ISG Technology, a leading cloud hosting partner and technology reseller, has launched the ISG Technology Cloud in Wichita, Kansas. The ISG cloud platform – available in Missouri and now through one of ISG Technology’s data centers in Kansas – delivers enterprise class virtual infrastructure in combination with a robust set of managed services and storage solutions.
“The launch of our Cloud platform in Wichita further enhances our position as a leader in providing true Hybrid IT for our clients in the Midwest,” said Matt Brickey, VP of Cloud Services for ISG Technology. “We continue to see strong demand for both our cloud solutions and our managed services portfolio, and will continue to invest in providing those services to more regions. With a deep product portfolio across infrastructure, hosting, services and geographies, ISG Technology optimizes our clients’ investments in technology.”
ISG’s operations date back more than 30 years ago, and the company launched its first virtualized service in 2007. Since that time, ISG has grown to more than 300 cloud clients accounting for over 2,600 virtual servers.
Businesses that are experiencing a period of rapid expansion may seem like they have it made, but there is a downside to that growth. When enterprises scale up and build out their corporate footprint, they will likely be faced with numerous challenges supporting satellite offices and remote branches. Relying on legacy IT assets to provide the compute, storage and network resources required by additional company locations can be a costly decision. However, business leaders can find some relief in these situations by considering a shift to hyperconverged infrastructure and changing the way enterprise operations are scaled and expanded.
For years, IT environments have been characterized by system silos. Core assets such as storage and compute resources have traditionally been handled separately. What hyperconverged infrastructure does is condense a large percentage of these assets into a single bundle of hardware and software. As TechTarget noted, organizations can then build out these systems by integrating additional nodes when needed. With this arrangement, maintenance teams can avoid many of the everyday headaches experienced while overseeing IT infrastructure on an enterprise scale.
"Under the converged infrastructure approach, a vendor provides a pre-configured bundle of hardware and software in a single chassis with the goal of minimizing compatibility issues and simplifying management," TechTarget stated.
Scale up operations with ease One of the main benefits here for enterprises is the ability to expand IT resource needs in a simple and efficient fashion. Hyperconverged.org cited the easy scalability of hyperconverged infrastructure as one of the approach's top selling points, comparing the addition of nodes to erecting a structure with LEGO blocks. The authors noted that this method allows businesses to easily build out their IT assets on an as-needed basis. This makes enterprise expansion a much less bitter of a pill to swallow for business leaders as scaling up to support remote branches and satellite offices is not quite as arduous a task as it was in the past.
Hyperconverged infrastructure enables IT teams to manage enterprise assets from a central location.
Lower investment, management costs Due to this setup of adding onto existing infrastructure whenever needed, hyperconverged infrastructure allows for enterprise expansion to occur at a lower up-front cost. As Hyperconverged.org explained, this approach reduces the "step size" required to make a leap in terms of infrastructure scope and maturity.
"The bigger the step size, the longer it takes to fully utilize new resources added through the expansion," Hyperconverged.org stated. "A smaller step size results in a far more efficient use of resources. As new resources are required, it's easy to add nodes to a hyperconverged infrastructure."
This approach to IT infrastructure and management further lowers costs by enabling businesses to support critical systems with commodity hardware. Because many core processes are handled at the software level within hyperconverged infrastructure, organizations do not need to consistently upgrade their data center hardware with the most advanced equipment available. In most cases, commodity x86 hardware will be sufficient to keep everything running smoothly while also allowing for rapid enterprise expansion.
"Commodity x86 hardware will be sufficient to keep everything running smoothly."
Reduce IT challenges It's not just the bookkeepers and executives who will see the appeal of embracing hyperconverged infrastructure. For IT members, there is a lot to like here, especially when working with multiple sites and remote offices. Because this setup condenses and centralizes IT infrastructure, teams tasked with overseeing that equipment and handling any maintenance needs will have far fewer headaches to deal with.
