Colocation Blog

BizBrag Inc. Creates a Cloud Based Social Marketing Platform

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

What if small business owners could work together to cross promote each other through social channels? That's the question that engineers at BizBrag Inc. have tried to answer with their new cloud based social marketing and SEO platform. BizBrag has designed a social network called the 'BragForce' that encourages local and complimentary businesses to connect with each other and share content to their social accounts. Users build social web pages called 'Braggits' which can be forwarded to Facebook, Google +, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wordpress, Blogger, and Tumblr. Braggits are also sent to members of the user's BragForce who can in turn forward them to their social networks. Imagine the social reach that can be achieved just by connecting with a few other businesses.

All Braggits are hosted on dedicated servers, ensuring that they are always available to be viewed or shared. This allows many small businesses to create web content without worrying about hosting costs, SEO, social media management, or the scalability of their campaign. The platform is easy to use, with a simple three step process that allows users to create and publish Braggits across the web in a matter of minutes. Braggits can also be scheduled, so an entire month's social media posts can be created on a Saturday, and posted throughout the week.

BizBrag has been a big hit right out of the gate with franchise organizations, because the platform allows franchises to create content to be posted to all of their franchisees' social networks. Distributed organizations can now exponentially grow their social reach just by getting their companies connected, and are provided with a full suite of analytics and monitoring applications to ensure that their campaign is progressing. If a business just doesn't have the time to manage a social campaign, BizBrag's team of marketers and writers will do it for them for a low monthly fee.

When large organizations have huge marketing budgets and teams of marketers pushing their message to the social web, it only makes sense for small businesses to combine their social marketing efforts. BizBrag seems to have found an excellent way to make this possible. To find out more visit their site: Small Business Social Marketing by BizBrag

The Benefits of Colocation for Companies that Offer Cloud Computing

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Cloud computing is a relatively simple concept: documents are stored remotely and can be accessed via any device that can connect to the internet and make contact with the server. But, in practice, cloud computing is actually quite demanding.

The large amounts of data that resides on servers can cause them to easily become overloaded, resulting in more and more servers being added to the mix. New entrants to the cloud computing space may find themselves overwhelmed, out of space, and financially struggling to maintain their assets.

Because these problems are all too common, it's important to consider colocation services as a way to create a sustainable cloud computing environment. Using colocation helps to get the burden of server hardware out of the office, and it lets someone else do the hard work of maintaining servers, ensuring they're in the proper environment, and making sure that they'll be online even if the internet goes down or the power goes out. Simply put, a colocation provider gives peace of mind to cloud computing providers.

Reliability Increases When Using a Colocation Data Center Facility

Many new entrants to the cloud computing industry opt to host their servers in-house at an office facility where they perform the rest of their usual work. This is a big mistake that can lead to large gaps in service and regular downtime. Traditional office spaces are simply not as redundant as colocation data center facilities, and that means that every server is subject to the whims of the building's broadband connection and energy availability.

Choosing instead to use a colocation facility to store these servers means that a cloud computing services provider will have their servers backed up by multiple redundant broadband and power connections. The facilities contract with multiple broadband service providers to ensure that each server is actually connected to multiple broadband services.

Data center facilities contract almost exclusively with Tier 1 service providers, such as Cogent, Verizon Business, and Level 3. These companies provide a fast and secure internet backbone and, because colocation facilities work with multiple internet connections, downtime at one internet service provider will not cause entire servers or server cabinets to go offline. A simple office space cannot offer that peace of mind.

Likewise, colocation facilities have copious amounts of backup generators and power supplies, and they contract with multiple power companies just as they do with broadband providers. The goal of these facilities is to be online even when the power is out, an emergency has caused complications, or a natural disaster is affecting their immediate area.

Colocation Facilities are Tightly Managed and Monitored

Operators of colocation data center facilities don't take their jobs lightly. These vast buildings are constantly monitored, with most of them having round-the-clock front desk service and 24-hour technicians on-site. These professionals are tasked with ensuring that the facility is at the right operating temperature, and that servers are always in the ideal environment to be functioning at top speed -- without overheating.

