DCI Explores ISG's Virtualization and Cloud Services
Industry: Financial
DCI provides full-service bank technology and processing solutions to the financial industry. Headquartered in Hutchinson, Kansas, DCI’s advanced banking solutions include the iCore® bank processing and management system, imaging, Internet banking, networking, teller automation, ATM/card services network, and backroom services. In 2008, iCore won the BankNews Innovative Solutions award for the Best Management Software Solution.
Challenge
Hundreds of community bank clients count on DCI for core information processing services. With virtually all of their financial transactions reliant on the DCI system, bank clients require around-the-clock application services in conjunction with comprehensive information protection. Bankers also look to DCI for innovation and continued cost efficiencies to help maintain competitiveness in cautious financial markets. But managing critical systems for a demanding and growing client based posed mounting challenges, according to Robert Ross, VP of Network & Technical Services at DCI. “It became increasingly time consuming and labor intensive to protect rapidly expanding volumes of mission-critical financial data and continue to satisfy the time and efficiency needs of modern banks.”
A growing client base, increasing systems complexity, and demands for higher levels of Business Continuity and DR caused DCI to re-evaluate its approach to providing services to its clients.
Solution
Virtualize servers on VMware®, deploy multiple NetApp® storage arrays, and automate Disaster Recovery.
Results
John Jones, CEO of DCI, had high praise for the ISG solution. “Moving to the VMware on NetApp environment allows us to deliver near real-time business resumption service to our clients. Whether it’s empowering remote employees with virtual desktops, delivering the processing services clients need to support mobile banking, or providing complete IT services via a private cloud, we have the technology in place to be agile, innovative, and competitive.”
Robert Ross summarized, “By providing full IT services to de novo banks, for example, we can nearly eliminate their initial IT capital investments and staffing requirements. We also help reduce risk. In an age of increasing regulation, offloading compliance and other processing and data management complexities can be a huge advantage for client banks. We now see tremendous opportunity to expand our value to a broad spectrum of bank clients.”
DCI Explores ISG’s Virtualization and Cloud Services
Industry: Financial
DCI provides full-service bank technology and processing solutions to the financial industry. Headquartered in Hutchinson, Kansas, DCI’s advanced banking solutions include the iCore® bank processing and management system, imaging, Internet banking, networking, teller automation, ATM/card services network, and backroom services. In 2008, iCore won the BankNews Innovative Solutions award for the Best Management Software Solution.
Challenge
Hundreds of community bank clients count on DCI for core information processing services. With virtually all of their financial transactions reliant on the DCI system, bank clients require around-the-clock application services in conjunction with comprehensive information protection. Bankers also look to DCI for innovation and continued cost efficiencies to help maintain competitiveness in cautious financial markets. But managing critical systems for a demanding and growing client based posed mounting challenges, according to Robert Ross, VP of Network & Technical Services at DCI. “It became increasingly time consuming and labor intensive to protect rapidly expanding volumes of mission-critical financial data and continue to satisfy the time and efficiency needs of modern banks.”
A growing client base, increasing systems complexity, and demands for higher levels of Business Continuity and DR caused DCI to re-evaluate its approach to providing services to its clients.
Solution
Virtualize servers on VMware®, deploy multiple NetApp® storage arrays, and automate Disaster Recovery.
Results
John Jones, CEO of DCI, had high praise for the ISG solution. “Moving to the VMware on NetApp environment allows us to deliver near real-time business resumption service to our clients. Whether it’s empowering remote employees with virtual desktops, delivering the processing services clients need to support mobile banking, or providing complete IT services via a private cloud, we have the technology in place to be agile, innovative, and competitive.”
Robert Ross summarized, “By providing full IT services to de novo banks, for example, we can nearly eliminate their initial IT capital investments and staffing requirements. We also help reduce risk. In an age of increasing regulation, offloading compliance and other processing and data management complexities can be a huge advantage for client banks. We now see tremendous opportunity to expand our value to a broad spectrum of bank clients.”
