Data Center
IT operations are a crucial aspect of most organizational operations. One of the main concerns is business continuity; companies rely on their information systems to run their operations. If a system becomes unavailable, company operations may be impaired or stopped completely. It is necessary to provide a reliable infrastructure for IT operations in order to minimize any chance of disruption. Information security is also a concern, and for this reason a data centre has to offer a secure environment which minimizes the chances of a security breach. A data centre must therefore keep high standards for assuring the integrity and functionality of its hosted computer environment. This is accomplished through redundancy of both fiber optic cables and power, which includes emergency backup power generation.
Servers
Able-One Systems offers an industry unique skill set in that we are able to build out a server environment integrating four of the industry standard operating systems, Microsoft, IBM OS for Power iSeries, IBM AIX for Power pSeries and Linux, and we do this in a seamless blade and virtual environment. So regardless of the business application, Able-One can upgrade or replace servers in a multi-operating system environment.
Storage
All organizations are struggling with the massive amounts of data being stored either centrally or dispersed, along with security and redundancy requirements to properly protect and secure the data. Able-One works with you to understand your current and anticipated growth requirements to ensure that all data is safely stored, properly backed up and centrally available to all authorized users. We provide seamless methodology for scalable storage growth along with eliminating any single points of failure to virtually guarantee uninterrupted data availability, backup and protection for all authorized users.
Hosting
An increasingly popular trend today for businesses, largely in an effort to reduce the capital and on-going operational costs of data processing, is to outsource the hosting of company data to a third party data centre. In some respects this is a throwback to the data service bureaus as they were known in the 1970's. Data processing trends have a habit of coming full circle. Able-One provides an in-house basic data hosting centre and also works with several Tier III data centers that offer data hosting capabilities to their customers. Essentially your data is now hosted in a third party location on servers that either you own or lease that are hosted and managed by the service provider or hosted on servers owned by the provider, who lease you space that has been (virtually) carved off of the service provider's owned servers. The main advantage of this is the reduction in the operational and capital costs which are now rolled into a monthly service plan along with a service that is consistent and secure. More and more, corporations want to free themselves of overhead that detracts from their core business allowing them to focus on what they do best. The converse is that corporations may be unwilling or insecure about putting their confidential information into the hands of a third party to manage. Keep in mind that this is no different then what was happening with the data service bureaus of the 1970's. In conclusion, hosting is not for everyone and Able-One can work with you to assess your requirements and help you to determine what is best suited for you today and into the future.
Co-Location
We all know that the capital cost of hardware and software is continually decreasing on the price performance curve. As the price decreases and HA (High Availability) software becomes more robust and financially viable more and more companies are creating a co-location redundancy solution for their data centers. In short, companies are re-creating the more data critical servers at another facility (company owned or at a third party data centre location) and through the use of High Availability software are seamlessly re-creating their critical data in real-time. The rationale for this is that in the event of a disaster (flood, ice storm, tornado, power outage) that may shut down one data centre, a seamless transition to a second co-located data centre outside the geographical proximity of the other is now possible. To do all of this a comprehensive Disaster Recovery Plan is absolutely necessary. It makes no sense to have a co-located data centre with uninterrupted fail over capability without a thorough plan to ensure the operations of the company and its personnel can continue seamlessly. Again, co-location is not for everyone and Able-One can work with you to assess your requirements and help you determine what is best suited for you today and into the future.
Monitoring & Cooling
Energy costs are one of the fastest growing expenses for data centre managers. The cost of data centre cooling can be nearly half of overall energy costs. What is the environmental impact of computer room air conditioning? Planning for data center cooling is overly complex. Cooling capacity, space utilization, floor plan design, redundancy, airflow and power management are among many areas that must be considered. Able-One Systems can assist your operation with a green approach to cooling.
Able-One Systems your OptiCool™ Authorized Reseller.
Able-One also provides a solution to monitor power consumption, temperature and humidity in a non-invasive manner, which means "No Down Time". This information is presented through a unique dashboard, which can be used by data center managers to make critical decisions around consolidation and virtualization without compromise.
Ontario Power Distribution Companies, such as Toronto Hydro, offer substantial cash incentives to corporations that have taken the green initiative to reduce power. Both the Able-One green cooling solution and the monitoring solution are eligible for these cash incentives.
The payback for improved cooling and power savings can be less than 12 months. Once again, Able-One can design, build, manage and support data centre monitoring and cooling and also help you obtain these cash incentives from the Hydro Distribution Companies.