Technicians are onsite to ensure that no technical glitch prevents a server or a server cabinet form going dark. They make sure that Ethernet ports, HVAC systems, power supplies, and broadband connections are functioning properly through the facility; should anything experience a glitch or a technical problem, they're on the case in minutes. Again, no company can provide that kind of service for its own cloud computing servers in an office setting.

Guaranteed Uptime and Reliability

Because cloud computing services need to be in near-constant communication with mobile devices and the wider internet, there is simply no room for error when it comes to uptime and reliability. For that reason, many colocation data center facilities back up their redundant broadband connections and power supplies with an uptime guarantee of 99.9 percent or better. In fact, the best colocation companies guarantee their customers nothing less than 100 percent uptime on all of the servers they host.

Should colocation companies fail to live up to their promises of guaranteed uptime, they'll gladly refund a prorated portion of a customer's hosting bill in order to compensate for the inconvenience. That's a testament to just how confident they are in their ability to provide outstanding, completely reliable service.

An Affordable Way to Achieve Peace of Mind

Colocation might sound complex, and people often associate complexity with a high cost of service. But that is simply not the case for the vast majority of colocation companies. Colocation is actually an extremely affordable service when compared to the cost of maintaining servers in-house. Monthly fees are consistent, customers pay only for features and maintenance that they approve and agree upon with the service provider, and no contracts are generally required to initiate service.

When paired with the enhanced reliability, data speeds, and peace of mind that comes from outsourcing server placement and maintenance, colocation is virtually a no-brainer among the growing number of cloud computing professionals.

Author Bio: Stephanie C. is a car insurance specialist who takes pride in her ability to find the cheapest car insurance for her clients, friends, and family. In her spare time, Stephanie enjoys hiking, swimming, and biking.

Mozilla Firefox 10 Officially Released

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The newest stable version of Mozilla Firefox has been released as the tenth version. Desktop and mobile users can now enjoy a handful of new features and an upgraded user interface. Here is an excerpt from the official changelog for Mozilla Firefox:

- The forward button is now hidden until you navigate back

- Most add-ons are now compatible with new versions of Firefox by default

- Anti-Aliasing for WebGL is now implemented (see bug 615976)

- CSS3 3D-Transforms are now supported (see bug 505115

- HTML5: element for bi-directional text isolation, along with supporting CSS - properties (see bugs 613149 and 662288)

- HTML5: Full Screen APIs allow you to build a web application that runs full screen (see the feature page)

- We've added IndexedDB APIs to more closely match the specification

- Inspect tool with content highlighting, includes new CSS Style Inspector

- FIXED: Mac OS X only after installing the latest Java release from Apple, Firefox may crash when closing a tab with a Java applet installed (700835)

- FIXED: Some users may experience a crash when moving bookmarks (681795)

Check the full list of changes for Firefox 10.0 "Changelog".

I've always been a huge fan of Mozilla Firefox and will be upgrading it immediately on my servers dedicated to non-hosting purposes. For those running a dedicated hosting server using mainstream Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, you can bet that this version will be compatible and fully functioning.

200th Blog Special: Colocation America welcomes all Guest Bloggers

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The staff at Colocation America is ecstatic to present our 200th blog post to our readers! For the occasion, we are proud to announce the introduction of guest articles on our blog. We will now feature guest blogs from writers specializing in different areas of the computers and tech industry.

We have guest blogs planned for the upcoming weeks and we welcome anyone who desires to contribute to our blog to e-mail us at blog@colocationamerica.com. Take a peak at the Colocation America 2011 demographics to see our traffic for last year.

Please take note of the following criteria before e-mailing us your piece:

250 - 400 words
Related pictures are highly encouraged
Must be related to the Tech/Computer industry
One do-follow link for a website you designate
100% original content only

Most importantly, we want to show appreciation to all of our readers and supporters for these first 200 blog posts! It's been a wild ride on our journey to provide a fun and informational blog for our subscribers. As always, we encourage conversations on our blog comments. To encourage more chit chat, we're now allowing links to outside blogs and websites (such as yours), because we believe great websites should get the attention they deserve. Here's to our readers, the next 200 blogs, and a great year!