Jointly developed by Hyperconverged.org and ActualTech Media, the "2015 State of Hyperconverged Infrastructure Market Report" shed light on the challenges that enterprise IT staff regularly face. The mix of on-premises and off-premises assets to manage, the ever-escalating virtualization and disaster recovery needs along with the growing complexity of today's data center environments have all made IT work incredibly challenging within large businesses. Hyperconvergence addresses these difficulties by providing IT teams with a single resource pool to draw from, allowing them to easily maintain a sprawling enterprise-scale system from a central location.
Building out a business's footprint can present new opportunities for market growth and tapping into additional revenue streams. However, the hit in CAPEX and OPEX can make some enterprise leaders wary of developing remote branches. Hyperconverged infrastructure offers a way to reduce the cost and complexity of such projects, enabling organizations to take more aggressive action within their industries and stake out new territory when the moment arises.
As enterprises become larger, they will need to address the headaches that come part and parcel with any organizational growth. Hyperconvergence provides a way to reduce or eliminate those challenges, allowing for greater heights of success.
According to a recent report compiled by Allied Market Research, colocation is going to see a huge amount of growth in the coming years. The report stated that by 2020, the global colocation market is likely going to reach around $51.8 billion. A lion's share of this explosion of market growth is going to come from the IT and telecom industries. This is based on their ever-increasing need for data center services, as well as the quickly disappearing IT budgets many companies are seeing.
Why is colocation so popular? Even now, before this predicted boom, colocation was and is an extremely profitable business, with the 2014 North American colocation market being valued at $11.78 billion. That's quite a lot of money, but it's a market that is of the utmost importance to the existence of many businesses.
Before colocation, companies that had data storage needs were forced to maintain their own data centers and servers. This was extremely inefficient in terms of the capital expenditures of having to purchase so much data center hardware, as well as the operational expenditures of having to have IT employees dedicated solely to the daily running and upkeep of this equipment.
This was especially hard on smaller companies that didn't have the money to operate their own data center equipment, making renting the equipment from outside vendors at offsite locations much more logical.
With all of these benefits to colocation, it's no wonder that the global colocation market is predicted to register a compound annual growth rate of 12.4 percent between 2015 and 2020. This growth rate shows that quite a few businesses are going to be relying on colocation services in the future.
Considering all the benefits, as well as how popular it is and will become, any business that believes its spending too much money managing its own data center should absolutely look into colocation from ISG Technology. With ISG's dedicated team of knowledgeable colocation professionals, you can trust that your data will be secure and fully accessible.
https://projectrecognition.isgtech.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/servers-in-the-cloud.jpg266702ISG Technology/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/isg-logo.pngISG Technology2015-09-18 16:02:202015-09-18 16:02:20Colocation on the rise
The easiest way to give a computer-savvy person a heart attack is to tell them you don't back up your data. Not backing up important information is a lot like driving a car without a seatbelt: You'll probably be fine 99.99 percent of the time, but that .01 percent could ruin your life.
In the same way, not investing in online backup services for important company data could be the death of a business when disaster strikes. Much like a seatbelt, you never really need your data backed up until you need it. And then you really need it.
But despite the fact that backup is a key component to making it through a trying time, it is certainly no replacement for an actual disaster recovery plan.
A backup horror story Many people think that simply backing up data is the only thing necessary to deal with a troublesome event. This could not be further from the truth, and IT professionals at the Parish of Orleans Civil District Court in Louisiana can attest to this. On Oct. 25, 2010, both of the servers holing all of the conveyance and mortgage records for the courthouse crashed without any warning. Thankfully, the courthouse had paid for online backup services and had all of its data stored offsite.
Or so it thought.
As it turns out, the company that had been handling the online backup had sent out a software update to all of its clients a little while before the crash. Although the IT department at the courthouse believed that they had installed the update, it turned out that they had not. This resulted in the courthouse losing digital mortgage records from the past year.