ISG Empowers Full-Service Radiology Practice
Industry: Healthcare
As a client service-oriented radiology practice in Missouri, Advanced Radiology was feeling the pain. “Stability and speed are crucial to our ability to provide services to our patients and their physicians,” says James Aldridge, Director of Radiology for the company. “We had reached a point where our existing infrastructure would inhibit our growth unless we invested a significant amount of capital into a dozen new servers, storage devices and software.”
“ISG helped us implement a major network upgrade with virtual servers in a secure underground environment.”
James Aldridge, Director of Radiology, Advanced Radiology
Challenge
Many businesses serving the healthcare industry are experiencing similar challenges. With new, rapid technological growth mandates, there’s a constant need for providers to upgrade to newer equipment and software. “The cost of equipment and the rate of change can cause not only an increase in capital expense, but a human expense in terms of training and time,” says Matt Jost, ISG account executive. “Technology has become a consuming factor for many healthcare providers, and that can distract from their core business focus.”
To help Advanced Radiology break through their barriers, ISG was able to test and evaluate their systems and propose different scenarios. “ISG’s knowledge and flexibility allowed us to tailor a solution that fit our budget and address each of our unique challenges,” says Aldridge. To start things off, ISG performed a complete network evaluation to determine best practices for the environment, taking the human element into consideration along with power, cooling, physical space and regulatory restrictions.
Solution
Based on the results of this evaluation, and the necessary requirements to meet the client’s business goals, ISG proposed two solutions. “One was to build out an internal data center with a virtual infrastructure,” says Jost. “The second was to reduce capital costs by migrating their IT infrastructure toward the ISG Data Center Service.”
“ISG helped us implement a major network upgrade with virtual servers in a secure underground environment, all connected to dual fiber rings, with a solid disaster recovery plan,” says Aldridge. “During this transition, we experienced very little downtime. They were able to simplify our backup process and help tighten our security.”
Results
The results were better than either ISG or Advanced Radiology could have hoped for. In addition to the improved reliability and the elimination of outages, ISG’s Data Center Service has provided the client with additional flexibility for virtual assets. It’s also enabled migrations to new and more productive software solutions, minus the downtime.
“Advanced Radiology has a newfound agility thanks to the ISG Data Center,” says Jost. “They can add users, servers or other virtual assets within minutes,” he says, “and all without making a capital expenditure.”
The client couldn’t agree more. “ISG was able to update us to newer server technology, including both hardware and software,” says Aldridge. “With a newer operating system implementation, we were able to speed up our networks. ISG has been instrumental in our ability to continue our growth and migrate into newer systems.”
Are you interested in learning more about how switching to ISG’s Data Center Services could help your business thrive? Contact your ISG representative today.
Solving Disaster Recovery with Virtualization
Industry: Education
Oklahoma City Public Schools (OKCPS) is a K-12 school district in central Oklahoma. OKCPS is comprised of 79 total schools, over 36,000 students and more than 4,400 employees.
Challenge
Like many large public school systems, OKCPS had various IT challenges. Dozens of sites to network, thousands of endpoints to support and limited IT staff to manage and maintain the sprawling environment. Worries about power consumption, server sprawl and the high travel/maintenance costs of supporting a distributed server environment had increased as well.
Solution
OKCPS has an experienced and talented Network Services team but they felt needed a technology partner with deep expertise in Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery solutions. OKCPS engaged ISG Technology, a technology solution provider with extensive experience helping clients solve BC/DR challenges.
As a starting point, ISG worked with the Network Services team to perform a detailed Assessment of the OKCPS server, storage and network infrastructure. The Assessment yielded a solution design which would not only solve the DR challenge but consolidate the sprawling OKCPS infrastructure down to working data centers. The two data centers could then be configured to work together in production while providing failover capabilities in the event of a site failure.
The design included virtualization of numerous OKCPS server workloads using VMware ESX on HP C-class Blades. Once virtualized, workloads become “portable,” since virtual machines are not tied to physical hardware.
The design also included a pair of EMC CLARiiON storage arrays teamed with EMC RecoverPoint for bi-directional data replication between the two data centers. Replication assures that if one data center has an outage, data loss, or disaster the other data center can assume full function.
