Here’s why:

Expand Your Business

Choosing a cloud hosting option that’s scalable gives you the best opportunity to have your network grow with your business in the future. Many companies hold off on moving to the cloud because they feel as though they aren’t quite ready to do so. Perhaps they don’t yet have the funds or the client-base to make that kind of change. However, making the move to the cloud in the beginning stages will not only make your business more accessible to more people, but it will also allow you to save money in the long run. This is because most MSPs offer scalable solutions, so you don’t need to pay for what you aren’t using right now — you can always make the necessary upgrades later on.

Take More Time for What Matters

Turning to an MSP means that in addition to gifting your company a brand new infrastructure set-up next year, you will also have the support of a professional provider. This means they will manage everything, while you continue doing the many jobs you need to do as a company leader. If you have a lot of projects you’re hoping to get done next year, managing your network shouldn’t get in the way. Make it your resolution to work on what you need to do, while an MSP stays on top of the rest. After all, why risk losing all the hard work you’ve done when your MSP can provide amazing backup and disaster recovery solutions?

Wowrack wants you to be on the right track for next year. Contact us to learn more.

Keep the Important Jobs in the Hand of Professionals

Is not knowing who to trust holding you back from making some changes for next year? That’s understandable, and exactly why we stress the importance of making sure you can trust your MSP. This is why Wowrack offers data center tours to ensure you’re getting a good look at the services you’ll be receiving. Therefore, you can feel confident knowing that this important job lies in the hands of a  dedicated team of experts. There will always be someone available that can solve the problem your network may be presenting, but ultimately, the team will help recognize any problems well before they occur.

Also, it helps to know that if something does happen — for instance, a data breach — you won’t necessarily be the one held completely responsible.

Provide Consistent Customer Satisfaction

Lastly, a major goal you should have for the upcoming year is to continue growing that trust between you and your clients. One of the ways to achieve this is by maximizing your security standards, thereby ensuring your customers that you’re doing everything in your power to mitigate risks that could have the potential to leak their information. This is why, depending on the industry you’re in, it’s so important to practice compliance laws. Opting for the services of an MSP as one of your New Year’s resolutions will help you bring in more customers, and improve your CRM overall. Additionally, it will keep you safe from problems like shut-downs, delays, data disasters, breaches, and visits from auditors. A strong approach to this means happy customers.

So, what’s the hold up? Let us help you achieve the New Year’s resolutions you have for your company.

The post Turning to Managed Services Should be Your Company’s New Year Resolution appeared first on Wowrack Blog.

Here at Wowrack, not only do we take you on a tour of a data center, but we also host open houses every so often to welcome large groups of those who just want to come by and check it out.

The next data center tour is January 10th. After all, what better way to start the New Year and gift your company’s network a new home?

Why Going on a Data Center Tour is Important

Since the data center is the selected location of where your server will be stored, it’s super important to know what this is going to look like. And, in general (but not always) seeing one data center will give you a good sense of what the other MSP’s data centers look like, too.

Seeing a data center for yourself can, for one, show you the obvious things. For instance, you can see if the data center is physically secured, if there is a cooling system in place, and overall, how the machinery looks. If it seems dusty, cluttered, and there are loose wires sticking out every which way, you may want to take a look at some other data centers, too. It also gives you a chance to learn more about how it all works, as well ask any questions that come to mind or haven’t already been answered.

Which, brings us to our next point…

What Questions You Should Ask

When it comes to as something as big as this, you want to make sure you’re absolutely certain before making the time and monetary investment. This is another way to get a good read on your prospective MSP. If they seem hesitant to answer your questions or are making you feel uncomfortable by asking them in the first place, then you might get a good sense of how your experience will be in the long term.

And, if you can’t think of any questions, here are some examples to get the juices flowing:

• Security – Who has access to the building? Have there have been break-ins?
• Electrical Infrastructure – How is this place getting power? How many distribution, backup systems, and generators are there?
• Troubleshooting – What happens if there is a problem with my equipment?