Here is a small preview of our website's demographic. Click the link above for a more comprehensive chart.

VMware Releases Cloud and Virtualization Marketplace VMware Solution Exchange

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

VMware has officially released its cloud solutions and virtualization marketplace under the name VMware Solution Exchange. The company behind workstation and data center virtualization has now created a platform designed to help corporations locate solutions for public and private cloud. The Solution Exchange offers infrastructure and application products from over two thousand vendors, with details on 3,500 apps and 6,000 infrastructure products.

VMware Vice President of Global Strategic Alliances Parag Patel states the Solution Exchange was built on the idea that social networking tools are being more utilized today to share and discover information, and the exchange will allow users to do similar tasks. "We are offering our robust partner network a new and centralized marketplace to promote their solutions and directly connect with customers to help expedite the sales process," Patel said. "For customers, our goal is to empower them to quickly and easily find the resources they need to make purchasing decisions to accelerate their journey to the cloud, while also helping our technology partners deliver and manage joint solutions in a single, self-service location." The exchange seems promising, offering everything from data backup to cloud services.

Data Centers to Manage Available Redundant Capacity (ARC)

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Every business is concerned with finding the most efficient ways to compete in their industry. The data center industry is no different. Energy management is a major part of keeping costs down and green efforts high. Data centers must measure and manage their available redundant capacity (ARC). ARC is the amount of IT load that can be added to a system without sacrificing redundancy. Although this approach does not capture all conditions of power distribution, it does identify how much additional load it can take. By calculating the systems ARC from the individual device's ARC, it assumes both parallel components are the same thus ensuring the most limited device can handle the entire load.

Though this seems like a problem for the IT guys at your data center, it should be a concern for the business outsourcing its equipment. Understanding the interaction between capacity and efficiency is crucial for the data managers and owners alike. Similarly, both you and the data managers should know which devices are operating most efficiently and which need capitalize on efficiency efforts. With the proper calculation of ARC, your system will run more smoothly, maintain up-time, all while providing you with the cheapest dedicated servers possible.

60 Hudson Street Data Center Plans for Major Renovations

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The Hudson Building on 60 Hudson Street has announced plans for a complex renovation to modernize the 80-year-old building. Power and cooling capacity expansions will be the main changes to the historic landmark that served as a pillar in the evolution of American communications infrastructure. In charge of the resurgence of the Hudson Building is CEO of DataGryd, Peter Feldman, who has a tough task ahead of him.

In a public interview, Feldman detailed the various difficulties surrounding the project, including limited space and outdated infrastructure. To refurbish an 80-year-old building is more than just cleaning up the outside, as the insides must be rejuvenated as well. Feldman plans on replacing the building's outdated mechanical systems with 240,000 square feet of practical floor space, which translates to benefits such as increased data center storage options and capacity.

The DataGryd team has also developed a plan that will upgrade the power and cooling capacity without interrupting the ongoing operations of current clients, many of who cannot afford a single second of downtime due to critical processes. This plan includes a drastic transformation of the data center cooling, which will feature a combined cooling, heat, and power (CCHP) system with Caterpillar turbines, which use natural gas to generate power.

Two Week Merge Window Closes: Linux 3.3-rc1 Officially Released

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The first release candidate of Linux 3.3 kernel was released to the public yesterday afternoon. Linus Torvalds and his team managed to close the 3.3 kernel merge window after only two weeks. When asked about the latest merge window, Torvalds stated, "It really was a pretty busy merge window. I don't know why it felt so busy, though, In pure numbers, the merge window seems to have been pretty normal - the number of merges and regular commits are right where you'd expect them."

Many pulls were handled in the 3.3 release candidate which included: DRM changes, BQL for fighting Bufferbloat, EXT4 file-system improvements, and improved ACPI/power management support. In comparison to recent kernel releases, Linus managed to pack in a long list of exciting features. For those running a dedicated hosting server using Linux, I'd recommend updating to Linux 3.3 rc1 kernel immediately.