To simplify the recovery process, ISG recommended VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM), a DR tool for virtualized environments which leverages EMC replication capabilities to automate the flow of the recovery process. SRM eliminates complex manual recovery steps and minimized the need for human intervention during a disaster — effectively a “push button” DR solution. SRM also provides a non-disruptive testing environment, so the plan can be validated and/or amended as necessary.
The final solution component was for Backup at each site using Data Domain appliances to provide an additional layer of data protection. Data Domain is a tapeless backup solution which provides industry leading data “deduplication” which can dramatically decrease storage capacity requirements and costs.
Results
Implementation of the solution went smoothly, according to Steve Washam, Director of Network Services for OKCPS. “The project went very well. Our team did a great job. Dean Coit (ISG Solution Architect) went above and beyond the call of duty to help us.”
“ISG’s expertise was critical to our success.”
Steve Washam, Director of Network Services for OKCPS
The key result achieved was a robust DR plan which can be tested, amended and validated during business hours without having to take down production systems. The new DR plan also provides detailed test reports which can be provided to auditors upon request.
Another notable benefit of the solution was a significant reduction in power consumption and energy costs. Prior to implementation, OKCPS had reached the capacity limits of the existing power plant. But the virtualized environment reduced power requirements and eliminated the need to invest in a new, larger UPS.
A final benefit resulted from the consolidation and centralization. The bloated travel and maintenance costs of supporting the former distributed environment were all but eliminated in the new solution.
Tips to improve your facility's physical security
A lot of companies tend to focus on digital data breaches when prepping their defenses. The quasi-magical nature of accessing information through a few lines of code and an investigation into a network’s security infrastructure can make cybercriminals seem like modern-day wizards. Despite their malicious intentions, it’s hard not to be impressed by the skills of hackers these days.
That said, the public’s fascination with digital hacking has allowed many administrators to shift their focus away from physical security. Cyber security is flashy and exciting, and as such many officials forget that improperly protecting the facility itself can lead to data breaches. Criminals don’t care how they get private information as long as they can make a profit from it, and they sometimes break into offices to steal what they need.
Although the notion of some outside criminal burglarizing your company is an unsettling thought, there are a few things administrators can do to ensure the physical security of their facilities.
“Administrators should look to authenticate employee identities as often as possible.”
The more levels of authentication, the better
Verification of a person’s identity and security credentials is absolutely vital to ensure the physical security of any office. The more barriers there are between the outside world and secure areas, the more chances a criminal has of slipping up and getting caught. Administrators should look to authenticate employee identities as often as possible. We’ve already discussed the three ‘What’s’ of physical security in length, but their importance bears a quick recap:
- What you have: These are the physical items that you use to gain access to an area, such as an ID card.
- What you know: This has to do with phrases or codes you memorize to pass a security checkpoint, like a password.
- What you are: Your physical attributes, such as your fingerprints or DNA, are extremely hard to forge. As such, they are great ways to authenticate your identity.
Ideally, every single part of a facility should have all three of these security measures. However, this simply isn’t feasible for more client-friendly areas. Regardless, administrators should install at least one method of authentication for even the least secure areas of the office. Areas that require higher levels of security should have as many authentication barriers as possible, with the optimal setup using a combination of all three.
Employee education is key
Once you’ve set up the physical infrastructure of your authentication systems, it’s time to train employees on the importance of proper security. Even the best biometric scanner in the world can’t prevent a worker from holding the door open for a nefarious stranger. It’s vital that staff members understand their role in all of this.
The first step in this is to train workers to see the difference between compassion and gullibility. Buzzing in an employee that forgot his or her ID badge is fine if this person has been working at the company for 10 years, but doing the same for an unknown “repair man” that left his credentials at home opens the office up to a breach.
What’s more, it’s important to stress that staff members are the last line of defense against theft. Security experts at Social-Engineer stated that they have a perfect record when it comes to physical break-ins at companies they test, with a portion of their success being attributed to impersonating employees. Workers need to know who has access to specific parts of the building, and they should be able to recognize an unfamiliar face if they’re in an area containing sensitive information or expensive equipment.
