersecurity continue to grow in number and in harm, infrastructure lifecycle management and IT asset management are becoming almost unavoidable. In addition to protecting your organization from potential cyberattacks, infrastructure lifecycle management makes for a more efficient enterprise, delivers a better end user experience for consumers, and identifies where your organization needs to expand its infrastructure. Some of the other benefits that come along with comprehensive infrastructure lifecycle management program include: More accurate planning; Centralized and cost-effective procurement; Streamlined provisioning of technology to users; More efficient maintenance; Secure and timely disposal. A robust infrastructure lifecycle management program helps your organization to keep track of all the assets running on (or attached to) your corporate networks. That allows you to catalog, identify and track these assets wherever they are, physically and digitally. While this might seem simple enough, infrastructure lifecycle management and particularly ITALM has become more complex as the diversity of IT assets has increased. Today organizations and their IT teams are responsible for managing hardware, software, cloud infrastructure, SaaS, and connected device or IoT assets. As the number of IT assets under management has soared for most organizations in the past decade, a comprehensive and holistic approach to infrastructure lifecycle management has never been more important. Generally speaking, there are four major stages of asset lifecycle management. Your organization’s infrastructure lifecycle management program should include specific policies and processes for each of the following steps: Planning. This is arguably the most important step for businesses and should be conducted prior to purchasing any assets. During this stage, you’ll need to identify what asset types are required and in what number; compile and verify the requirements for each asset; and evaluate those assets to make sure they meet your service needs. Acquisition and procurement. Use this stage to identify areas for purchase consolidation with the most cost-effective vendors, negotiate warranties and bulk purchases of SaaS and cloud infrastructure assets. This is where lack of insights into actual asset usage can potentially result in overpaying for assets that aren’t really necessary. For this reason, timely and accurate asset data is crucial for effective acquisition and procurement. Maintenance, upgrades and repair. All assets eventually require maintenance, upgrades and repairs. A holistic approach to infrastructure lifecycle management means tracking these needs and consolidating them into a single platform across all asset types. Disposal. An outdated or broken asset needs to be disposed of properly, especially if it contains sensitive information. For hardware, assets that are older than a few years are often obsolete, and assets that fall out of warranty are typically no longer worth maintaining. Disposal of cloud infrastructure assets is also critical because data stored in the cloud can stay there forever. Now that we’ve outlined the purpose and basic stages of infrastructure lifecycle management, it’s time to look at the steps your organization can take to implement it.

Read More
APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE

The Drive with Direction: The Path of Enterprise IT Infrastructure

Article | June 10, 2022

Introduction It is hard to manage a modern firm without a convenient and adaptable IT infrastructure. When properly set up and networked, technology can improve back-office processes, increase efficiency, and simplify communication. IT infrastructure can be utilized to supply services or resources both within and outside of a company, as well as to its customers. IT infrastructure when adequately deployed aids organizations in achieving their objectives and increasing profits. IT infrastructure is made up of numerous components that must be integrated for your company's infrastructure to be coherent and functional. These components work in unison to guarantee that your systems and business as a whole run smoothly. Enterprise IT Infrastructure Trends Consumption-based pricing models are becoming more popular among enterprise purchasers, a trend that began with software and has now spread to hardware. This transition from capital to operational spending lowers risk, frees up capital, and improves flexibility. As a result, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) revenues increased by 53% from 2015 to 2016, making them the fastest-growing cloud and infrastructure services segments. The transition to as-a-service models is significant given that a unit of computing or storage in the cloud can be quite cheaper in terms of the total cost of ownership than a unit on-premises. While businesses have been migrating their workloads to the public cloud for years, there has been a new shift among large corporations. Many companies, including Capital One, GE, Netflix, Time Inc., and others, have downsized or removed their private data centers in favor of shifting their operations to the cloud. Cybersecurity remains a high priority for the C-suite and the board of directors. Attacks are increasing in number and complexity across all industries, with 80% of technology executives indicating that their companies are unable to construct a robust response. Due to lack of cybersecurity experts, many companies can’t get the skills they need on the inside, so they have to use managed security services. Future of Enterprise IT Infrastructure Companies can adopt the 'As-a-Service' model to lower entry barriers and begin testing future innovations on the cloud's basis. Domain specialists in areas like healthcare and manufacturing may harness AI's potential to solve some of their businesses' most pressing problems. Whether in a single cloud or across several clouds, businesses want an architecture that can expand to support the rapid evolution of their apps and industry for decades. For enterprise-class visibility and control across all clouds, the architecture must provide a common control plane that supports native cloud Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) as well as enhanced networking and security features. Conclusion The scale of disruption in the IT infrastructure sector is unparalleled, presenting enormous opportunities and hazards for industry stakeholders and their customers. Technology infrastructure executives must restructure their portfolios and rethink their go-to-market strategies to drive growth. They should also invest in the foundational competencies required for long-term success, such as digitization, analytics, and agile development. Data center companies that can solve the industry's challenges, as well as service providers that can scale quickly without limits and provide intelligent outcome-based models. This helps their clients achieve their business objectives through a portfolio of 'As-a-Service' models, will have a bright future.

