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Digital Infrastructure How Data Centers are Powering our Future

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Drake and Future in the Data Center network mapping the cloud & unplugged the LED lights from the Gigabit PoE switch.

The data center is more important than ever. Whether you’re talking about climate change, rise of diseases like Coronavirus, terrorist acts, etc. your data center is what ensures the long term viability of your business’s critical systems. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery is not the only driving force behind the growth of data center building and the value within data center REITs.

The rise in cloud services like AWS and Azure requires more data centers as does the rise in Machine Learning, IoT devices, Virtual and Augmented Reality, as well as Artificial Intelligence. The rise in machine generated data from blockchain, social media, AI assistants, and other connected devices like smart appliances will continue to drive data center building.

CloudOgre.com is converting a 40,000 sq ft school in the Foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains into a data center. The building sits on a 6 acre complex at over 1,ooo ft above sea level in an Opportunity Zone and Tier 2 OneNC County.

Google has 19 data centers worldwide and is looking to build more in their attempt to get closer to the end user to provide a better experience. Facebook has 15 global data centers and many companies like AWS use a combination of their own data centers and space within larger colocation providers like Equinix and Digital Realty. Hybrid data center strategy is also considered a best practice in small business and location, both geographic diversity and proximity, are important to consider.

The three pieces of colocation are power, ping (bandwidth or network), and space (rack, half rack, cabinet, cage) and are broken down into Tiers 1-4 and are defined by Wikipedia as the following:

  • Tier I:[48] lacks redundant IT equipment, with 99.671% availability, maximum of 1729 minutes annual downtime
  • Tier II: adds redundant infrastructure – 99.741% availability (1361 minutes)
  • Tier III: adds more data paths, duplicate equipment, and that all IT equipment must be dual-powered (99.982%, 95 minutes)
  • Tier IV: all cooling equipment is independently dual-powered; adds Fault-tolerance (99.995%, 26 minutes)

In addition to bandwidth, electricity and cabinet space cross connects are important to connect to various carriers or service providers’ clouds like a direct connect to AWS, Azure, or a VoIP switch. Due to the nature of a data center’s location, its gonna be a considerable drive to get there so taking advantage of remote hands offerings are important to restart servers, replace drives, and the like.

The issue goes much deeper than browsing, email, and social media. According to a new report released by Netflix, the platform’s “global energy consumption increased by 84% in 2019 to a total of 451,000 megawatt hours; enough to power 40,000 average US homes for a year.”

Jane Kearns – Venture Beat

Today, companies are looking for green and LEED certified buildings with alternative energy sources and I see this trend increasing. Both Google and Apple are 100% on renewable energy. I can tell you from purchasing this 40,000 sq ft beast in Mill Spring near the Facebook Data Center in Forrest City, converting to renewables and energy efficient technology like LED lights and automation can make a dent in a monthly spend.

Whether your brain or a server, you’ll need electricity to send signal to its proper destination enabling the actions you intend. As we move into Zettabytes of data we’ll use more electricity. Smart Cities and countries like Estonia use tons of bandwidth and electric but their efficiency justified the improvements.

The ability to replicate the success of Estonia as the world’s most digital city in American opportunity zones is a reality. Attracting investment from firms or individuals with capital gains to avoid or defer enhances long term ROI and creates jobs bringing outsourcing back onshore. After all, a centralized computing environment is easier to support for a geographically diverse organization. In fact, that is the reason for the success of cloud service providers, VoIP companies, and even O365. If you would have told someone in 2007 that Microsoft was going to manage your exchange server they’d look at you like you had three heads. Today, the trend is moving away from managing your own servers and outsourcing the need and liability. The debate on which is best is for another post.

With dedicated internet from non-profit ISPs and the LEC, we’ll be introducing renewable energy sources to increase redundancy and keep a low carbon footprint while we create jobs and deploy wireless internet to a community under-served by broadband providers.

Whether storing machine generated data, blockchain, controlling factories, or switching voice traffic centralized systems are easier to manage and secure. Smart Cities, Homes, and Offices are on the rise creating the need for a greater amount of data processing and storage. The only way to compensate is to build more data centers and that seems to be the trend going forward.