You’ll need security cameras, too
Finally, administrators intent on ensuring the physical security of their facilities need to invest in top-notch security cameras. In a perfect world, every company would have several employees with the sole job of watching security camera footage to ensure nefarious individuals don’t make their way into the office. Sadly, this isn’t possible for a majority of organizations, which is why surveillance equipment is generally used after a crime has taken place to identify the burglar.
Without security camera footage, burglars are just shadows in the night.While this is still an incredibly useful function, it does pose the problem of video data storage. Cameras should be placed at all entrances and exits as well as in high-security areas. For larger facilities, this is going to result in hundreds of hours of footage every week.
All of this data is going to need to be put somewhere for a certain period of time, as break-ins aren’t always immediately apparent. Considering the fact that TechVision has estimated that companies generally double their data storage needs every 12 to 18 months, adding even more to the pile can add unneeded strain to a company’s IT department.
This is why company officials looking to decrease the chances of a burglary in their office should look to partner with ISG Technology’s physical security experts. Not only can we help set up authentication and surveillance systems, we can also store and manage the data created by cameras to ensure the recordings are quickly and easily accessible if a break-in were to occur.
Tips to improve your facility’s physical security
A lot of companies tend to focus on digital data breaches when prepping their defenses. The quasi-magical nature of accessing information through a few lines of code and an investigation into a network’s security infrastructure can make cybercriminals seem like modern-day wizards. Despite their malicious intentions, it’s hard not to be impressed by the skills of hackers these days.
That said, the public’s fascination with digital hacking has allowed many administrators to shift their focus away from physical security. Cyber security is flashy and exciting, and as such many officials forget that improperly protecting the facility itself can lead to data breaches. Criminals don’t care how they get private information as long as they can make a profit from it, and they sometimes break into offices to steal what they need.
Although the notion of some outside criminal burglarizing your company is an unsettling thought, there are a few things administrators can do to ensure the physical security of their facilities.
“Administrators should look to authenticate employee identities as often as possible.”
The more levels of authentication, the better
Verification of a person’s identity and security credentials is absolutely vital to ensure the physical security of any office. The more barriers there are between the outside world and secure areas, the more chances a criminal has of slipping up and getting caught. Administrators should look to authenticate employee identities as often as possible. We’ve already discussed the three ‘What’s’ of physical security in length, but their importance bears a quick recap:
- What you have: These are the physical items that you use to gain access to an area, such as an ID card.
- What you know: This has to do with phrases or codes you memorize to pass a security checkpoint, like a password.
- What you are: Your physical attributes, such as your fingerprints or DNA, are extremely hard to forge. As such, they are great ways to authenticate your identity.
Ideally, every single part of a facility should have all three of these security measures. However, this simply isn’t feasible for more client-friendly areas. Regardless, administrators should install at least one method of authentication for even the least secure areas of the office. Areas that require higher levels of security should have as many authentication barriers as possible, with the optimal setup using a combination of all three.
Employee education is key
Once you’ve set up the physical infrastructure of your authentication systems, it’s time to train employees on the importance of proper security. Even the best biometric scanner in the world can’t prevent a worker from holding the door open for a nefarious stranger. It’s vital that staff members understand their role in all of this.
The first step in this is to train workers to see the difference between compassion and gullibility. Buzzing in an employee that forgot his or her ID badge is fine if this person has been working at the company for 10 years, but doing the same for an unknown “repair man” that left his credentials at home opens the office up to a breach.
What’s more, it’s important to stress that staff members are the last line of defense against theft. Security experts at Social-Engineer stated that they have a perfect record when it comes to physical break-ins at companies they test, with a portion of their success being attributed to impersonating employees. Workers need to know who has access to specific parts of the building, and they should be able to recognize an unfamiliar face if they’re in an area containing sensitive information or expensive equipment.
You’ll need security cameras, too
Finally, administrators intent on ensuring the physical security of their facilities need to invest in top-notch security cameras. In a perfect world, every company would have several employees with the sole job of watching security camera footage to ensure nefarious individuals don’t make their way into the office. Sadly, this isn’t possible for a majority of organizations, which is why surveillance equipment is generally used after a crime has taken place to identify the burglar.