Read More
APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE

A Look at Trends in IT infrastructure and Operations for 2022

Article | May 9, 2022

We’re all hoping that 2022 will finally end the unprecedented challenges brought by the global pandemic and things will return to a new normalcy. For IT infrastructure and operations organizations, the rising trends that we are seeing today will likely continue, but there are still a few areas that will need special attention from IT leaders over the next 12 to 18 months. In no particular order, they include: The New Edge Edge computing is now at the forefront. Two primary factors that make it business-critical are the increased prevalence of remote and hybrid workplace models where employees will continue working remotely, either from home or a branch office, resulting in an increased adoption of cloud-based businesses and communications services. With the rising focus on remote and hybrid workplace cultures, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet have continued to expand their solutions and add new features. As people start moving back to office, they are likely to want the same experience they had from home. In a typical enterprise setup, branch office traffic is usually backhauled all the way to the data center. This architecture severely impacts the user experience, so enterprises will have to review their network architectures and come up with a roadmap to accommodate local egress between branch offices and headquarters. That’s where the edge can help, bringing it closer to the workforce. This also brings an opportunity to optimize costs by migrating from some of the expensive multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) or private circuits to relatively low-cost direct internet circuits, which is being addressed by the new secure access service edge (SASE) architecture that is being offered by many established vendors. I anticipate some components of SASE, specifically those related to software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN), local egress, and virtual private network (VPN), will drive a lot of conversation this year. Holistic Cloud Strategy Cloud adoption will continue to grow, and along with software as a service (SaaS), there will be renewed interest in infrastructure as a service (IaaS), albeit for specific workloads. For a medium-to-large-sized enterprise with a substantial development environment, it will still be cost-prohibitive to move everything to the cloud, so any cloud strategy would need to be holistic and forward-looking to maximize its business value. Another pandemic-induced shift is from using virtual machines (VMs) as a consumption unit of compute to containers as a consumption unit of software. For on-premises or private cloud deployment architectures that require sustainable management, organizations will have to orchestrate containers and deploy efficient container security and management tools. Automation Now that cloud adoption, migration, and edge computing architectures are becoming more prevalent, the legacy methods of infrastructure provisioning and management will not be scalable. By increasing infrastructure automation, enterprises can optimize costs and be more flexible and efficient—but only if they are successful at developing new skills. To achieve the goal of “infrastructure as a code” will require a shift in the perspective on infrastructure automation to one that focuses on developing and sustaining skills and roles that improve efficiency and agility across on-premises, cloud, and edge infrastructures. Defining the roles of designers and architects to support automation is essential to ensure that automation works as expected, avoids significant errors, and complements other technologies. AIOps (Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations) Alongside complementing automation trends, the implementation of AIOps to effectively automate IT operations processes such as event correlation, anomaly detection, and causality determination will also be important. AIOps will eliminate the data silos in IT by bringing all types of data under one roof so it can be used to execute machine learning (ML)-based methods to develop insights for responsive enhancements and corrections. AIOps can also help with probable cause analytics by focusing on the most likely source of a problem. The concept of site reliability engineering (SRE) is being increasingly adopted by SaaS providers and will gain importance in enterprise IT environments due to the trends listed above. AIOps is a key component that will enable site reliability engineers (SREs) to respond more quickly—and even proactively—by resolving issues without manual intervention. These focus areas are by no means an exhaustive list. There are a variety of trends that will be more prevalent in specific industry areas, but a common theme in the post-pandemic era is going to be superior delivery of IT services. That’s also at the heart of the Autonomous Digital Enterprise, a forward-focused business framework designed to help companies make technology investments for the future.

Read More
STORAGE MANAGEMENT

Data Center as a Service Is the Way of the Future

Article | July 11, 2022

IT and data center administrators are under pressure to foster quicker innovation. For workers and customers to have access to digital experiences, more devices must be deployed, and larger enterprise-to-edge networks must be managed. The security of distributed networks has suffered as a result of this rapid growth, though. Some colocation providers can install custom locks for your cabinet if necessary due to the varying compliance standards and security needs for distinct applications. However, physical security measures are still of utmost importance because theft and social engineering can affect hardware as well as data. Risk Companies Face Remote IT work continue on the long run Attacking users is the easiest way into networks IT may be deploying devices with weak controls When determining whether rack-level security is required, there are essentially two critical criteria to take into account. The first is the level of sensitivity of the data stored, and the second is the importance of the equipment in a particular rack to the facility's continuing functioning. Due to the nature of the data being handled and kept, some processes will always have a higher risk profile than others. Conclusion Data centers must rely on a physically secure perimeter that can be trusted. Clients, in particular, require unwavering assurance that security can be put in place to limit user access and guarantee that safety regulations are followed. Rack-level security locks that ensure physical access limitations are crucial to maintaining data center space security. Compared to their mechanical predecessors, electronic rack locks or "smart locks" offer a much more comprehensive range of feature-rich capabilities.