If you’d like to attend our Data Center Tour, Contact us today to make an appointment.

Registration for Wowrack’s Data Center Tour

Here at Wowrack, we believe there shouldn’t be any mystery. We pride ourselves on being transparent, so what you see is what you get.

In just a few weeks our Data Center Tour will take place on January 10th, 2018 from 9 AM to 3:30 PM, in Tukwila, Washington. Come and see for yourself the quality of the servers we maintain.

What to Do if you Can’t Make it This Time

If you can’t make it to this Data Center Tour, no worries! Wowrack always has our doors open (of course, not the doors to our secured data center) so you can make an appointment for a time that works best for you.

The post Are You Ready for Wowrack’s Data Center Tour? appeared first on Wowrack Blog.

That being said, it’s not always as easy as it sounds. Companies first need to be aware what kind of compliance laws apply to their business, and how they can set up the best infrastructure to reach those compliance goals.

Not sure where to start?

Then leave it to your provider to get you situated, get you and your customers protected, and of course, prepare yourself for auditors.

What Compliance Category Do You Fall Into?

So, we’ve got healthcare and payment card industries pretty much covered. But, there are a lot of companies outside of these categories that need to follow compliance policies as well, since they are dealing with some kind of sensitive information. To give you an idea, here are some examples of companies who have more serious compliance needs:

FISMA – FISMA stands for the “Federal Information Security Management Act” which was implemented by the U.S. government in order to protect sensitive government information against threats. It’s meant for companies who work with federal agencies or with federal contracts to keep information out of the wrong hands and ultimately keep risks low. FISMA Compliance is monitored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

GLBA – GLBA, or “The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act” was passed nearly twenty years ago to ensure that financial institutions — such as those that offer loans, insurance, or financial consulting — are held responsible when it comes to how they handle the private information of the individuals they serve.  This category of compliance makes sure these companies are safeguarding sensitive data and are transparent with how they manage information-sharing.

SOX – Do you invest some money in stocks? Whether you do so as an individual or as a company, the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act” oversees enterprises to make sure there are no fraudulent practices or accounting errors. This is done by forcing these companies to give full disclosure about their operations. Essentially, SOX is there to help eliminate financial scandals by forcing these companies to keep all business records and messages on file through appropriate data classification tools.

There are other types of compliance categories as well, including specific certifications to grant compliance in one area. Some examples of these are AES-256 Protection or FIPS Certification 140-2.

Not sure what you need?

Most companies should already know very well what they need to be compliant in. But, managing and achieving that compliance may be way out of their expertise — and, actually, it should be. No company should be managing their own compliance, except for what their managed hosting provider instructs them to do on their end.

Concerned about compliance? Wowrack provides regulatory compliance for a number of different industries, all under one roof. Contact us to learn more!

On the Right Path to Compliance

Companies who don’t follow compliance laws are seriously putting themselves and their customers at risk. Between hefty fines, ruining your business’ reputation, and even the possibility of imprisonment, failure to have your company prove its compliance isn’t up for debate.

Furthermore, if it’s going to be done, it needs to be done correctly. This is why it’s important to turn to a professional and experienced managed cloud hosting provider who will take care of your infrastructure, documents, monitor your security risks, and stay up to date with compliance laws so you don’t miss a beat.
Managing compliance standards can be stressful. Thankfully, your MSP can take it off of your hands and lift that weight off your shoulders.

The post Need to Pass Compliance Standards for Your Company? Leave It To Your Provider appeared first on Wowrack Blog.

It’s no surprise being in the Pacific Northwest that Seattle rains and howls each Fall Season. To the City resident’s great inconvenience, this time high winds caused a power outage lasting 40 hours and 30 minutes covering 150,000+ homes in Western Washington, including our office building and the Tukwila Data Center.