Without security camera footage, burglars are just shadows in the night.While this is still an incredibly useful function, it does pose the problem of video data storage. Cameras should be placed at all entrances and exits as well as in high-security areas. For larger facilities, this is going to result in hundreds of hours of footage every week.
All of this data is going to need to be put somewhere for a certain period of time, as break-ins aren’t always immediately apparent. Considering the fact that TechVision has estimated that companies generally double their data storage needs every 12 to 18 months, adding even more to the pile can add unneeded strain to a company’s IT department.
This is why company officials looking to decrease the chances of a burglary in their office should look to partner with ISG Technology’s physical security experts. Not only can we help set up authentication and surveillance systems, we can also store and manage the data created by cameras to ensure the recordings are quickly and easily accessible if a break-in were to occur.
Colocation: Having your cake and eating it, too (Part 2 of 2)
In our previous article in this series, we discussed the many benefits of colocation. While there are obviously many advantages to this service, some businesses are better suited for a colocation package than others. There are a lot of factors to consider before implementing such a plan. Chief among them is to fully understand what your company is and what it will be. How much storage space do you currently require? Do you see massive growth in your organization’s future? What are your capital expenditure and operational expenditure requirements for data storage?
These aren’t easy questions to answer, but they are absolutely vital in understanding whether or not colocation is right for your business. So, with that in mind, which companies should be looking into colocation?
Many different kinds of businesses can benefit from off-premises data storage.Who benefits the most?
While we’ve already discussed the cost advantages of colocation, reduced capital expenditures are something just about any company could benefit from. Colocation has advantages for businesses of all sizes, but it truly excels for smaller companies or organizations that are predicting a lot of growth in their business. This is because colocation works wonders when it comes to scalability.
When your business grows, your data needs grow with it. While you obviously want your operation to continue to develop and mature, handling these increased data storage requirements can be incredibly hard to handle. In past years, scaling up generally meant having to requisition more and more space for your servers. If your business was still in its infancy or your facility just didn’t have a lot of space, this was a lot easier said than done.
With a colocation package from a managed service provider, the sky’s the limit in terms of your data needs. Scaling up simply requires the purchase of new hardware as well as a renegotiation of your terms. Never again will you have to worry about where you’ll put yet another server.
What should you be looking for in a colocation partner?
You’ve taken a hard look at the data and scalability requirements of your facility and have decided that colocation is right for you. Now it’s time to search for a provider that can give your company what it needs. When it comes to selecting a partner, there are a few requirements every business owner should be aware of.
First and foremost, you should do research into what kind of surveillance you can expect from this provider. Will your data systems be monitored at all times by a fully-functioning staff? If so, how knowledgeable are these employees, and will they be easily reached in the event of a late-night IT issue? On top of that, you need to know if the facility has backup generators in the event of a power failure.
“40 percent of small businesses close permanently after a natural disaster.”
Aside from these concerns, another area you should focus on is the MSP’s involvement in disaster recovery. Harvey Betan, a business continuity consultant, stated in a TechTarget article that colocation facilities work well as a backup disaster recovery location, as they are generally meant to be far away from your building. Considering the Red Cross has reported that nearly 40 percent of small businesses close permanently after a natural disaster, having your data in a separate location could prove incredibly useful.
Thankfully, ISG Technology has the ability to facilitate all of these needs and more. After years of experience in the disaster recovery business, ISG Technology can help ensure the safety of your data. What’s more, we guarantee 24/7/365 monitoring of the data systems within our facility, and our backup generators help to ensure you can access your data when you need it most.
Colocation: Having your cake and eating it too (Part 1 of 2)
With all of the information collected as a normal course of conducting business these days, it’s not surprising so many companies are beginning to focus more heavily on their data storage needs. Keeping things in line used to mean having a properly labeled file cabinet, but client information has evolved well beyond this.
As a solution to storage woes, many companies are beginning to lean toward colocation. This is where a business takes its own servers and stores them at an outside data center. Once the servers have been transported, the facility’s staff take care of requirements such as cooling and bandwidth. The popularity of this service has been exploding recently, and MarketsandMarkets has predicted the global colocation market to be hit more than $54 billion by 2020.