Read More
APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE

A Look at Trends in IT infrastructure and Operations for 2022

Article | May 9, 2022

As your organization scales, inevitably, so too will its infrastructure needs. From physical spaces to personnel, devices to applications, physical security to cybersecurity – all these resources will continue to grow to meet the changing needs of your business operations. To manage your changing infrastructure throughout its entire lifecycle, your organization needs to implement a robust infrastructure lifecycle management program that’s designed to meet your particular business needs. In particular, IT asset lifecycle management (ITALM) is becoming increasingly important for organizations across industries. As threats to organizations’ cybersecurity become more sophisticated and successful cyberattacks become more common, your business needs (now, more than ever) to implement an infrastructure lifecycle management strategy that emphasizes the security of your IT infrastructure. In this article, we’ll explain why infrastructure management is important. Then we’ll outline steps your organization can take to design and implement a program and provide you with some of the most important infrastructure lifecycle management best practices for your business. What Is the Purpose of Infrastructure Lifecycle Management? No matter the size or industry of your organization, infrastructure lifecycle management is a critical process. The purpose of an infrastructure lifecycle management program is to protect your business and its infrastructure assets against risk. Today, protecting your organization and its customer data from malicious actors means taking a more active approach to cybersecurity. Simply put, recovering from a cyber attack is more difficult and expensive than protecting yourself from one. If 2020 and 2021 have taught us anything about cybersecurity, it’s that cybercrime is on the rise and it’s not slowing down anytime soon. As risks to cybersecurity continue to grow in number and in harm, infrastructure lifecycle management and IT asset management are becoming almost unavoidable. In addition to protecting your organization from potential cyberattacks, infrastructure lifecycle management makes for a more efficient enterprise, delivers a better end user experience for consumers, and identifies where your organization needs to expand its infrastructure. Some of the other benefits that come along with comprehensive infrastructure lifecycle management program include: More accurate planning; Centralized and cost-effective procurement; Streamlined provisioning of technology to users; More efficient maintenance; Secure and timely disposal. A robust infrastructure lifecycle management program helps your organization to keep track of all the assets running on (or attached to) your corporate networks. That allows you to catalog, identify and track these assets wherever they are, physically and digitally. While this might seem simple enough, infrastructure lifecycle management and particularly ITALM has become more complex as the diversity of IT assets has increased. Today organizations and their IT teams are responsible for managing hardware, software, cloud infrastructure, SaaS, and connected device or IoT assets. As the number of IT assets under management has soared for most organizations in the past decade, a comprehensive and holistic approach to infrastructure lifecycle management has never been more important. Generally speaking, there are four major stages of asset lifecycle management. Your organization’s infrastructure lifecycle management program should include specific policies and processes for each of the following steps: Planning. This is arguably the most important step for businesses and should be conducted prior to purchasing any assets. During this stage, you’ll need to identify what asset types are required and in what number; compile and verify the requirements for each asset; and evaluate those assets to make sure they meet your service needs. Acquisition and procurement. Use this stage to identify areas for purchase consolidation with the most cost-effective vendors, negotiate warranties and bulk purchases of SaaS and cloud infrastructure assets. This is where lack of insights into actual asset usage can potentially result in overpaying for assets that aren’t really necessary. For this reason, timely and accurate asset data is crucial for effective acquisition and procurement. Maintenance, upgrades and repair. All assets eventually require maintenance, upgrades and repairs. A holistic approach to infrastructure lifecycle management means tracking these needs and consolidating them into a single platform across all asset types. Disposal. An outdated or broken asset needs to be disposed of properly, especially if it contains sensitive information. For hardware, assets that are older than a few years are often obsolete, and assets that fall out of warranty are typically no longer worth maintaining. Disposal of cloud infrastructure assets is also critical because data stored in the cloud can stay there forever. Now that we’ve outlined the purpose and basic stages of infrastructure lifecycle management, it’s time to look at the steps your organization can take to implement it.