So what happened?
The blackout started approximately 5:07 p.m. on Nov 13th and our backup infrastructure systems in place seamlessly transferred power from our Utility Feed to the Generator Feed, resulting in continuous operation at full capacity.

Approximately 6 poles fell just west of our property, along Military Road, and several trees were down which hampered Seattle City Light’s (SCL) efforts to restore power sooner:

(Above picture was taken on Nov 13 2017. Not showing clearly on the picture are several poles down behind the trees)

We received updates about the power restoration efforts underway, however, due to the massive trees that needed to be cleared out in order to reach some of the poles, the resolve time projected continuously got pushed back.  In efforts of preparing for the worst case scenario, we monitored our generator closely in order to ensure we replenished fuel well ahead of time.

After 2 days of power outage at our data center, we are happy to report that we are finally back with power as of November 15 2017!

Our team worked tirelessly around the clock to guarantee our data center was continually powered on, in addition to frequently updating our customers base with any and all status insight of note, as they were made available to us.

Stay dry and enjoy Thanksgiving!

The post Outage – Two Business Days Without Power appeared first on Wowrack Blog.

That being said, while the ease of running a healthcare company digitally certainly has its benefits, companies have to take more steps in order to ensure their security. That’s because any company that collects the private healthcare information of their clients, needs to be 100% sure that their company – their network – is HIPAA compliant.

Why You Should Outsource Your Compliance into the Hands of Professionals

When it comes to healthcare businesses figuring out how to possibly manage on their systems, it can be a real headache. With tons of patients, clients, doctors, employees, and other users accessing this network, it can be confusing to know where to start.

For instance, patient files need to be accessed in case of an emergency. Imagine you have a patient come in and you need to know right away if they’re allergic to something, or they have a relevant medical history. If your network slows down or is inaccessible for any reason, it puts both the patient and the office at risk. Not only that, but how do you make sure that this patient’s information, as well as the information of all your other patients, doesn’t fall into the wrong hands?

That’s a hard pill to swallow.

This is where HIPAA compliance comes in, and this is also where things can get difficult.

You have enough things to worry about. Outsourcing your compliance in addition to your network management to professional company, will take the load off and let you focus on your job – helping people and even saving lives!

Why is HIPAA Compliance so Important, Anyway?

There are a lot of reasons any company in the healthcare industry needs to be compliant. For one, patients expect their information to be safe and secure – imagine if any person could just call your doctor ask what pills you’re taking?

That being said, one of the main reasons HIPAA compliance is so important for these companies is simply because the cost of not being compliant is a huge problem to face. HIPAA laws, nowadays – and especially since everything is computerized – are being taken more and more serious. If a breach happens or auditors come for a visit, you’d better be prepared.

Wowrack’s HIPAA Compliant Healthcare Cloud has all the tools and partnerships necessary Contact us to learn how we can help you get your network on one ASAP!

The “Healthcare” Cloud System

Every company who chooses to host their network on a managed cloud system will likely have a different infrastructure than a company in another industry. When it comes to healthcare companies, the cloud setup is going to be very unique. You need a cloud system that is secure and stays up to date on the latest software. Most importantly, it has to be designed to fit your business’ needs, while making HIPAA compliance a top priority.

Managed cloud hosting providers who have partnerships with Healthcare risk management companies and data security companies are going to be the kind of providers that you want to take care of your HIPAA compliance. It’s also important to make sure that your network’s data is going to be properly managed and secured at a reliable facility, so that breaches aren’t even a concern in the first place.

Remember – you’re putting your trust in this provider, and you need to be guaranteed that they are following the proper protocol to make sure your HIPAA compliant.

The post Don’t Let HIPAA Compliance Become a Headache appeared first on Wowrack Blog.

That’s why you should consider doing a tour of your prospective data center, before signing a contract.

