4 Data Center Services IT Professionals Could Recommend to Their Companies
A business needs a steady, well-managed flow of information to run efficiently. When technology fails, connections and network access can be lost, which costs valuable time and could cause you to lose vital data. With practically all business operations handled through networks, it is very important to use high-quality data centers that are managed by professionals.
There are a number of services offered by data centers, and the right ones for you will depend on your particular organization – what you do, what your needs are, and what you can afford.
Some services, however, seem like they will be of obvious benefit. Let’s look at four data center services that IT professionals can feel confident recommending to their companies – data back-up and archiving, managed load balancing, managed business continuity, and diverse firewalls and anti-malware programs.
Data Back-Up and Archiving
Running a business without a secure back-up plan for your data is like walking a high-wire without a net – one slip and you’re finished. Your most important information is critical to business success – can you even imagine where you would be without it?
A good back-up system will automatically save and archive your data, and will have several layers of protection or copies. The information should be spread over multiple locations in the event of a failure at one, and it is not a bad idea to physically visit some of these locations to ensure that the security measures and protection are adequate even when catastrophes like hurricanes or earthquakes strike.
If you need to access your archived data or recover something that was lost, a transfer from the back-up copy should ideally be fast and simple. The most important stored data should be available for users to access whenever they may need to.
Managed Load Balancing
Managed load balancing makes for a healthy network, which will run faster with more efficiency. This service helps ensure that programs get the processing power they need, when they need it.
During times of high traffic, networks may slow down for the end-user while the server-side doesn’t register a problem at all. This increases response times and annoys users, and in the worst cases ends with a server failure.
Load balancing will intelligently handle caching and compression tasks to distribute traffic as evenly as possible, preventing servers from overloading. Applications and services will be more available, throughput is increased, and response times will go down.
Managed Business Continuity
Business continuity refers to being able to continuously conduct business operations in the event of some disruption. Accidents and disasters happen; a company must accept this and plan ahead to be sure that normal business functions will be able to continue. These could be major disasters or simply power outages, but whatever the cause, business downtime means a loss of productivity and possibly customers.
Depending on your business, you may only require certain critical data or services to be available during an outage, which will save cost. Data centers should offer a proactive service that is ready to react in the event of an emergency, but you have to balance protection against cost.
Diverse Firewalls and Anti-Malware Programs
Firewalls and anti-malware software should always be used when connected to the Internet, but this is nowhere more important than in the business world. Businesses deal with vast amounts of money, personal information, and private business information, nearly all digital and potentially hackable.
Spam is annoying, but losing revenue and business secrets is even worse. High-quality and well-managed firewalls and anti-malware programs will protect a company not only from unwanted external intrusions, but also from accidental or malicious activity on the part of employees.