Read More
APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE

Infrastructure Lifecycle Management Best Practices

Article | June 10, 2022

Introduction It is hard to manage a modern firm without a convenient and adaptable IT infrastructure. When properly set up and networked, technology can improve back-office processes, increase efficiency, and simplify communication. IT infrastructure can be utilized to supply services or resources both within and outside of a company, as well as to its customers. IT infrastructure when adequately deployed aids organizations in achieving their objectives and increasing profits. IT infrastructure is made up of numerous components that must be integrated for your company's infrastructure to be coherent and functional. These components work in unison to guarantee that your systems and business as a whole run smoothly. Enterprise IT Infrastructure Trends Consumption-based pricing models are becoming more popular among enterprise purchasers, a trend that began with software and has now spread to hardware. This transition from capital to operational spending lowers risk, frees up capital, and improves flexibility. As a result, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) revenues increased by 53% from 2015 to 2016, making them the fastest-growing cloud and infrastructure services segments. The transition to as-a-service models is significant given that a unit of computing or storage in the cloud can be quite cheaper in terms of the total cost of ownership than a unit on-premises. While businesses have been migrating their workloads to the public cloud for years, there has been a new shift among large corporations. Many companies, including Capital One, GE, Netflix, Time Inc., and others, have downsized or removed their private data centers in favor of shifting their operations to the cloud. Cybersecurity remains a high priority for the C-suite and the board of directors. Attacks are increasing in number and complexity across all industries, with 80% of technology executives indicating that their companies are unable to construct a robust response. Due to lack of cybersecurity experts, many companies can’t get the skills they need on the inside, so they have to use managed security services. Future of Enterprise IT Infrastructure Companies can adopt the 'As-a-Service' model to lower entry barriers and begin testing future innovations on the cloud's basis. Domain specialists in areas like healthcare and manufacturing may harness AI's potential to solve some of their businesses' most pressing problems. Whether in a single cloud or across several clouds, businesses want an architecture that can expand to support the rapid evolution of their apps and industry for decades. For enterprise-class visibility and control across all clouds, the architecture must provide a common control plane that supports native cloud Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) as well as enhanced networking and security features. Conclusion The scale of disruption in the IT infrastructure sector is unparalleled, presenting enormous opportunities and hazards for industry stakeholders and their customers. Technology infrastructure executives must restructure their portfolios and rethink their go-to-market strategies to drive growth. They should also invest in the foundational competencies required for long-term success, such as digitization, analytics, and agile development. Data center companies that can solve the industry's challenges, as well as service providers that can scale quickly without limits and provide intelligent outcome-based models. This helps their clients achieve their business objectives through a portfolio of 'As-a-Service' models, will have a bright future.

Read More
APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE

A Look at Trends in IT infrastructure and Operations for 2022

Article | May 9, 2022

We’re all hoping that 2022 will finally end the unprecedented challenges brought by the global pandemic and things will return to a new normalcy. For IT infrastructure and operations organizations, the rising trends that we are seeing today will likely continue, but there are still a few areas that will need special attention from IT leaders over the next 12 to 18 months. In no particular order, they include: The New Edge Edge computing is now at the forefront. Two primary factors that make it business-critical are the increased prevalence of remote and hybrid workplace models where employees will continue working remotely, either from home or a branch office, resulting in an increased adoption of cloud-based businesses and communications services. With the rising focus on remote and hybrid workplace cultures, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet have continued to expand their solutions and add new features. As people start moving back to office, they are likely to want the same experience they had from home. In a typical enterprise setup, branch office traffic is usually backhauled all the way to the data center. This architecture severely impacts the user experience, so enterprises will have to review their network architectures and come up with a roadmap to accommodate local egress between branch offices and headquarters. That’s where the edge can help, bringing it closer to the workforce. This also brings an opportunity to optimize costs by migrating from some of the expensive multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) or private circuits to relatively low-cost direct internet circuits, which is being addressed by the new secure access service edge (SASE) architecture that is being offered by many established vendors. I anticipate some components of SASE, specifically those related to software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN), local egress, and virtual private network (VPN), will drive a lot of conversation this year. Holistic Cloud Strategy Cloud adoption will continue to grow, and along with software as a service (SaaS), there will be renewed interest in infrastructure as a service (IaaS), albeit for specific workloads. For a medium-to-large-sized enterprise with a substantial development environment, it will still be cost-prohibitive to move everything to the cloud, so any cloud strategy would need to be holistic and forward-looking to maximize its business value. Another pandemic-induced shift is from using virtual machines (VMs) as a consumption unit of compute to containers as a consumption unit of software. For on-premises or private cloud deployment architectures that require sustainable management, organizations will have to orchestrate containers and deploy efficient container security and management tools. Automation Now that cloud adoption, migration, and edge computing architectures are becoming more prevalent, the legacy methods of infrastructure provisioning and management will not be scalable. By increasing infrastructure automation, enterprises can optimize costs and be more flexible and efficient—but only if they are successful at developing new skills. To achieve the goal of “infrastructure as a code” will require a shift in the perspective on infrastructure automation to one that focuses on developing and sustaining skills and roles that improve efficiency and agility across on-premises, cloud, and edge infrastructures. Defining the roles of designers and architects to support automation is essential to ensure that automation works as expected, avoids significant errors, and complements other technologies. AIOps (Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations) Alongside complementing automation trends, the implementation of AIOps to effectively automate IT operations processes such as event correlation, anomaly detection, and causality determination will also be important. AIOps will eliminate the data silos in IT by bringing all types of data under one roof so it can be used to execute machine learning (ML)-based methods to develop insights for responsive enhancements and corrections. AIOps can also help with probable cause analytics by focusing on the most likely source of a problem. The concept of site reliability engineering (SRE) is being increasingly adopted by SaaS providers and will gain importance in enterprise IT environments due to the trends listed above. AIOps is a key component that will enable site reliability engineers (SREs) to respond more quickly—and even proactively—by resolving issues without manual intervention. These focus areas are by no means an exhaustive list. There are a variety of trends that will be more prevalent in specific industry areas, but a common theme in the post-pandemic era is going to be superior delivery of IT services. That’s also at the heart of the Autonomous Digital Enterprise, a forward-focused business framework designed to help companies make technology investments for the future.