Thankfully, paper copies did exist for all the lost data, but the point here is that this courthouse relied solely on data backup rather than having a good disaster recovery plan in place – and lost big because of it. Backup is a great first step toward planning for a disastrous event, but that's all it is: a first step. The next step, and perhaps the most important one, is developing a disaster recovery plan with a firm that specializes in them.
This is why ISG Technology is such an interesting and powerful ally. Specializing in both online backup services and disaster recovery, ISG allows businesses to combine both of these services into a protective shield to fend off business continuity problems.
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With people using the Internet for banking, shopping, socializing and everything in between, the risk of falling victim to a cybercrime scheme has never been more real. In fact, a CNNMoney report found that 110 million American adults were hacked in 2014 alone. Considering this number is 47 percent of the U.S. adult population, it’s obvious that online security is just as much of a concern for people as physical security.
And while these numbers are frightening in their own right, an even scarier thought is how drastically unprepared some businesses are for cyberattacks. A McAfee report found that about 90 percent of small-to-medium-sized businesses don’t use data protection of any kind for themselves or their clients.
Statistics like this make dealing with smaller businesses seem risky, and as such every small business should make cybersecurity a top priority. To this end, this list of very basic online practices has been compiled in order to make navigating the Internet safer.
Don’t click on something unless you are 100 percent sure what it is: This may seem very basic, however, many people don’t fully understand how risky it is to click a link they aren’t absolutely sure about. Frank Heidt, CEO of Leviathan Security Group, gave a TED talk about this very topic. In the speech, he stated that the easiest way to hack someone in a particular company is through their loved ones.
A CEO’s computer will have very specific security protocols, but his child’s computer probably won’t. All a hacker has to do is gain access to the child’s computer and then send the CEO a message using the child’s email address. This email, which will look identical to any other sent by the child, will contain a piece of malware in the form of a seemingly harmless clickable link. Once clicked, this virus will run through the CEO’s computer and will eventually require malware removal across the entire company’s network. The takeaway from this is that no part of your online experience is 100 percent safe, and any and all links should remain suspect.
Update your software: With the fast-paced nature of modern technologies, keeping software up-to-date can be extremely hard for some smaller companies. And even though your business might be getting along just fine with Windows XP, for example, you’re actually putting yourself in danger.
On April 8, 2014, Windows announced that it would no longer be putting out updates for Windows XP. This means that any security holes in the software that need patching will not be fixed, and that hackers will be free to exploit them. Having up-to-date software not only gives clients a better experience with the company, but it also makes sure their data is better protected.
Keep passwords complex: Although most people know to keep passwords hard to crack, few know how truly important it is to keep passwords complex. A Bloomberg study about password complexity showed how making a few tiny changes could drastically change a hacker’s ability to access your computer. The article stated that a six-word, all lowercase password takes a hacker’s computer about 10 minutes to crack on average. However, if you were to add an uppercase letter and a number/symbol to that password, the time to crack it jumps to 463 years.
Contact a company that deals in cybersecurity: If you had to pick only one of these tips to follow, this one would definitely be the one to choose. Companies like ISG Technology stay current with their cybersecurity knowledge, and can help with everything from malware removal to safe data storage. They can also help assess the security of your company’s network, ensuring that both company and client information stay out of the hands of hackers.
https://projectrecognition.isgtech.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/manufacturing-warehouse.jpg266702ISG Technology/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/isg-logo.pngISG Technology2015-09-18 15:58:012015-09-18 15:58:01Basic tips to avoid cybercrime
Outsourcing work that cannot effectively be done in-house is a huge part of how companies should do business. A study by The Economist on modern outsourcing found that manufacturers typically outsource 70 to 80 percent of their finished products. The same study also found that 90 percent of these companies saw outsourcing as playing a key role in their growth strategies.
So, if these companies can outsource their manufacturing needs, why are so many businesses afraid of doing the same for their IT department and data management?
