What To Look For When Choosing a Data Center Colocation

Has maintaining your company server become a full-time job, taking you away from your other responsibilities? These days, more and more businesses are looking into data center colocation to handle their server needs. These centers offer equipment space and bandwidth for rent, and will provide the server maintenance for you. This can be particularly helpful if yours is an Internet-related business because it allows you and your IT staff to focus on actual work instead if constantly providing support. But remember: not all data centers are created equal. You need to thoroughly research the center you’re considering to make sure that they can adequately meet your server needs. Here are some things to add to your data center build checklist:

• Power: Can they guarantee an adequate power supply? This is vital to avoiding failures and downtime with your server. These days, between 8kW-10kW is required to power the average server rack. That doesn’t include power needed for the climate control and security systems. Ask for specifications on how much power the center supports, and about the performance capability of its uninterrupted power supply (UPS) should the primary power fail.
• Security: One of the more important considerations of data center colocation is how the center is equipped to handle emergencies. Are they located in an area that would easily be comprised in the event of a natural disaster, such as a flood or earthquake? Just as important are how their premises are designed to handle such an event, and what their protocols are.
• Climate Control: Learn about how their cooling system works. Does it have adequate power to keep the servers at an optimum temperature? The rule of thumb generally is that for every 100 watts a serves expends, 50 watts is required to cool it. Find out if the center has an adequate water supply for the cooling system, and how their sprinkler system works in the event of a fire.
• Load: When looking into data center colocation, many are only concerned with the center’s critical load capacity. While that is important, another load aspect that’s just as vital is how often the center will load test its generators. Failing to test at least on a quarterly basis could mean that the center will remain unaware of any generator issues until an actual failure.
• SLA compliance: While all centers will guarantee optimum output at all times, no center is immune from at the very least minor level issues. Find out the details of their service level agreement (SLA) and ask to see at least their last 5 SLA compliance reports. That will help give an accurate gauge on what their response times are and what level of transparency they offer to customers when outages occur.
• Support: Do they offer quick response for support issues? Your server can have problems at any time of the day or night, so to meet your data center colocation needs, whoever you go with needs to be equipped to handle any of those issues in a timely manner.

Choosing the right firm to handle your colocation data center is vital to your server running optimally, and, by extension, to your business’ operational effectiveness. Asking the right question when looking for your next data center will help ensure that your needs are met.
Nick specializes in the building and leasing of data centers world wide. He often blogs about this and other computer and tehcnology related topics in his spare time.

Intel joined A4WP on Wireless Charging!

Recently Intel had indicated that he had joined with Samsung and Qualcomm in the A4WP, one of three consortia manufacturers who develop featured wireless charging. The arrival of Intel is likely to weigh in the balance strong, and then Intel may indeed push its partners from the PC world to join. Even though the wireless charging is already present in terminals like the Nexus 4 at Google or the Lumia 820 and Nokia 920, the fact remains that it is still in status at least embryo. Indeed, every manufacturer wants to develop their own technology. Today, three consortia exist: the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), Power Matters Alliance (PMA) and the Alliance For Wireless Power (A4WP). Each of the three has many members, as can be seen below. Popular Brands are present in two or three associations the example for it is LG or Samsung.
 WPC: 143 members
 PMA: 84 members
A4WP: 48 members

The first one works around the "Qi" technology, found for example on Nokia Lumia, but also on the Nexus 4 LG / Google. The second is developing the "Power 2.0". But both use the same principle while being incompatible that is charging by induction. The third one: The "Wireless Power Transfer" to charge multiple devices in parallel. Now Intel has in its ranks, goes a step further as it is a matter of charging operating induction and magnetic resonance. This technology has the soft name "Wireless Power Transfer" and permits charging several terminals simultaneously. But it is also about spreading more power: Max 20 W side of the transmitter, 6 W for the receiver. Intel had already demonstrated this principle at the last IDF in San Francisco where a Smartphone can be recharged wirelessly. But also a security software layer was necessary and operator Bluetooth, to avoid any phone starts approaching the principle of charging. The arrival of Intel, Will it make a difference? We are not so sure.

So far Intel has not given the direction he wishes to take, but the demonstrations so far during his IDF showed to where he is planning to go. We have to wait and see, whether his arrival in the A4WP will weigh in the balance or not. The giant Santa Clara often accustomed us to take time to impose his ideas. We remember the Ultrabook, the WiDi or before that Wi-Fi this was truly democratized when the demands made in its Centrino mobile stamped. In addition, Intel may well invite the many partners who gravitate around him to join him, which might have some weight in the balance. But we can also see the advance of the Wireless Power Consortium, which already has nearly 235 certified as a real leader to follow under the leadership of Nokia products. Ultimately, the technology seems much simpler and allows fewer things that developed by Intel and its partners.