Read More
MORE ARTICLES

Spotlight

Fueled

The Fueled team is united by an unwavering passion for quality. We are a team of developers, designers, and strategists passionately pursuing the bleeding, hairsplitting, cutting edge of mobile apps. We're not here to work on just any apps or for any client. We come to work in the morning to build the best apps for the best clients. It's what makes us tick.

Related News

APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE

eStruxture Data Centers Signs Infrastructure Masons Climate Accord to Reduce Global Carbon Emissions

eStruxture | August 04, 2022

Today, eStruxture Data Centers, the largest Canadian cloud and carrier-neutral data center provider, is pleased to announce that it has signed the Infrastructure Masons Climate Accord (ICA), which unites over 70 companies to reduce carbon in digital infrastructure materials, products, and power. “At eStruxture, we are committed to designing and powering our data centers sustainably, and we are thrilled to be a part of this important initiative to promote global carbon accounting of digital infrastructure and work together with our industry peers towards a Net Zero future. Todd Coleman, President and CEO of eStruxture The ICA includes several large hyperscale companies, representing some of the largest digital infrastructure portfolios in the world, and over 40 colocation data center providers, product, service and investment firms. Together with these industry trailblazers, eStruxture will collaborate to adopt open standards, policies, and reporting around carbon reduction to drive industry accountability. “We established iMasons to unite the builders of the digital age,” said Dean Nelson, Chairman and Founder of Infrastructure Masons. “The ICA represents an unprecedented collaboration between leading digital infrastructure companies to accelerate our journey to carbon neutrality. Today, we are combining forces to compound the efforts of these firms to make meaningful and sustained progress toward that goal.” Sustainability is one of the core fundamentals that eStruxture was built upon and signing this accord is an important step on the company’s journey to reducing the environmental impact of the data center industry and building a better future. About Infrastructure Masons Infrastructure Masons (iMasons) is a non-profit, professional association of technology and business leaders who represent over $150Bn in infrastructure projects in over 130 countries. The organization is guided by an Advisory Council composed of global leaders who manage some of the largest digital infrastructure portfolios in the world. The iMasons vision is to Unite the Builders of the Digital Age by enabling our global membership to Connect, Grow, and Give Back. Members leave their companies at the door and connect as individuals. iMasons has four strategic industry priorities – increase Awareness, enhance Education opportunities, champion Diversity & Inclusion, and inspire Sustainability through deep member engagement. Visit the website at imasons.org or LinkedIn. About eStruxture eStruxture is the largest Canadian data center provider with locations in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary. Our solutions are designed to give you more: more locations, more capacity, more connections that enable you to run modern, demanding enterprise applications, and offer your business the control to rapidly scale in response to unpredictable changes in business processes.

Read More

HYPER-CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE

Scale Computing Continues to Deliver High-Performing and Resilient Edge Computing and IT Infrastructure to the Maritime Industry

Scale Computing | August 03, 2022

Scale Computing, a market leader in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions, today announced ongoing momentum with customers in the maritime industry sector. The company’s SC//Platform and SC//HyperCore edge computing solutions enable maritime providers to run their critical onboard IT applications with self-healing, automated infrastructure. Whether it’s an offshore rig operating deep in the North Sea or a container ship crossing the Pacific Ocean, Scale Computing empowers a broad range of maritime service providers to improve their efficiency and ensure high availability. “Few industries showcase the challenges and promise of edge computing as does the global maritime industry where IT resiliency is an operational necessity and downtime is unacceptable,” said Jeff Ready, CEO and co-founder of Scale Computing. “Scale Computing meets the complex and evolving infrastructure requirements of an industry that demands 24x7 availability, full redundancy, and is backed by human experts who understand the unique conditions that exist at the edge.” Scale Computing brings the maritime industry into a new era of computing by revamping IT operations with a solution that simplifies management, reduces operating costs, and ensures resiliency and high availability in the face of unpredictable environmental conditions. Northern Marine Group is a ship management and marine services provider that offers a full spectrum of ship and offshore management services. Operating a diverse fleet of technically managed vessels, including a wide range of tankers, ferries and offshore assets, the Northern Marine fleet is constantly on the move around the globe. Northern Marine selected Scale Computing’s SC//Platform, which provides them with simplified, highly affordable IT infrastructure that offers unmatched resiliency in some of the world’s most extreme environments. Because internet connectivity is highly intermittent with no dedicated IT personnel stationed on their vessels, Northern Marine deployed SC//HyperCore clusters to keep their operations running smoothly, whether offshore or out at sea. “We were looking for ways to evolve our onboard IT infrastructure across our fleet. In the last several years, requirements for key infrastructure systems on board have changed. Each vessel now has two or more operational critical applications on its server infrastructure, meaning we really can’t afford any downtime. We need to be able to sustain equipment failure and still continue to operate." Scott Mungall, IT Technical Lead for Northern Marine Headquartered in Dubai, Telford Offshore offers cost-effective construction and project management solutions to the oil & gas industry. The company supports multiple offshore activities, focusing on high-capacity accommodation, lifting, fabrication and installation services for projects that include laying pipelines and carrying out subsea construction. With internet connectivity slow and costly at sea, relying on the cloud for critical operations was simply not an option. Telford Offshore recognized their on-board infrastructure would need to be local and on-premises. Following a comprehensive evaluation of edge solution providers, Telford Offshore selected Scale Computing’s SC//Platform as the only solution in its class to offer the unique combination of simplicity and performance demanded by their fleet. Wouter Lustig, IT Manager at Telford Offshore, explained that, “We wanted the solution to be a long-term future-proof investment with the possibility of deploying it on our vessels at sea. The solution needed to be simple enough for the one or two electricians on board to install, deploy, and maintain. Scale Computing’s solution operates as its own data center in a box and can easily connect back to the deployment at the headquarters in Dubai. We are still amazed at how easy it is to install, deploy and manage – we don’t need to worry about the management of the day-to-day solution; it just takes care of itself.” About Scale Computing Scale Computing is a leader in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions. Scale Computing software eliminates the need for traditional virtualization software, disaster recovery software, servers, and shared storage, replacing these with a fully integrated, highly available system for running applications. Using patented HyperCore™ technology, the self-healing platform automatically identifies, mitigates, and corrects infrastructure problems in real-time, enabling applications to achieve maximum uptime. When ease-of-use, high availability, and TCO matter, Scale Computing is the ideal infrastructure platform.