Why Visit the Data Center

Even though your data is going to soon be managed in the cloud, that cloud still has to exist in a physical space somewhere. A data center is a place where a network of servers is kept. These servers handle a lot of data (in this case, your company’s data) and keep it safe, secure, and accessible for whenever you need it. Of course, some data centers are better at doing this job than others.

By visiting the actual data center, you can have a first-hand look at these servers. Just like the same way you would check out a building before signing a lease or scoping out a restaurant before choosing to sit down, it’s very similar.

What You Should Be Looking Out For

When you go on a tour of the data center, there are a few things you want to be paying attention to. One is you want to see the overall conditions of the center. If it looks pretty dusty, there are wires all over the place, and you can feel the intense heat coming off the machines, then those are all big red flags.

You want to make sure this data center is secure, has a cooling system that you can feel, and that it seems to be organized and well maintained. If this is where your data is going to be stored, it’s important that things are in a good place.

Wowrack offers potential clients tours of our data centers, so you can feel certain about signing on with us. Contact us today to schedule a visit.

What You Should Ask and Think About During and After Your Visit

While you’re visiting your prospective data center, you’re going to want to ask some questions about the place, so you can know information beyond what you can just see with your eyes.

• What’s this data center’s network capacity?
• Is the location of the data center in a place that’s prone to storms natural disasters?
• Does it have a generator or some other kind of backup solution if the power goes out?
• What were some challenges this data center has faced and how did they recover?
• How’s the physical security of the building?
• In addition to 24/7 management, is there in-house support in case something goes wrong?
• Is the data center facility free of any law-suits/financially secure?

When inquiring about the services of a managed hosting provider, ask them if you can take a tour of their data centers. If that’s not something they offer, move on to the next candidate.

The post Why You Should Consider Doing a Tour of Your Prospective Data Center appeared first on Wowrack Blog.

Even after your potential hosting provider has sold you on their various packages, level of support, reliable data centers, and overall costs, there’s still one thing left you should ask.

And, that question is, how long has this hosting provider been around?

Why History is Important

Technology changes every minute, and the way computers were handled twenty, ten, or even five years ago, has changed dramatically. While on one hand it might be good to go with a hosting provider that’s new to the game and definitely up to date on all the new technology, they’re lacking that relevant and reliable history. On the other hand, a company who has been around for ages has been able to grow with the times. They’ve likely seen it all, and they have experience taking on new or different responsibilities.
After all, would you rather go with a doctor in his residency or one who has been healing patients for twenty plus years?

It Takes Time to Develop a Business

Just like your business is growing, your potential hosting provider has also grown a lot, especially if they’ve been around a while. In this time that they have grown, they have learned what they’re are good at and have had time to learn from their mistakes as well. A hosting provider has had time to build upon the different structures they’ve been using, build more data centers, follow steps to becoming compliant, and have overcome any obstacles they’ve hit along the way.

Like any new company, an up and coming hosting provider may not quite yet have the tools to support you in the best way possible, since they are still learning how to do many things themselves for the very first time.

Going with a hosting provider that has a long, qualified history, can leave you feeling more certain about who and what you’re investing in.

Wowrack has been around since 2001 and has an impressive timeline. Contact us today to learn more about how our long experience as a hosting provider can help your company more than the new guy on the block.

Compliance and Security is a Priority

As a hosting provider that collects sensitive information from their clients, it’s imperative that they follow compliance laws, and that they guide you into practicing compliance laws with your own clients, too. If one party isn’t practicing this, it can put the other at risk. But, how does one come to perfect their compliance?

After years of experience, of course.

Going with a hosting provider who has been around for quite some time will leave you with less concern in this department.

Experienced Staff and Expert Equipment

When a hosting provider company is just a start-up, they need time to figure out who they are. Time that you don’t have to waste. Even if they have the best staff and they’re working with great equipment, they haven’t yet had time or money to expand on what they can potentially  offer in the future. But, a hosting company who has been around for awhile, likely does. Additionally, a company with history can also provide reliable testimonies that you can use to help you make your decision.