Understanding the SOPA Bill: For the Average Internet User

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

In case you haven't heard, which seems nearly impossible, major websites, plus some 10,000 other sites, are protesting the SOPA bill. Now what is the SOPA bill exactly? First off, SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act. If passed, the U.S. Senate and the Department of Justice have the right to shut down and make search engines remove links to sites deemed 'copyright infringement.' Mostly, SOPA is aimed at stopping domestic access and funding to foreign-based websites that offer pirated material. Essentially, this bill will cut off funding, advertising, and access to said sites. For anyone that has been on YouTube, copyright infringement on the internet is a real thing. YouTube even has different options of copyright and licensing for a person's created material and that of others.

Now what does SOPA mean to the average internet user? Perhaps nothing. As seen by the massive amount of popular websites on strike, this bill may never happen. As of Noon, Pacific Time, House Speaker John Boehner said that legislation was not ready for a vote, only to say it will come back in a month. Some senators commented that the bill is simply not ready, while others are outright withdrawing their support claiming 'free and open access' to everyone. Regardless of what US Senators are preaching, the internet remains free from the SOPA bill.

But really, what does SOPA mean for the average website owner? Again, it is uncertain the effect it will have. One thing is certain, however, that websites that are on shared IP addresses may be in trouble. Imagine the internet as it is currently. A website may be on a shared IP with a small video site (imagine with me). This small video site has pirated material that SOPA has deemed unfit for the public eye. In response to this discovery the Department of Justice bans the small video site's IP which, in turn, is your IP address. To prevent this from happening, sites may choose a dedicated IP address. Once a website owner sees the advantages of a dedicated IP address they may choose one of the other services that give them more control over their site. These services include server dedicated, colocation, or managed server.

Now what should the average website owners and users do? Well, they should do their research on the issue. Before you protest, strike, write, comment, Tweet, Facebook, or whatever it is you do, do the research. Figure out the reasons behind the bill and how it will affect you. Chances are you will find out more information about the internet and piracy laws then you ever wanted to know. Be engaged and have your own opinion on the bill before you go all gung-ho on being anti-government.

Controversial SOPA to Remove Critical Provision

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Lead sponsor of the controversial U.S. Stop Online Piracy Act, also known as SOPA, is officially removing a provision that states Internet service providers must block subscribers from accessing foreign sites with copyright infringement issues. Texas Republican Lamar Smith has announced he will remove the provision while they examine the issues surrounding the controversy of the provision.

Remaining in the bill still are provisions allowing the Department of Justice to pursue court orders requiring search engines to remove links to websites accused of copyright infringement. It will also require online advertising networks and payment processors to sever all ties with accused websites.

SOPA has been receiving a significant amount of negative attention in the past few weeks, especially with widespread retaliation from big names such as Amazon, Google, Wikipedia, and popular social bookmarking website Reddit, which will have a day of black out dedicated to opposing the SOPA. It remains to be seen how SOPA will affect the colocation hosting industry, but it will certainly make an impact when the decision is finally made.

Highlights of the Consumer Electronics Show

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Networkworld.com wrote an interesting article summarizing the biggest points to take away from the Consumer Electronics Show held last week. The article details 5 key points to takeaway from the trade show, incase you weren't able to follow or attend.

The first point is that Windows is finally back. Although Windows never really went away, it is now resurging with innovative ideas for the operating system. Windows 8 provides a personal yet functional feel that has completely eliminated the Start button. Although Windows 8 looks to be optimized for personal use rather than as an operating system for a dedicated hosting server, I still look forward to a great follow up to Windows 7.

Following Windows improving, NetworkWorld talks about the latest ultrabook craze. Ultrabooks are the non-Mac alternatives to the MacBook Air, and feature fast speed at a low weight, all at a reasonable price. The thing to takeaway was that although they are great, they are not as essential or innovative as all the hype warrants.

Read more about CES and the last three points over at NetworkWorld.

