Questions & Answer's
Q: “Network links are getting cheaper, and I have a pretty well specified computer room, I'm not sure you can offer any improvements?”
A: Network links are getting cheaper, but what about resilient network links, from dual points of presence, diversely routed? Is your computer room secure - does it have 24x7 security guards? Does it have fire suppression? Resilient power feeds? Uninterruptible power supplies? Generators, with lots of spare diesel?
Q: “Ok, you've got a point; I'll buy some racks in a co-location data-centre instead!”
A: Good idea, you've got around some of the physical and bandwidth problems. But that means you will still need to procure all of the network equipment, firewalls, switches, servers, backup devices, tapes, monitoring systems, maintain them, pay for “remote hands” when things need to be switched on and off, and get your team available 24x7 to fix things (if you notice they've gone wrong, in the mean-time).
You will still need to worry about:
- Security - it can be difficult maintaining patches across all of this equipment, keeping your firewalls up to date, updating your intrusion prevention systems and managing access,
- Availability - many IT departments (even quite big ones) struggle to get their IT teams excited about doing out of hours work (like patching, or other changes), or to restore service when it fails for whatever reason (hardware or software).
- Media handling - backup media may still need to be changed, potentially on a daily basis.
Q: “eLINIA provides all of this, fully managed, around the clock - if I match this with my own teams' capabilities and by providing state-of-the art infrastructure - I won't need your services?”
A: Even if you have all of this available, what about business continuity? We can mirror your system at a second site, a long way away from your first. We've operate from a number of datacentres (up to 120 miles apart for very strict business continuity requirements.)