What can outsourced IT provide companies? Of course, companies should never completely do away with their own IT departments. That being said, allowing a separate entity to handle certain aspects of the company's IT needs allows the business's internal IT personnel the chance to work on new ideas.
As Howard Baldwin stated in an article for Forbes, IT department's regularly get bogged down in "fire-fighting mode – reacting to every issue that (comes) up to keep things up and running." When this happens, IT employees aren't free to pursue interesting endeavors that may innovate the company. By outsourcing these everyday occurrences and other projects to an outside firm, employees can truly change how a company uses the technology available to it.
A perfect example of this would be IT support for all the software and technologies businesses deal with on a regular basis. Sure, software providers are usually there to give support on their products. However, these software providers simply cannot cope with the system wide consequences of using their products in terms of the specific kinds of technology a company is using.
This is something an internal IT department could certainly deal with, however, something so banal would simply take away from their ability to develop the company. Outsourced IT companies are more than happy to take on this responsibility, as well as other mundane tasks such as malware removal and helping companies switch to a colocation of data.
https://projectrecognition.isgtech.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/smile-guy-phone-talking.jpg266702ISG Technology/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/isg-logo.pngISG Technology2015-08-31 14:18:322015-08-31 14:18:32Benefits of outsourcing IT needs
Technology is changing more rapidly than ever before, and as such, the decision to keep data on-site or outsource it is becoming more and more relevant. While many companies may decide to keep their storage needs in-house, a wide range of businesses simply do not have this capacity or they choose not to take on this responsibility.
The reasons for this vary, however, the point is that some companies would absolutely benefit from storing data off-site. It is at this point that these companies must decide between cloud services, colocation or a combination of the two.
Cloud or colocation: Which is best for your company? To begin, it is important to define cloud storage and colocation so that an informed decision about their differences can be made. Cloud services are where a cloud provider gives a company the ability to remotely access their resources and stores everything in the own data center environment.
While this limits the hardware options a company can choose from, it gives the added bonus of keeping the responsibility of all system upkeep firmly in the hands of the cloud provider. Companies with a weak IT infrastructure or even those wishing to keep their IT department focused on a limited number of internal goals would absolutely benefit from cloud services and should put some serious thought into considering their usefulness.
Colocation, on the other hand, is where companies purchase and bring their own equipment to an outside data center with the added bonus of sharing power and other hardware needs with fellow tenants. Basically, this option is like renting an apartment and having other companies with similar data management needs as roommates. Colocation also allows for companies to have their data stored offsite, which gives an extra amount of security in terms of disaster recovery and business continuity.
It is these specific benefits that have lead consulting firm Vanson Borne to predict that colocation is going to be the biggest outsourcing approach over the next year. While there are many advantages to colocation, companies should understand the responsibility of this sort of data storage arrangement.
Colocation requires that companies purchase all their own hardware, and as such a deep knowledge of these systems is typically needed in order to choose the correct equipment necessary for their specific needs. Thankfully, colocation experts such as ISG Technology have a wide understanding of these infrastructures and can help clients with their colocation needs.
Obviously, any company that is deciding between these two options needs to think long and hard about its data storage needs. Does the company need to focus more on internal IT needs than it does the management of data storage hardware? Or does the company not want to use another company's server to store data? Perhaps some data can be stored with a cloud service provider while other data is best kept within hardware owned by the company. There are advantages and disadvantages to both, as well as to combining the two in a more hybrid arrangement. There is no "better" option because every company's needs differ, and as such, each company needs to come to the understanding of which option is best for its specific requirements.
https://projectrecognition.isgtech.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/teamwork-collaboration.jpg266702ISG Technology/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/isg-logo.pngISG Technology2015-08-27 14:23:152015-08-27 14:23:15Cloud vs. colocation: What's the best option?