Sony Vaio Pro 11

The Sony Vaio Pro 11 notebook with Intel's Haswell CPU has many good features. Nearly 4 years after the Vaio X, a lightweight netbook with Atom processor lame, Sony has now introduced the Vaio Ultra Pro 11, which is a book that is similar to light and compact as the old netbook. The difference is Vaio Pro 11 is one of the Ultrabooks. It own faster Haswell processor in the housing with 4 GB RAM and 128 GB SSD holds. The whole thing packs into a Sony only 866 grams and 18.5 mm thin lightweight Ultrabook casing with an 11.6-inch display with full HD. Unfortunately, the display reflects strong but with touch controlled touch with your ten fingers. With the high resolution, the meeting of the controls on the desktop, however, is very difficult. It is recommended to adjust the DPI settings. The Windows 8 gestures are supported on the touchpad. The user can switch between applications so also here. However, this leads to frequent malfunctions. Who attaches at the edge of a mouse movement and wants to move the mouse triggers the gesture, but not a mouse. Sony Vaio Pro offers pleasant additional functions that are not obvious in light notebooks. The keyboard is illuminated, for example, and on the bottom is a connector for a spare battery available. Without the additional battery power is sufficient for light work for about 6-7 hours scarce. Under high load, this reduces to 2 hours. A docking station does not support the Sony Vaio Pro. The SDXC card slot is not immediately visible. Sony has incorporated it under the touchpad. Since early 2013, Sony is the only manufacturer to equip nearly all classes of devices with NFC. Also the Vaio Pro has the interface. This makes many things possible, for example, a comfortable Bluetooth speaker pair by this kind is held to the touchpad. With USB 3.0, dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0, the notebook is also equipped with modern facilities. Even our low energy mouse we were able to run without the dongle.

Business users may miss but a native VGA connector for presentations. An adapter is provided. The network jack is missing in the Vaio Pro also. Again, help from an adapter. This acts as a wireless router. The router configures itself automatically even on request. On-the-go use, the router even offers multiple SSIDs. For general use the Vaio Pro is fast enough. The SSD in the new m.2 format is pretty lame when writing. Who has a fast USB 3.0 flash drive, have to wait for the SSD with larger data transfers. With its low weight and modern equipment to Sony Vaio 11 Pro is very good for users in transit. The router is a clever idea. Actually, we only miss a cellular modem and the reflective touch screen does not match the claim of a notebook for professionals. The case is actually very well made too flexible in some places. The user can press around the touchpad buttons from below. Sony also installed a very old version of Java with numerous dangerous security vulnerabilities. The drivers are also not as stable as we would wish it. If you invest a bit of work, despite the weaknesses get a good notebook that weighs only a little more than a tablet with keyboard.

Google tests QUIC protocol combining the advantages of TCP and UDP

By combining the best of both protocols, Google hopes to go further than the SPDY, a basis for future HTTP 2.0. QUIC is implemented in some Prerelease Chrome. Google has implemented a new protocol recently, QUIC (Quick Internet Connections UDP) in the pre-release of the Chrome Canary browser. The protocol, experimental, is seen as a possibility to overcome the limitations of TCP by Google. Noting improvements in version 2.0 of the HTTP standard, based on the SPDY protocol, Google wants to go further. On the blog post announcing QUIC, he explains that it is a protocol under development which should bring improved features TCP, but with UDP transport. This strategy aims to overcome the limitations of the two protocols: the first one UDP faster is not connection oriented. He is unable to control the state of the transmission that allows TCP. But it is less flexible and tends to slow down the connection, Judged Google. Blame it on the audit function of TCP transmissions precisely. Combining the speed of UDP capabilities negotiation, transmission control by a prior connection to sending packets TCP, QUIC has been tested on the server side and since February, client-side on some versions of Chromium. Integration into Chrome Canary must test the protocol in real conditions on some sites. The Google justifies that the conditions for connecting the real world often differ considerably and the in-house testing also. That is why, even if "initial tests are promising," it has yet to test the advantages and disadvantages of QUIC in real conditions. For users, when queries on Google servers where QUIC connection is implemented, no difference will be visible but improved in speed is visible. Among the benefits highlighted by Google include a security level TLS, fast connectivity, control packets to reduce losses, error correction packets to minimize latency, etc. These advances will now be tested, and then hope Google move to the next phase "work with the rest of the community to develop these features and techniques QUIC in standard networks." FAQ and group discussions were provided by Google.

New Music and Video Service from Ampya

Spotify, Juke, and Napster are few of music streaming services already vying for the ear of the listener. The concepts are very similar and offer endless music from the Internet, ad-free for around ten Euros per month. Ampya wants to stand out to be interesting features of the competition. Ampya comes from the house of ProSiebenSat.1. The name itself is derived from the English term "empire" and is pronounced that way. Compared to Spotify or Napster Ampya Juke offers more and more than them. Music you can never have enough, therefore Ampya offers more than Spotify or Juke, also 20 million songs, which the user accesses via web player or app. From the offer the user leave as desired title to play, but user could not save as MP3 on your computer or Smartphone. Also, the concept of pay equivalent to the familiar pattern: The free version of Ampya only works on the computer and is funded by advertising rehearsed. For 4.99 Euros you can enjoy commercial-free music in Ampya premium, but only on the PC. Who wants to listen to music without an internet connection, they have to acquire "Ampya Premium Plus" for 9.99 Euros a month. Ampya relies not only on music, but also offers to 100,000 and 57,000 music videos and radio stations. Want to have your own music library in mobile, or do you prefer to hear music in the offline mode then opt for Premium Plus subscription. The amazing thing; are for the offline mode upload up to 10,000 songs. With Spotify, there are at most about 3333 songs. Exclusive content such as interviews, latest news from the music scene and Star profile complete the package. Helpful if you are looking for a song that you have heard already. One thing special in Ampya is the "History Queue" which allows it’s user to move through all the songs played backwards. So far Ampya offers a player for web browser and an app for smart phones (Apple, Android). The next steps will the music service, Tablets, network player from Sony, smart TVs, conquer the Sony PlayStation and Windows 8 and Blackberries.