Colocation is an amazing innovation, so let’s take some time to discuss the advantages of this service in depth:
Colocation just makes sense for many businesses.Advantages you can expect
As touched on above, one of the biggest reasons companies make the switch is that they don’t have the ability to actually care for their servers. Whether it’s a concern about not having the proper staff to care for the machines or even just not having the physical space, colocation allows companies the unique opportunity to utilize data center services without actually building one themselves. CAPEX and OPEX costs such as these are severely reduced when implementing a colocation solution, allowing business administrators a little more breathing room in their budgets.
On top of receiving services like server cooling and power without directly having to pay for them on premises, companies that purchase a colocation plan are also likely guaranteed certain conditions under their service-level agreement. According to TechTarget’s Margaret Rouse, an SLA may include anything from uptime guarantees to performance benchmarks.
“Data is at the center of your business.”
Another amazing benefit of colocation is that the managed service providers within the data centers often also offer disaster recovery solutions. While this is certainly a great addition to a colocation package, it also means that a facility that provides disaster recovery is most likely safer than any other company you’ve ever dealt with. These professionals are experts at mitigating the risks of a disaster, which means your servers will be incredibly secure in their hands. Data is at the center of your business, and making sure that it’s safe should be your top priority.
ISG Technology can help you implement a solution
If you’re thinking of taking advantage of this amazing innovation, there’s been no better time than now. ISG Technology is a leading colocation expert, with years of experience satisfying the data storage needs of our clients. Even a single server can be relocated to an ISG Technology facility, making this service right for businesses of multiple sizes.
Although colocation has quite a lot of advantages, certain companies can benefit more than others by implementing such a solution. In the second part of this series, we’ll delve more deeply into which organizations can expect the most out this service.
IT infrastructure challenges: Big data in healthcare
One of the most common issues within the medical industry is deciding how to manage all of the data being generated on a near-constant basis. The amount of information created by hospitals and health clinics is astounding and isn’t going to slow down anytime soon.
In general, big data is increasing at an accelerated rate across every industry. The IDC predicted in November 2015 that by 2019, spending on big data infrastructure and services would reach a total value of 48.6 billion, growing at a compound annual rate of 23 percent. This is a clear indication that organizations are learning that they need specific tools to measure and analyze the data they collect.
What is all of this information being used for? Let’s take an in-depth look at how the healthcare industry tackles big data:
“Data provides a good foundation for making value-based decisions.”
Value-based purchasing
Big data is helping the medical industry make better decisions about what tools are going to help patients the most. According to HealthcareITNews, the Affordable Care Act has created an incentive for hospitals to prove their value – but how to do that? Data, it turns out, is providing a good foundation for making these value-based decisions.
The value of pharmaceutical and medical devices can be quantified by determining how these tools are being used to help patients. For instance, an organization can measure quality-adjusted life years.
“At its core, big data is about massive amounts of electronic patient information that can be mined to yield tailored medical results,” Scott Zeger, director of HopkinsinHealth and a biostatistics professor at Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told Health Data Management.
In other words, it all comes down to how medical tools are being used to increase the quality of life for patients and improve outcomes, which the analysis of big data can shed light on.
Medical instruments and pharmaceuticals are given value based on how they’re used to improve outcomes.Storage issue: Genomic research
One challenge presented by big data is the question of where all the generated healthcare information is going to reside. The problem of storage is a very real one, especially in an industry that’s governed by compliance regulations and strict legal boundaries. To that end, the big data storage problem is nowhere as acute as it is with human genomic research.
A report published in July 2015 in the scientific journal PLoS Biology found that by 2025, between 100 million and 2 billion human genomes could be sequenced. This sequencing is going to create as many as 40 exabytes of data. To put that in perspective, here’s a fun fact: According to High Scalability, as of 2012, every word spoken by every human throughout history only adds up to about 5 exabytes of data. This creates an issue with data management within the healthcare space.
What’s the answer?
Some say that cloud infrastructure offers a ready answer to the challenges presented by big data in the healthcare industry. No matter how big your big data problems are, at ISG Technology, we can help you find solutions that will meet your needs. Whether you want to store your data in the cloud or in on-premises environments, our managed services experts will know what the answer is. Contact us today for more information.