When people think of Google, they tend to imagine the search engine giant as an indestructible force in the technical world. It would seem that Google is such a big player that it can handle any and all obstacles thrown in its way. Google's recent foray into literally any part of the technology industry it sees fit to invest in shows the scale at which the company operates. And while Google's data is probably more secure than the average company from hacking attempts, one force it simply can't match is that of Mother Nature.
Nature's power over man was proven recently when one of Google's Belgian data centers was struck by lightening four times. Although a vast majority of data survived (well over 99 percent, in fact) the point still remains that there are some problems that even the biggest of companies simply can't avoid. If Google's data storage is at risk, how can any other company even hope to protect itself from every single threat imaginable?
The real cost of data loss: Downtime As any company that has lost data can attest, one of the most frustrating parts about losing data is the amount of time and money it takes to get the company up and running again. In order to find out just how much money data loss and downtime costs companies, EMC Corporation spoke to 3,300 IT professions from 24 countries in 2014. A SecurityWeek article about the study reported that organizations of more than 250 people lost some $1.7 trillion due to downtime and data loss in 2014 alone.
That's quite a lot of money to be lost and only speaks to the sheer, unimaginable magnitude of the problem that is data loss. To compound this, the massive amount of lost revenue felt by companies due to this problem is only made worse considering the study's finding that 64 percent of surveyed enterprises ran into downtime or data loss in the past year.
This kind of data should be a rude awakening to companies that think they are above the threat of data loss. No one is completely safe from data loss, and the only way a company can truly protects itself is to back up its data as much as possible. A robust online backup service, such as what is offered by ISG Technology, is peace of mind in a world where industry heavy-hitters like Google can lose data in a freak accident.
https://projectrecognition.isgtech.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/heath-keyboard.jpg266702ISG Technology/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/isg-logo.pngISG Technology2015-08-20 18:15:482015-08-20 18:15:48Data lost is money lost
When the Internet started gaining prevalence in the workplace two decades ago, it would have been hard for most users to imagine how big a role it would end up playing in business. From our almost non-stop use of Wi-Fi to the growing list of smart devices that are able to connect to Wi-Fi networks, the Internet is changing the way end users interact with devices to accomplish tasks. The next step in the evolution of the Internet, however, is changing the way devices interact with one another.
The Internet of Things is creating a vast web of machines that are able to communicate and share information with one another, changing the way we use devices and the data they create.
"The Internet of Things revolves around increased machine-to-machine communication; it's built on cloud computing and networks of data-gathering sensors; it's mobile, virtual, and instantaneous connection; and they say it's going to make everything in our lives from streetlights to seaports 'smart,'" explained Wired contributor Daniel Burrus. "The Internet of Things really comes together with the connection of sensors and machines. That is to say, the real value that the Internet of Things creates is at the intersection of gathering data and leveraging it. All the information gathered by all the sensors in the world isn't worth very much if there isn't an infrastructure in place to analyze it in real time."
"By 2020 the number of IoT devices will reach 38.5 billion."
According to a recent study conducted by Juniper Research, the number of devices connected to the IoT is expected to grow dramatically in the next few years. By 2020 the number of IoT devices willreach 38.5 billion, a 285 percent increase from this year. Juniper's report, The Internet of Things: Consumer, Industrial & Public Services 2015-2020, also found that one of the biggest hurdles businesses will have to face due to the massive influx of IoT devices is how to handle the increase in storage space necessary for the newly created data, as well as gathering and analyzing that information.
The IoT is changing the way data is used.
Breaking health care barriers with the IoT The IoT is having an impact on practically every industry, but its effects are being felt especially strongly by businesses within the health care sector. The problems associated with data collection, storage and analysis can be especially difficult for medical organizations because of strict security regulations and limited budgets. In order to make the technology behind the IoT work in the most effective way possible for health care companies, industry experts have identified some key elements that need to be addressed by IT administrators.
First, employees and users need to start adopting an IoT mindset so they will become more comfortable using the technology.