So, who will you go with?

The post Why It’s Important that Your Hosting Provider Has Been Around a While appeared first on Wowrack Blog.

Doesn’t your company deserve the same protection? After all, how do you plan on keeping business moving when the unexpected happens?

The Cost of a Disaster on Your Business

It goes without saying that even the smallest of IT disruptions can wreak havoc on your business. According to research done by Information Week, out of the 200 companies surveyed, the total cost of any IT downtime was over 26 billion. That translates to $150,000 lost annually by each company.

Not only is it a financial loss, but it’s also a long-term catastrophe. Companies who experience any type of IT shut-down, whether it’s due to a hack or a power-outage, can leave a bad taste with their clients. Their clients are going to be less likely to trust this company in the future, and may go with a competitor instead. Ultimately, the effects are long term.

Therefore, it’s no question that having a plan when disaster strikes is imperative. Just choosing the right provider with a solid approach is a major step in the right direction.

What is DRaas and How It Can Specifically Help YOU

Disaster Recovery as a Service, or DRaas, is a unique solution to disaster recovery designed by an expert provider catered specifically to your company’s needs. No two businesses are the same, whether it’s the size of their clientele, the type of industry they’re in, or the profits made. This means that your DRaas solution will be quite different from the next guy’s.

Your provider will help plan and design, architect, and deploy your disaster recovery solution from start to finish. This way, you’re fully prepared if and when a problem occurs. It will be your very own, fully managed, custom environment, that you can rely on. And, it doesn’t need to be expensive, either, as your provider can help you find a solution that fits your budget just as well as everything else.

Wowrack offers budget-friendly and high-quality DRaas packages that will fit your company’s’ needs. Contact us today to learn more.

How Your Provider Keeps Business Continuity

The most important thing any DRaas does is allow your business to keep moving if you get stalled by an IT interruption, whatever that may be. Sometimes, these interruptions can take some time to discover and solve, and you don’t want to have to keep your business waiting around in the meantime. As mentioned before, that can result in huge loss for your business.

Wouldn’t it be better to pay a little more to have that peace of mind? Knowing that you’ll be okay even if disaster strikes is a huge weight lifted off your shoulders.

With the right DRaas solution, you provider goes through a series of steps to make sure your business continues running in the event of a disaster.

After your provider audits you in order to understand what your current IT situation stands, they’ll engineer a plan using their own internal procedures and tools that will be very similar to the infrastructure you’re already using. Once that’s taken care of, your provider will get ready to deploy that solution any time, anywhere, and will test it first to make sure it’s ready to go. Finally, your provider will constantly monitor your systems to make sure your data stays safe and your disaster recovery solution is ready to go at any moment.

With a DRaas, there’s no need to worry anymore. If something happens, your data will be protected and easy to retrieve in an instant. Meanwhile, your provider handles everything behind the scenes, so you can keep business going without IT interruptions getting in the way.

The post How Your Provider Can Help You When Disaster Strikes appeared first on Wowrack Blog.

While most managed hosting options do their best to guarantee security, it’s good to know what that means. So, in the case of GPU servers, one thing to note is how well an MSP can integrate DDoS protection and mitigation into the overall package.

What is DDoS?

Most companies are familiar with DDoS attacks. But, if you need a refresher, DDoS is a sophisticated type of attack that stands for “Distributed Denial of Service.” This happens when multiple compromised systems flood the bandwidth of a targeted system (in this case your GPU server) by overloading it with traffic it can’t handle. This would of course be hard to stop and would quickly disrupt a company’s operations, by making it hard to filter out legitimate traffic versus unreliable traffic.

Some ways in which a company may realize a DDoS attack is happening is by noticing website behavior that’s out of the norm. This can include anything from rapidly increasing traffic (with no explanation), slow network (or slow loading of graphics on GPU servers), and the inability of users to access certain pages or the entire website altogether.