Read More

IT SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

Stream and T-Systems Partner to Empower Advanced Hybrid Cloud Architecture

Stream Data Centers | August 02, 2022

Stream Data Centers, the industry leader in delivering exceptional data center experiences to global enterprise companies, is proud to announce that it has been selected as a trusted data center partner by T-Systems. T-Systems, a leading provider of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) solutions to major corporations and public-sector organizations across the globe, chose Stream Data Centers' Houston campus in the Woodlands to host customers and help deliver innovative cloud operation services both locally and globally. As part of Deutsche Telekom Group (DT), T-Systems is a leading digital and cloud services provider, offering world-class service while supporting local and global customers by extending its global portfolio, expertise, and operational capabilities. Led by its dedication to providing transformative ICT solutions, the company today has nearly 100 managed data centers, 56,800 open system servers, and more than three million managed SAP users. While expanding its newest hybrid cloud platform, T-Systems found that it needed a strategically-located data center that could cater to its architecture's high-density demands as well as the company's own ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) goals. "Our mission is to provide the best solutions to our customers, with the right partners, using state-of-the-art technology," states Mauro Guzelotto, Head of Cloud Services for T-Systems. "It was in the spirit of that mission that we decided to partner with Stream, and we are very excited about the value and possibilities that Stream brings to the table. Another key element of our decision was sustainability, and I am confident that our decision to partner with Stream will contribute to our sustainability strategy by helping us be more energy efficient." After a rigorous RFP process, Stream and its Houston campus were selected for a host of reasons, including the location's advantageous geographical setting, Stream's ability to meet sustainability goals with its energy procurement and operational expertise, and additional strategic service offerings including high-density capabilities. The Houston I facility in the Woodlands is located outside of the 500-year floodplain and has 185 mph wind ratings with an uplift-rated building and equipment yard. These aspects have enabled this facility to offer 100% power and cooling uptime for the last 8 consecutive years — even standing strong against 1,000-year storms like Hurricane Harvey and Winter Storm Uri. It is also connected to a separate power grid from T-Systems' core facility, which allows for added redundancy. As a secondary site, Stream's campus offered superior benefits and assurance against downtime. Stream also enabled T-Systems to benefit from a partnership with Megaport, enriching its public cloud connections and further enabling the delivery of a robust hybrid cloud platform. T-Systems' tailored cooling and power-per-rack demands could also be easily met with Stream's large rooms, 3-foot raised floors and tall ceilings, which help the ambient temperature remain easily controlled even for high-density deployments. Furthermore, T-Systems' multi-stage goals for sustainability across its operations (with an ultimate goal of fully eliminating its carbon footprint) are empowered by this facility's LEED certification and the Stream team's insights into strategic energy procurement and efficient usage. "With this symbiotic partnership in place, Houston-area customers can enjoy T-Systems' leading suite of IT service offerings and leverage their innovative platforms to further their own digital transformation initiatives. "Being selected by a global leader like T-Systems is a great testament to Stream's Woodlands facility and team members." Chad Rodriguez, Vice President of Network and Cloud at Stream Data Centers "The partnership between T-Systems North America and Stream Data Centers allows our joint existing and future customers to travel their cloud journeys with the certainty that availability, reliability, sustainability, and security are managed by two of the most relevant IT and DC experts in the market," comments Cesar Martinez, Managing Director for T-Systems in North America. About Stream Data Centers Stream Data Centers has provided premium data center services since 1999, with 90% of its inventory leased to Fortune 100 customers. To date, the company has acquired, developed and managed 24 data center campuses nationally, while leadership has remained consistent for all 23 years.