More data centers mean cloud services and the like are closer to their end-user providing a better user experience. I find similarity in today’s rise in data center building for content delivery and edge computing with the rise use of low latency routes for financial institutions that Michael Lewis’ Flash Boys spoke on so brilliantly. Providing a lower latency experience when delivering content like video is essential to successful transmission and providing users with a more enjoyable experience, just as it is for a server to process data through an algorithm to execute a trade.

Data Centers are the brains of tomorrow’s world. Cloud providers like AWS and Azure make it easy to employ a hybrid strategy or launch a new product. Data Centers, along with big bandwidth, will power tomorrow’s technological efficiency and competitive advantage. Your business needs a DR site, whether you go with an active-passive or active-active set up is up to you and your CISO but you need to find room in your budget for doing it right.

When Cybersecurity gets Physical

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Knuckle Up! Guard your space and be digitally safe 

Shoulder surfing is often overlooked. Pun intended!

Keeping safe digitally requires physical protections. The cloud is a physical place, servers in data centers, not some magical mist out in the ether. In fact, the physical nature of the cloud is so important that we provide low latency connections direct to cloud providers like AWS and Microsoft. Edge computing is bringing storage and processing closer to places where it’s needed much like CDN (Content Delivery Networks) and caching which brings content like webpages and videos to you faster.  

Data center location is not the only thing to be aware of in your cybersecurity strategy. Users are both your greatest ally and adversary. Keeping your end user aware of his or her surroundings and the impact it can have on organizational health is crucial. Making sure they know the impact of their safety on others including compliance is crucial. Leaving behind wallets, purses, and phones can expose sensitive company data which could be prevent through mindful awareness.  

Today, we discuss a lot about oversharing on social media because knowledge is power. Sharing on social media can give the bad guys the info they need to successfully commit a crime like a home break in when you’ve posted about your vacation. Shoulder surfing and tailgating are issues that are frequently overlooked and can have negative impacts like fines, reputational damage, and worse. In fact, the goal of Security Awareness Training is to highlight the little things and how impactful they can be, not to scare end users. Keeping folks safe in day to day life keeps business safe. 

Texting and Walking – Sounds silly but this is a big problem. Living in your phone leaves you vulnerable in the real world. Can you believe that in 2017 nearly 6,000 people died from texting and walking. This also makes you a potential target of would be wrongdoers, robbers, purse snatchers, etc. Making eye contact with a thief is one of the best deterrents from the crime. Walking on the other side of the street, repositioning your purse, tucking in your jewelry… all of those work but only if you’re paying enough attention to be aware of the potential threat.  

Screen Position & Voice Volume – Whether you’re talking too loudly on the phone while discussing sensitive data or have your screen positioned in a way that others can see, inadvertently exposing data is not cool! Have you ever heard your dentist speaking to another client or saw banking information on a screen that you shouldn’t be able to view? If you have, you’ve witnessed one of cybersecurity’s biggest party fouls. *When aging people tend to use larger font to see text and have the volume higher on phones during conversation. Just because you can’t see or hear it well doesn’t mean others can not. Basically, Yes! I can hear you when your phone isn’t on ‘speaker’ but the volume is all the way up… I hear it loud and clear and can make out every word without having superhuman hearing abilities.  

Image result for mantrap security
Use of Mantraps are crucial to restricting access to important areas.

Shoulder Surfing and Tailgating – Ever cheat on a test by looking over a classmate’s shoulder? Ever follow someone in the turnstile at the subway to get the 2-for1 special? These are prime examples of shoulder surfing and tailgating, giving unauthorized people access to data or areas they don’t have the permission to obtain. In data centers, government buildings, and other sensitive sites, mantraps are used to prevent tailgating by making sure only one person has access at a time. Sound proofing and sound masking helps muffle sounds so unauthorized users can’t hear sensitive data.  

Sound like overkill? Probably not if you knew the fines for not being compliant with HIPAA, DFS 500, SOX, SAE, etc. Those fines can absolutely crush a small business. Keeping files secured safely and backed up is just as important as someone being able to see a screen where sensitive information is displayed. I’m shocked how many banks, doctors, and dentist offices I walk by and can see information that I should not see. To report a violation or learn more about that process you can visit the Department of Health and Human Services.  