AT&T Announces AT&T Cloud Architect with OpenStack

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AT&T has announced the arrival of a new open-source cloud running OpenStack, to improve their application developer platform. It is dubbed AT&T Cloud Architect, and is a planned service of private and public servers equipped with a variety of storage, network, and monitoring options. The AT&T Cloud Architect will be offered as a service in the near future.

AT&T claims it will come with a LAMP stack for Fedora, CentOS, Debian, Red Hat, and Windows Server, which is positive news for those currently operating a low cost dedicated server with one of those operating systems. The Cloud Architect will eventually feature a full API framework, allowing full access to the cloud.

Additionally, AT&T has now become the first United States telecommunications provider to partner up with OpenStack. Openstack is a project started by Rackspace and NASA in 2010, with the main purpose of building up a Linux infrastructure for cloud. John Donovan, AT&T chief technology officer, has stated OpenStack will be hosted at three of their main data centers, including their data center in New Jersey, specifically Secaucus. They plan to expand to six data centers by the end of the year.

Major Exchange Companies enjoy the benefits of Colocation Weehawken

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The forecast is out on IT trends for 2012. Staying ahead of the game is, of course, the main concern for many businesses. One trend that keeps everyone blogging is the increase of exchanging of data and information online. As society changes so must companies and the way in which they conduct business even for financial companies. The ease in which companies exchange information has led to an increase of deals. To stay in the loop, exchange data and maintain uptime at any hour, companies will have to find the cheapest dedicated servers close to home.

For financial companies on Wall Street a data center close to the company's headquarters matters. A second in the world of low-latency trading can seem like an eternity. Imagine Wall Street having a data center in San Francisco opposed to Weehawken; the microseconds wasted to connect to an exchange systems to execute a trade may be the difference between millions of dollars made or lost. For those who do not know Weehawken is home to five major exchange companies' IT infrastructures including the American Stock Exchange, Philadelphia Stock Exchange, and BATS Trading. The increase in bandwidth has allowed finance companies to reach more clients quicker resulting in more sells. For a finance business or any other business type in Weehawken or the surrounding areas, choosing a Colocation Weehawken provider or data center may be the difference between making it, breaking it, or just surviving.

Emerging Trends in the Data Center Industry in 2012

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

2012 is looking to be an eventful year in the data center industry and its operations. Large scale tectonic shifts are either planned or undergoing for a number of major data center, providing new prospects in an otherwise stable field.

Virtualization is shrinking down data center footprints but augmenting cooling requirements and power density. Storage is getting more crucial because of the shortage of hard disk production, associated with the natural disasters in key production areas such as Thailand.

Increased uptime expectations are pushing operations into new service models, and compliance is putting emphasis on improved security expenditure. All of these shifts are significantly increasing demand for colocation and cloud services, and it has only been a little over a week in the new year!

Over these next couple of weeks, the blog at Colocation America will keep readers up to date on the developing trends in the data center industry and the progressive shift that is imminent. For now, look forward to an increase in supply of the low cost dedicated server, despite growing compliance and quality demands from data centers. In addition, look out for potential infrastructure upgrades from major data centers and colocation, such as One Wilshire colocation from the flagship Los Angeles data center.

Linux Mint Topples Ubuntu on All Time Record for DistroWatch Rankings

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Linux Mint has broken the all time record on DistroWatch's linux distribution ranking list, over the previous holder Ubuntu. Linux Mint has managed to obtain a 3160 rating, which is over a 1000 rating higher than Ubuntu. The ranking list puts emphasis on trending traffic and new user growth, which is why Linux Mint has been doing so well on the list in comparison to Ubuntu, which has been relatively stagnant outside of its regular updates.

The decrease in user growth for Ubuntu can mostly be attributed to its still controversial change to the Unity system, which has been criticized for its lack of customization. Canonical has also shifted gears away from the desktop industry and has started focusing more on tablet and handset operating systems. For those searching a low cost dedicated server, Linux Mint may be a great alternative to the once mighty Ubuntu when considering an operating system.