Read More

APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE

eStruxture Data Centers Signs Infrastructure Masons Climate Accord to Reduce Global Carbon Emissions

eStruxture | August 04, 2022

Today, eStruxture Data Centers, the largest Canadian cloud and carrier-neutral data center provider, is pleased to announce that it has signed the Infrastructure Masons Climate Accord (ICA), which unites over 70 companies to reduce carbon in digital infrastructure materials, products, and power. “At eStruxture, we are committed to designing and powering our data centers sustainably, and we are thrilled to be a part of this important initiative to promote global carbon accounting of digital infrastructure and work together with our industry peers towards a Net Zero future. Todd Coleman, President and CEO of eStruxture The ICA includes several large hyperscale companies, representing some of the largest digital infrastructure portfolios in the world, and over 40 colocation data center providers, product, service and investment firms. Together with these industry trailblazers, eStruxture will collaborate to adopt open standards, policies, and reporting around carbon reduction to drive industry accountability. “We established iMasons to unite the builders of the digital age,” said Dean Nelson, Chairman and Founder of Infrastructure Masons. “The ICA represents an unprecedented collaboration between leading digital infrastructure companies to accelerate our journey to carbon neutrality. Today, we are combining forces to compound the efforts of these firms to make meaningful and sustained progress toward that goal.” Sustainability is one of the core fundamentals that eStruxture was built upon and signing this accord is an important step on the company’s journey to reducing the environmental impact of the data center industry and building a better future. About Infrastructure Masons Infrastructure Masons (iMasons) is a non-profit, professional association of technology and business leaders who represent over $150Bn in infrastructure projects in over 130 countries. The organization is guided by an Advisory Council composed of global leaders who manage some of the largest digital infrastructure portfolios in the world. The iMasons vision is to Unite the Builders of the Digital Age by enabling our global membership to Connect, Grow, and Give Back. Members leave their companies at the door and connect as individuals. iMasons has four strategic industry priorities – increase Awareness, enhance Education opportunities, champion Diversity & Inclusion, and inspire Sustainability through deep member engagement. Visit the website at imasons.org or LinkedIn. About eStruxture eStruxture is the largest Canadian data center provider with locations in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary. Our solutions are designed to give you more: more locations, more capacity, more connections that enable you to run modern, demanding enterprise applications, and offer your business the control to rapidly scale in response to unpredictable changes in business processes.

Read More

HYPER-CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE

Scale Computing Continues to Deliver High-Performing and Resilient Edge Computing and IT Infrastructure to the Maritime Industry

Scale Computing | August 03, 2022

Scale Computing, a market leader in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions, today announced ongoing momentum with customers in the maritime industry sector. The company’s SC//Platform and SC//HyperCore edge computing solutions enable maritime providers to run their critical onboard IT applications with self-healing, automated infrastructure. Whether it’s an offshore rig operating deep in the North Sea or a container ship crossing the Pacific Ocean, Scale Computing empowers a broad range of maritime service providers to improve their efficiency and ensure high availability. “Few industries showcase the challenges and promise of edge computing as does the global maritime industry where IT resiliency is an operational necessity and downtime is unacceptable,” said Jeff Ready, CEO and co-founder of Scale Computing. “Scale Computing meets the complex and evolving infrastructure requirements of an industry that demands 24x7 availability, full redundancy, and is backed by human experts who understand the unique conditions that exist at the edge.” Scale Computing brings the maritime industry into a new era of computing by revamping IT operations with a solution that simplifies management, reduces operating costs, and ensures resiliency and high availability in the face of unpredictable environmental conditions. Northern Marine Group is a ship management and marine services provider that offers a full spectrum of ship and offshore management services. Operating a diverse fleet of technically managed vessels, including a wide range of tankers, ferries and offshore assets, the Northern Marine fleet is constantly on the move around the globe. Northern Marine selected Scale Computing’s SC//Platform, which provides them with simplified, highly affordable IT infrastructure that offers unmatched resiliency in some of the world’s most extreme environments. Because internet connectivity is highly intermittent with no dedicated IT personnel stationed on their vessels, Northern Marine deployed SC//HyperCore clusters to keep their operations running smoothly, whether offshore or out at sea. “We were looking for ways to evolve our onboard IT infrastructure across our fleet. In the last several years, requirements for key infrastructure systems on board have changed. Each vessel now has two or more operational critical applications on its server infrastructure, meaning we really can’t afford any downtime. We need to be able to sustain equipment failure and still continue to operate." Scott Mungall, IT Technical Lead for Northern Marine Headquartered in Dubai, Telford Offshore offers cost-effective construction and project management solutions to the oil & gas industry. The company supports multiple offshore activities, focusing on high-capacity accommodation, lifting, fabrication and installation services for projects that include laying pipelines and carrying out subsea construction. With internet connectivity slow and costly at sea, relying on the cloud for critical operations was simply not an option. Telford Offshore recognized their on-board infrastructure would need to be local and on-premises. Following a comprehensive evaluation of edge solution providers, Telford Offshore selected Scale Computing’s SC//Platform as the only solution in its class to offer the unique combination of simplicity and performance demanded by their fleet. Wouter Lustig, IT Manager at Telford Offshore, explained that, “We wanted the solution to be a long-term future-proof investment with the possibility of deploying it on our vessels at sea. The solution needed to be simple enough for the one or two electricians on board to install, deploy, and maintain. Scale Computing’s solution operates as its own data center in a box and can easily connect back to the deployment at the headquarters in Dubai. We are still amazed at how easy it is to install, deploy and manage – we don’t need to worry about the management of the day-to-day solution; it just takes care of itself.” About Scale Computing Scale Computing is a leader in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions. Scale Computing software eliminates the need for traditional virtualization software, disaster recovery software, servers, and shared storage, replacing these with a fully integrated, highly available system for running applications. Using patented HyperCore™ technology, the self-healing platform automatically identifies, mitigates, and corrects infrastructure problems in real-time, enabling applications to achieve maximum uptime. When ease-of-use, high availability, and TCO matter, Scale Computing is the ideal infrastructure platform.

