Tech Connect - Cloud Computing 2010

Phoenix event offered
nontraditional approach
to tech conference
Marriage of T1 and wireless keeps downtime to zero

WRI TING B Y :: ERIC RICHARD

What to ask

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he thought of phones or
Internet being down for
any length of time strikes
terror into the heart of
every business owner or
management team. It is expensive in terms
of lost sales, data and productivity—often
costing thousands of dollars for every minute
spent down—and can result in a huge impact
to businesses and their customers.

As more business processes migrate to online solutions and shared applications, businesses of all sizes are relying on the Internet like never before to manage many of their critical functions. Whether it is the flower shop down the street that manages credit card processing online and receives all of their orders through the Web or the call center company hitting $60 million in revenue annually that relies on voice over internet protocol (VoIP) phones, the cost of downtime has skyrocketed and the pressure to achieve 100 percent uptime has increased.

Business continuity in the past had been a complicated, expensive proposition requiring IT experts to maintain and manage the equipment or purchase a separate entrance facility from the carrier. Internet redundancy often consisted of two T1 lines purchased through different Internet providers, with the business unaware that the T1s were usually leased through the same last mile carrier and laid in the same conduit. Even combining the line with cable or fiber often landed you in the same conduit pipe, which gave a business redundancy in the form of double wires, but not true diversity on independent networks.

THESE ARE THE TOP FIVE QUESTIONS TO
ASK ANY SERVICE PROVIDER:
• DO YOU LEASE OR OWN THE LAST MILE
CIRCUIT COMING INTO MY BUILDING?

• IF YOU PROVIDE MORE THAN ONE CIRCUIT, ARE THEY REDUNDANT OR DIVERSE? HOW?

• CAN I BE PROTECTED FROM PHONE
OUTAGES, OR JUST INTERNET OUTAGES?
• HOW FAST WILL BUSINESS BE BACK UP
AND RUNNING IN THE EVENT OF AN OUTAGE?
• WHAT EQUIPMENT WILL I HAVE
TO BUY AND MAINTAIN?
SEE ANSWERS:
WWW.SPARKPLUG.NET/DIVERSITY.

T1s with the added value of true diversity— often with a significant boost in bandwidth. It leverages the latest in wireless technology and in a fully managed solution, it doesn’t require an in-house IT department or capital investment during today’s difficult economy. It can be completely hosted and maintained by the service provider.

For a company with 20-plus employees using five or more landlines to handle their voice needs, a truly diverse solution may be available for less than what they are currently spending on just their T1s. A T1/ wireless broadband combination would eliminate unexpected costs from outages and dependence on a phone company infrastructure for the main connection, while delivering all of the security and reliability you would get from any carrier.

If a fully managed solution with diversity is available for around the same cost as a T1 without it, who wouldn’t chose diversity? Zero downtime is a wonderful thing.

Redundancy Isn’t Diversity

When considering diversity, it is critical to look for a solution providing completely independent networks, such as combining a T1 with a wireless broadband network. If the T1 or wireless access goes down, it can then be automatically rerouted from the T1 to the wireless network, or vice versa, in seconds.

Michael Ruley is CEO of Sparkplug Communications, one of the first fixed wireless broadband companies in the nation that can offer T1 service combined with a wireless network.

+ GET CONNECTED
www.sparkplug.net/diversity

ost kids who go to camp may
come away with memories
of hikes and bug spray. The
Phoenix CloudCamp offered
another way for grown-ups to
challenge themselves – minus the bugs.
Formatted as an “un-conference” whereby
participants help choose discussion topics,
CloudCamp provided the perfect arena
for participants to meet with other cloud-
computers to discuss trends and innovations,
share ideas and network. Like other
CloudCamps held in cities around the world,
the discussions and sessions didn’t rely on a set
agenda. Instead, event participants determined
topics and breakout sessions while the audience
participated in discussion groups and panels
The current resistance to the technology,
even among longtime IT professionals.

IBM’s push in the cloud-computing market. The corporation oversees the world’s largest network of cloud-computing labs with locations throughout the globe. Many attendees were unaware of its active participation in cloud technology.

The Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). Designed to make Web-scale computing easier for developers, EC2 is a service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud.

The impact of Microsoft’s Azure platform. The technology creates a unique, scalable way to speed up the time-to-market for developing Web applications.

Companies that are not household names have become major players in the cloud-computing world. A good example is RightScale, a Santa Barbara, Calif.-based provider of cloud-computing management platforms that has deployed over 1 million servers since 2006.

Hosting the Phoenix CloudCamp was Scottsdale-based StormSource Software, developer of Appointment-Plus online appointment-scheduling software. Sponsors included IBM, Cisco Systems, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, RightScale and JumpBox.