Three factor authentication requires something you know, something you have, and something you are. What you know can be a password. What you are can be biometric like a fingerprint or retina scan. What you have can be a key, fob, or phone. Passwords should always be complex and kept secret. Unless you’re in a James Bond movie carrying a suitcase handcuffed to your wrist, something you have and something you are should be kept separate. Together, these three can be used to not only secure files digitally but to secure locations like a data center or office.  

Be aware of your physical surroundings, whether planning out a data center strategy or walking to your car, it is important to be mindful of your environments including any possible threats. The old school methods are tried and true. Don’t let people into buildings that you don’t know. Make sure nobody is looking over your shoulder when you’re accessing sensitive information, in fact, don’t even do it unless you’re in a safe place   Be aware of your physical surroundings, whether planning out a data center strategy or walking to your car, it is important to be mindful of your environments including any possible threats. The old school methods are tried and true. Don’t let people into buildings that you don’t know. Make sure nobody is looking over your shoulder when you’re accessing sensitive information, in fact, don’t even do it unless you’re in a safe place   

Keep your iPhone secure from Spying Apps

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Use your Battery and Siri to help protect your privacy !

Siri is always listening for “Hey Siri!” but she hears everything else too

Siri is great! She’s informative and funny at parties to ask silly questions like “Hey Siri, What does Siri mean?”. Truth be told Siri is not your friend. She is always listening and telling other what you’re talking about. You’d kick any other friend like that to the curb. So why do you let Siri listen to everything you do? Did you read Orwell’s 1984 and think, “Hey that’s a great idea!”? 

Back in August of 2019, Apple issued a formal apology for allowing humans to listen to Siri recordings. It is tough to stay ahead of all of the changes in technology and their impact on privacy and user’s lives. Companies have to walk a fine line between what is functional versus an invasion of privacy.  

Recently, at a training event I was asked about ads that were appearing in people’s feeds whose content came, not from what was typed into a Google search, but what was said aloud in conversation. How could an ad for French Onion pop up when you were just discussing it?  

Siri not only operates independently but also within each app. In order to have Siri stop listening to you’ll need to disable Ask Siri, Siri Suggestions, and go into each app to make sure Siri is disabled.  

If you read through the Siri Privacy Statement you’ll see that Siri is trying to learn how you use your device including your browsing history, emails, messages, contacts, and other information. You shouldn’t be shocked by this and if you are, be aware that most apps operate this way. They need the data to operate and be improved yet some companies share that data to improve their advertiser’s experience.  

In order to turn off Siri you’ll want to go into Settings, Siri & Search, then disable ‘Listen for Hey Siri’ as well as ‘Press Side Button For Siri’, ‘Suggestions in Search’, ‘Suggestions in Lookup’, and ‘Suggestions in Lock Screen’. Below that you’ll see a listing of all your apps that use Siri Suggestions.  

Siri & Search
Use Siri & Search Settings to keep maintain privacy

My suggestion is to go into each app and disable Learn from this App, Show in Search, and Show App. Next, go to Settings and then Privacy and scroll to the bottom to click on Analytics & Improvements to turn off Share iPhone Analytics, Improve Siri & Dictation, as well as, Share iCloud Analytics.  

Apps are constantly running in the background mining data and using your battery power. If you go to ‘Settings’ on your iPhone and then click on ‘Battery’ and scroll down past ‘Low Power Mode’, and ‘Battery Health’ to ‘Battery Usage by App’ which will show percentage of battery usage by app plus the time the app was active including time the app was operating in the background. You can click on both ‘Show Activity’ or ‘Show Usage’. 

Apps running in the background
What apps are running in the background after you’ve stopped suing them?

You’ll always need to negotiate between functionality and privacy so it’s up to you to determine what you’re willing to share and what you want to get for it. Some people choose to post a lot of their information to social media and make it publicly available while others have their profiles set to private and rarely post if at all. That’s your decision to make but the goal of Security Awareness Training is to make you mindful of the trade-offs that come with your decisions.  

The Best Way for You to Renew Your PRIs: Industry best kept secret

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The first thing to do when you need to renew your PRIs is re-evaluate your phone system. Unless you’re in a financial bind where you can’t replace your PRIs… You need to get rid of them immediately! 