Read More

IT SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

Stream and T-Systems Partner to Empower Advanced Hybrid Cloud Architecture

Stream Data Centers | August 02, 2022

Stream Data Centers, the industry leader in delivering exceptional data center experiences to global enterprise companies, is proud to announce that it has been selected as a trusted data center partner by T-Systems. T-Systems, a leading provider of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) solutions to major corporations and public-sector organizations across the globe, chose Stream Data Centers' Houston campus in the Woodlands to host customers and help deliver innovative cloud operation services both locally and globally. As part of Deutsche Telekom Group (DT), T-Systems is a leading digital and cloud services provider, offering world-class service while supporting local and global customers by extending its global portfolio, expertise, and operational capabilities. Led by its dedication to providing transformative ICT solutions, the company today has nearly 100 managed data centers, 56,800 open system servers, and more than three million managed SAP users. While expanding its newest hybrid cloud platform, T-Systems found that it needed a strategically-located data center that could cater to its architecture's high-density demands as well as the company's own ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) goals. "Our mission is to provide the best solutions to our customers, with the right partners, using state-of-the-art technology," states Mauro Guzelotto, Head of Cloud Services for T-Systems. "It was in the spirit of that mission that we decided to partner with Stream, and we are very excited about the value and possibilities that Stream brings to the table. Another key element of our decision was sustainability, and I am confident that our decision to partner with Stream will contribute to our sustainability strategy by helping us be more energy efficient." After a rigorous RFP process, Stream and its Houston campus were selected for a host of reasons, including the location's advantageous geographical setting, Stream's ability to meet sustainability goals with its energy procurement and operational expertise, and additional strategic service offerings including high-density capabilities. The Houston I facility in the Woodlands is located outside of the 500-year floodplain and has 185 mph wind ratings with an uplift-rated building and equipment yard. These aspects have enabled this facility to offer 100% power and cooling uptime for the last 8 consecutive years — even standing strong against 1,000-year storms like Hurricane Harvey and Winter Storm Uri. It is also connected to a separate power grid from T-Systems' core facility, which allows for added redundancy. As a secondary site, Stream's campus offered superior benefits and assurance against downtime. Stream also enabled T-Systems to benefit from a partnership with Megaport, enriching its public cloud connections and further enabling the delivery of a robust hybrid cloud platform. T-Systems' tailored cooling and power-per-rack demands could also be easily met with Stream's large rooms, 3-foot raised floors and tall ceilings, which help the ambient temperature remain easily controlled even for high-density deployments. Furthermore, T-Systems' multi-stage goals for sustainability across its operations (with an ultimate goal of fully eliminating its carbon footprint) are empowered by this facility's LEED certification and the Stream team's insights into strategic energy procurement and efficient usage. "With this symbiotic partnership in place, Houston-area customers can enjoy T-Systems' leading suite of IT service offerings and leverage their innovative platforms to further their own digital transformation initiatives. "Being selected by a global leader like T-Systems is a great testament to Stream's Woodlands facility and team members." Chad Rodriguez, Vice President of Network and Cloud at Stream Data Centers "The partnership between T-Systems North America and Stream Data Centers allows our joint existing and future customers to travel their cloud journeys with the certainty that availability, reliability, sustainability, and security are managed by two of the most relevant IT and DC experts in the market," comments Cesar Martinez, Managing Director for T-Systems in North America. About Stream Data Centers Stream Data Centers has provided premium data center services since 1999, with 90% of its inventory leased to Fortune 100 customers. To date, the company has acquired, developed and managed 24 data center campuses nationally, while leadership has remained consistent for all 23 years.

Read More

Events