Dear Data-Diligent Reader,

Chief Financial Officers typically care about three things when it comes to assessing new investments in IT.  They are:  1) Speed, 2) Focus and 3) Affordability.   I know this first hand! The key is to understand how replacing your current server and/or PC data protection processes with a cloud storage solution would address these three areas of concern.

In today’s economic environment, every spending proposal needs to have solid justification.  Often just speaking about a shift to a “pay-as-you-go” model is enough to get the CFO’s attention.  But the appeal of cloud storage extends beyond its financial benefits.  Here are three key benefits companies are realizing today when adopting cloud storage:

Focus: Companies want to focus on their core competencies, and outsource the rest to experts.  Are you still doing your own payroll?  Using a cloud storage provider allows your IT department to focus on projects that drive the business, such as customer service or e-commerce applications.  And cloud storage providers have the expertise to optimize their operations for better efficiencies.

Speed: How often have you been involved in IT projects that took longer than expected?  Chances are your CFO has felt the same pain.  Quick ROI is everything, and when it comes to competing for funding, decisions are being made about when companies can expect to see valuable returns for their investments.  This theme is a key one driving the adoption of cloud computing today.

Affordability: In addition to the “pay-as-you-go” model, cloud storage is appealing because it offers flexibility.  As a company you aren’t paying up front, predicting your storage requirements and investing in the hardware and software to support those requirements.  Instead you pay for what you use.  As you scale or reduce your demand.

With capital at a premium, and companies looking for faster returns from their investments, another appeal of cloud storage services is that they typically can be funded from the Operating Expense (OpEx) budget, without sunken Capital Expenditures (“CAPEX”).  This approach allows you to match the cost of the service to the period in which it is consumed.

If you aren’t already outsourcing your data backup and recovery, then its time you took a look at the cloud storage model.  Today’s solutions can provide you and your company with the technical functionality to protect your data better than you can probably do it in-house, with none of the headaches.  The 1-2-3 message of “Focus + Speed + Affordability” is often enough to cause any company to evaluate cloud storage. 

Data Mountain has been providing world-class cloud storage solutions since 2003, through our service partner, Iron Mountain Digital, and we truly understand what it takes to securely protect corporate information in the cloud.  Contact us to learn more if you think we may be able to help you.

We would love to hear your thoughts. Please comment below!

Tags: data protection services, data security, disaster recovery, HIPAA Security Law, The HITECH Act
Posted in News | Comments Off

Bob Chaput wrote this blog. Bob is president of Data Mountain LLC, a data security, disaster recovery and data protection services firm. Data Mountain specializes in helping Covered Entities and Business Associates assure they are compliant with the Contingency Plan Standard of the HIPAA Security Law and The HITECH Act.

Dear Data-Diligent Reader,

For some companies, including Marriott, abandoned mines and military bunkers offer a subterranean safe haven from hurricanes and other threats. But there are additional advantages to be realized when it comes to protecting your data underground.

Our service partner, Iron Mountain, is among the oldest and best known providers of underground storage and data center space. Known for storing everything from backup tapes to old movie reels in its repurposed limestone mine in rural Pennsylvania, Iron Mountain has seen its electronic storage and leased data center space business increase significantly.  With 60,000 square feet of available data center space and another 145 acres undeveloped in the facility, Iron Mountain has plenty of room for more.

What is driving an interest in Iron Mountain’s underground and other specialized hardened data centers? Some companies have found that there is a general lack of high-end infrastructure – enterprise-class data center space. Others have very specific requirements to protect them from natural disasters.

Not all hardened data centers are created equal.  While computer systems may be protected in a bunker, critical infrastructure needed during a disaster, such as generators, fuel tanks and air conditioning cooling towers, may be above ground. That could be a problem if the catastrophe you need to worry about is a tornado.

Are you going to pay a premium if you locate your computing resources in such a hardened environment?   IT executives say they’ve driven deals where the total cost of ownership is competitive with above-ground facilities. Because they’re repurposing existing space that the government or a mine operator paid to build, providers say they don’t have to pass on the original construction costs for the structures and can afford to be cost competitive.

Another consideration is that these underground facilities tend to be in rural, out-of-the-way locations. The facilities may be too far away from a company’s primary data center, and finding local lodging for staff in a disaster situation may be difficult. Marriott International wanted a hardened, secure facility in a location that was within a day’s drive from Marriott’s Bethesda, Md., headquarters.  That led them to Iron Mountain’s underground facility in Pennsylvania.

Underground facilities do have a few other advantages. The limestone floors at Iron Mountain’s facility have a virtually unlimited load rating, while the walls maintain a constant temperature of about 55 degrees and act like a heat sink for some of the waste heat that comes off data center equipment. The limestone walls absorb 1.5 BTUs per hour per sq. foot of wall space.

Cool stuff
The green aspect of going underground is what attracted Marriott International. It wanted to move from an outsourced “cold site” disaster recovery service to managing its own hot site backup data center. And it wanted to make sure the facility followed the company’s focus on environmentally friendly best practices.

Last year, the hospitality business completed the build-out of a 9,000 sq. foot remote backup data center at Iron Mountain’s Underground. Although the extreme level of security, including armed guards, exceeded their requirements, the idea of reusing an old mine rather than breaking new ground appealed to Marriott.

Energy efficiency also factored into Marriott’s decision. While Marriott’s data center uses a traditional chiller as its primary cooling system, the backup is a prototype free cooling system. That prototype, designed by Iron Mountain, uses an air-to-air heat exchanger, drawing 55-degree air from the unused space within the mine. Iron Mountain also is experimenting with a system that would pull cool water from an underground lake within the mine.

We would love to hear your thoughts. Please comment below!

Tags: data protection services, data security, disaster recovery, HIPAA Security Law, The HITECH Act
Posted in News | Comments Off

Bob Chaput wrote this blog. Bob is president of Data Mountain LLC, a data security, disaster recovery and data protection services firm. Data Mountain specializes in helping Covered Entities and Business Associates assure they are compliant with the Contingency Plan Standard of the HIPAA Security Law and The HITECH Act.