The PSTN or Public Switched Telephone Network was once fully analog, switching voice traffic as electrical signal over copper wires. Today the PSTN is mainly SIP based and most PRIs are deployed as SIP then converted to a PRI using an IAD or Integrated Access Device like an Adtran, Ciena, or Cisco.  

Phone systems that needed to be expanded in the past had to use T1 cards and often were connected to the greater copper network. That copper network is being retired. Copper erodes over time and has less capacity than fiber.  A fiber the size of the four wires that compose a standard POTS line can handle the voice traffic of a whole county. 

Much of the functionality that companies relied on from their phone system has been moved into the functionality at the POP. 5ESS switches are being retired quickly and swapped out for higher functionality switches like Broadsoft and Asterisk based systems that are capable of deploying dial tone as well as a hosted handset… if you’re old school think of Centrex. 

Advanced functionality can be managed by an internal switch like a Panasonic or Avaya, if a company had advanced needs. Most often what we see companies taking advantage of is the ability to forward calls to cell phones should an outage occur or an employee work remote or leave his/her desk. Conference calls are typically preplanned and rarely do I need to conference someone into a call and not have the capacity. 

SIP trunks or a fully hosted system are your best bet if you’re still terminating to a PRI or POTS lines. There are further questions to consider from there if you’re not sure which of the two to go with. Learn more about voice services, voice equipment, and unified communications here. Or feel free to contact us for further consultation. 

Three Reasons To Consider Internet for Your WAN

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When designing your multi site WAN, bandwidth is a powerful tool. The more you have available the better you are. Having access is the long pole in the tent. 

Circuits are composed of loops and ports so it’s important to know within what POPs carriers have their facilities, as well as, what company owns and operates the last mile access in the area. That’s not so hard when you have one or two sites but designing a network over a large domestic or international expanse increases that complexity exponentially.

7 Layers of the OSI Model
7 Layers of the OSI Model courtesy of Webopedia Angie Beal

Using layer 3… plain ole internet service… can be very cost effective, secure, and efficient if implemented and managed properly. Here are three reasons some of our customers have been moving away from older network design.

COST

Traditionally, point to point connections had distance sensitive pricing but that traditional TDM network has become flat. Peering agreements are an expense for carriers and that cost is built into your price of the internet circuit. Carriers don’t pay peering costs for layer 2 connections on their own network. That makes design via MAN segments a sound strategy for regionally clustered office deployments with latency sensitive requirements. Going layer 3 makes the carrier diversity a non-issue with TCO flattening out over time for less latency sensitive applications like voice and basic web conferencing.

SECURITY

Cloud based VPN concentrators from Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud are very effective at securing data. (Click here to learn more about AWS EC2 VPC limits) The availability of bandwidth makes cloud providers much more popular driving down the cost of functionality of all sorts with the *aaS service model more attractive than ever. Running your data through a cloud based VPN concentrator can be a cost effective way to securely flatten out your network. If you’re connecting market data terminals and exchanges we need to have a different conversation. Sure connecting via layer 1 or 2 is more secure but if that’s your concern, new compliance requirements will also ‘suggest’ you encrypt that data as well. Device Management platforms are sufficient for mobile data but that’s outside the gate. 

Transport vs Tunnel Mode Encryption
Transport vs Tunnel Mode Encryption

VOICE 

Back in the day people used T1s to connect offices together so their phones could communicate. That changeover to MPLS which allowed for quality of service for voice calls with lower latency than internet. Today thats basically unnecessary. There is so much bandwidth available that VoIP providers and customers just go over the internet. We host whole phone systems in the cloud… not just use a cloud based phone provider, now we can even put the whole phone system in AWS or Azure and connect via SIP trunks. This was seen as an impossibility as recently as within the current decade. Voip was a dirty word just a few years back now everyone wants a soft phone and hardly anyone picks up their desk phone.

In sum, the things you need to consider are your a) budget, your b) latency sensitive applications (voice being the most commonly used) along with their level of sensitivity, and c) your security requirements. With that said, the long pole in the tent is still access. Geography will impact your decisions at a level that is out of your control but within management. If you need help, you can always get an Ogre in your inbox to help provide guidance. Contact CloudOgre 

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