Second, operability between IT systems needs to be increased, so devices and programs will work seamlessly with one another.
Third, IT administrators need to think about moving forward and how current technologies will work with and influence future innovations.
The best way to address all of these issues is to implement a cloud-based data management solution. Cloud computing has proven to be the most beneficial way to leverage enterprise data. The IoT already utilizes cloud-based applications to interpret and transmit data coming from all of the sensors on connected devices, so using cloud storage services and other cloud applications to manage the data greatly increases interoperability. Using a cloud environment will also help end users become more comfortable with the technology, as many employees already use the cloud to accomplish a variety of tasks throughout the day and are familiar with the platform. Finally, working with the cloud to store, manage and analyze data being collected from IoT sensors will help health care organizations transition more easily into the future as the cloud can be leveraged for a variety of technologies.
https://projectrecognition.isgtech.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/consulting.jpg266702ISG Technology/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/isg-logo.pngISG Technology2015-08-10 10:59:022015-08-10 10:59:02Growing number of IoT devices calls for enhanced data storage solutions
Since it was introduced nearly a decade ago, cloud computing has been changing the way companies do business by being perhaps the most transformative technology since the Internet itself. The cloud is becoming so important within the enterprise that market research firm IDC has predicted spending on public cloud services alone will reach $70 billion this year. The five industries investing the most on cloud deployments are discrete manufacturing, banking, professional services, process manufacturing and retail, according to the IDC report.
"Spending on public cloud services will reach $70 billion in 2015."
The study found that the biggest opportunities for success with cloud deployments are in "the development of intelligent industry solutions, which are built on top of a new platform that includes cloud, big data and analytics, mobile and social."
"We have already seen such platforms and innovation communities in place in retail, financial services, media, and other industries," said Eileen Smith, Program Manager of IDC's Global Technology and Research Group. "This will reshape not only how companies operate their IT but also how they compete in their own industry. Technology suppliers will continue to see significant demand for their industry-specific solutions."
So what kinds of benefits can businesses expect when they deploy a cloud solution?
Increased mobility By hosting IT assets in a cloud environment, information and applications can be accessed and synced from anywhere with an Internet connection. The ability to access information remotely in the same way you would in the office makes it possible for businesses to enable their employees to work from just about anywhere. This also dramatically increases the available talent pool companies can draw from and it makes it much easier to open and maintain satellite offices around the globe.
Improved collaboration Because cloud services make accessing data remotely so much easier, collaborating is greatly improved as well. Contractors, remote team members, clients and any other interested party can access the necessary files and programs through a cloud portal instead of through massive attachments on needlessly complicated email chains. Anyone with the appropriate access to information can view, edit and share files, making group projects and collaborative efforts simpler than ever.
More companies are adopting cloud services than ever before because of the competitive advantages it offers.
Enhanced online backup services Outages, system failure and unplanned downtime are all a part of working with technology, but how a business comes back from such disruptions is what sets it apart from other companies. With files stored in traditional digital solutions, users typically can't access them if the network goes down, bringing work – and revenue streams – to a grinding halt. With the cloud, however, critical IT assets are still accessible through off-site storage features allowing business to continue even after a disruptive event.
Reduced storage and hardware needs One of the most expensive parts of enterprise IT infrastructure is the equipment and storage capacity necessary to run a business. Using cloud storage services means organizations do not need as much hard drive space. As a result, hardware requirements are reduced because necessary components are maintained by the cloud service provider.
By partnering with a trusted third-party service provider like ISG Technology, companies can create a customized infrastructure that works for them. Innovative as-a-service options enable CIOs and other IT decision-makers to control the enterprise environment while still being able to access the necessary flexibility to move business forward.
https://projectrecognition.isgtech.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/tablet-interface.jpg266702ISG Technology/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/isg-logo.pngISG Technology2015-07-31 09:05:382015-07-31 09:05:38Enterprise cloud adoption continues to grow as companies see benefits