Why DDoS Protection is Important in GPU Servers

While any company should be proactive in preventing any kind of cyber security attack, it’s true that no two attacks are the same. Certain attacks are also more likely to happen on certain servers more so than others.

Though the industries that would require a GPU server (scientific research, engineering and computer design, media and entertainment, etc) can really be prone to any type of cyber security attack, DDoS attacks tend to be more common here.

And, since GPU servers are used for the sole purpose of speeding up functions, anything that can get in the way of that can cost your company big time. Companies who rely heavily on graphics and complex apps need a server that can support that kind of thing. Therefore, anything that could potentially slow down the server is a big risk to the company. Hence, DDoS attacks need to be prevented as best as they can be.

In addition to providing great solutions for your company in a GPU server, Wowrack will also take extra precautions in making sure your server is protected from DDoS attacks. Contact us today to learn more.

The Bottom Line

Your MSP will take all kinds of measures to protect your GPS server from a DDoS attack. However, nothing is ever 100% preventable. That’s why in addition to protection, they also help with mitigation. This means that in the case an attack does occur, they’ll do what they can to minimize the damage and get you up and running in no time.

The post How GPU Servers Integrate DDoS Protection and Mitigation appeared first on Wowrack Blog.

Many people spend time seeking out the right Internet services for their business. They start with looking for the right managed service provider, then they look into what packages seem to fit their needs. Is it a cloud service? Is it specific hardware? Is it a certain backup recovery system that should be set up? Or, is it cyber-security assessment for compliance? Sometimes, it’s not enough to just read up on descriptions of services in order to make your decision.

That’s why before you make any decisions with your managed service provider, you should inquire about about consulting services, first.

Why Consider Consulting?

Perhaps you already have a good idea about what you want to do. You’re pretty well read up on various Internet services and how they work. But, before you dive in completely to a managed service provider, you want to see if you can take a mix of what they offer you and combine it with what you already know in order to customize your needs at a budget-friendly price. Consulting would therefore be a good choice for someone like you.

But, there’s also another benefit to consulting. Maybe you’re completely clueless when it comes to Internet services for businesses. So, reading a bunch of information on a webpage about all the options out there is useless to you. Seeking consulting sessions for some guidance beforehand is a better way to go.

Whatever Internet service you go with, that’s going to carry your business through, all day, every day. If you run your business online, it’s essential that everything is well taken care of. So, utilizing a consulting session as a stepping stone to what’s going to be a long-term commitment, is not only beneficial, but sometimes, necessary.

Wowrack wants you to make sure you’re completely comfortable before buying Internet services for your business. That’s why we provide FREE whiteboard consulting sessions so you can get all your questions answered.  Contact us today to learn more.

The Different Ways Consulting Can Help You

Beyond the obvious reasons, consulting has a lot of good benefits for you and your potential managed service provider. For one, it gives the MSP a chance to evaluate your business’ current Internet situation and needs before wasting time on something that just won’t work for your company. For the customer, you get a chance to visualize what your Internet services would look like and how they would directly help you accomplish your goals. After all, why waste time or money if you’re not quite sure what the end result is going to be?

What to Expect in an Internet Services Consulting Session

The kind of B2B consulting session you’ll get from a MSP is unique. In this consultation, you’ll both have to bring a lot of information to the table so your MSP can best help you. Kind of like you would bring a list of your symptoms or health history to a consultation at a doctor’s office. Here are some of the things  you can expect out of your meeting:

• Different potential Internet environments that would suit your needs best
• Information about Disaster Recovery
• Discussions about the development and testing period of the services for your company
• Understanding the type of workload you’re interested in hosting and how the MSP can help you meet the goals you have for that workload
• Potential costs of specific services provided
• Questions answered

If you’re really unsure about what kind of Internet services you’re seeking for your business, take your time and sign up for a consultation, first.

The post Consider Consulting Before Purchasing Internet Services for Your Business appeared first on Wowrack Blog.