Business Continuity

If you have a Compellent or Scale SAN and desire to replicate for business continuity or data disaster recover LightBound offers Storage as a Service to meet your needs.    LightBound can be the one stop shop to accommodate as we have Indiana WAN services with multiple carriers to provide a large circuit directly from your office to our data center to provide backup needs.  A large circuit is generally needed as 100 GB takes 2.2 hours to replicate your SAN.  If you have a SAN with another manufacturer and would like off site data backup service you can use a backup application to a NFS or CIFS share to back up remotely. If you need to also need a server platform to recoer we also offer hosted virtual server platform that can be paired with replicated SAN or can be used to restore backup data.   If you would like some more information plan on attending our lunch and learn in April or contact one of our account managers.

Come hear about one of the most exciting stories in the technology industry in Indiana on February 10, 2010 @ 11:30 by attending LightBound's lunch and learn.   Go to www.lightbound.net to register. Scale Computing has been recognized as one of the top 20 technology companies to watch in 2010.   Scale is headquartered out of Indianapolis.  LightBound is a Scale Computing partner having deployed their solution for managed storage services for use with managed servers hosting or server collocation. The Scale solution  is a very cost effective solution for local storage (3 TB for $14K).   LightBound managed storage services can facilitate a data disaster recovery plan through a high speed WAN connection to provide off site data back service to yield a very effective business continuity plan in event of a disaster.  Come learn about what we have to offer!

LightBound offers Managed Servers Hosting as do several other Indiana Server Hosting companies.  Why choose LightBound over others?   See below for a few reasons:

1) LightBound has been supporting IP services since the mid-90's through their ISP service and has a fully redundant, high capacity Internet connection directly connected to the NAP, peeering with Equinix packet exchange.   LightBound also has four connections to top tier Internet providers at the NAP so Internet service is going to be rock solid high speed internet in Indiana.  LightBound has total control and visibility of it's Internet upstream connectivity.  other providers may have several connections to ISP's.  LightBound IS the ISP for managed servers hosting.

2) LightBound provides a flexible, customized server hosting rather than just a few options.   You can choose bare-metal and work with your internal IT staff or IT consulting firm to provide OS, development or application platform, or LightBound can provide all these services.

3) LightBound deploys security technologies at the VM level to secure your managed server from other environments.  This has been designed to satisfy compliance regulations.   This provides the most cost effective model for the customer versus dedicating server blade in a chassis to each customer.

4) LightBound has Data Disaster Recover/Business Continuity service to provde computer and phone directly for your internal staff to get to managed hosting services with 32 seats ready to go and capacility for up to 60 workstations.  No worrying about a third party to deliver this service.

5) LightBound has 19 telecommunication carriers with facilities in the data center.  If your business has multiple branches and terminates circuits in the data center to get to the managed servers cost efficienciences can be realized by choosing from the manay carriers to get the best cost.

LightBound, an Indiana server collocation provider offers a unique solution to your business continuity needs. In our data center we can supply mail server hosting, high speed Internet, and off site data backup service, along with many other services.

LightBound, an Indiana Internet Access Service Provider offers high speed Internet unlike what most other Internet service providers can offer. LightBound peers directly with the top Internet providers in the country in order to provide a robust and redundant network with low latency.
I spoke with a customer today that is struggling with the cost of bandwidth and trying to weigh the options between a more cost-effective option versus the more costly option with higher speed. In their daily business they upload large graphic files and need to have a robust network in order to guarantee Internet access at all times, with a high upload speed. After reviewing their options they decided upon LightBound's Internet access service so that they can insure their business is constantly online and running.  
LightBound also offers business continuity, WAN configuration, and VoIP services over their high-speed network.

LightBound, an Indiana Managed Server Host can now offer virtual managed servers and storage. This adds to the many service options for off site data backup. Business continuity is a vital component in today's business.

LightBound, a managed server hosting company in Indiana, offers server collocation. LightBound's data center can house mail servers, manage servers, and provide business continuity and disaster recovery  options to help your business run smoothly.

LightBound will be expanding to a third building for server collocation in November.  Customers who desire some redundancy in data centers can house equipment in separate buildings.  The new building will be at 800 Oliver Street, one half block south of 731 W. Henry Street.  It will be on a separate power service and generator from the building on 731 W. Henry Street. 

LightBound also offers off site off site data backup service which can add a level of redundancy to your operation.  Servers at the data center can be backed up and customers with circuits at T1 level or higher can have their server data backed up at their corporate locations.  The backups are done over the network between data centers at the Henry Street complex to the administrative office at 2500 E. 46th Street. 

If you are looking to improve disaster recovery and business continuity LightBound has the data centers and backup services to get the job done!

Businesses have to plan for operating in event of a disruption in business operations at their main facilities.  This planning is commonly referred to as business continuity.  Since most business rely heavily on IT it would make sense to plan on having critical resources available over the Internet.  Internet is highly available so employees can access when they are on the road traveling away from the office or working at home.  To keep the business up and running it would pay off to have your critical information backed up using  off site data backup service and using server collocation to have backup servers or primary servers   This would surely help in data disaster recovery if the primary location was every effected by a power outage, damage of equipment, or theft.  The data housed on equipment at the data center or back up service could be restored and get the business up and running at the main facility.   LightBound can be a one stop shop for business continuity needs providing WAN, Indiana Server Hosting, and Internet Service Indiana. 

LightBound is Indiana's leading Data Recovery and Disaster Recovery businesses. We can offer off site data backup services over your current Internet service connection. Most business continuity plans today must have a disaster recovery plan. For daily backup needs LightBound can use tape backups or full server backups using Arkeia.

I've had a few companies asking about video conferencing to help with communications in event of the H1N1 virus.  They told me that limiting interaction among branches can help with spread of the virus.   This is one strategy that can help in event of a major business disruption that effects the work population.  In order to accommodate this a solid WAN must be in place to support the video conferencing.  This can go a step further by also using VoIP PBX Solutions that can work anywhere your employees are.  This can help if they are working at home or remote locations due to sickness or weather related issues.   There are even desktop and PC based video conferencing for key managers and executives.  The key to supporting this is to make sure that each person in the company has High Speed Internet in Indiana at their homes along with a strong VPN solution to be able to conduct business communications even when the workers are not at home.  Having a plan in place where employees can get work done using IP communications is essential for business continuity as we approach the season for rougher weather and illness.

 Colocation  is where  servers are stored in a data center.  The major difference is that instead of being leased, the servers are actually owned by the customers.  Whereas a dedicated or managed host generally maintains the server, a colocation provider gives you access to the facility and allows you to manage your own hardware.  The similarities include network connectivity, backup power sources and physical security.  The greatest advantage of colocation is that it allows businesses to get the best of their servers who otherwise could not do so on their own.  LightBound has one of  Indiana's premier Data Centers and can also offer Data Disaster Recovery plans and Business Continuity advise..

Advantages:

Cost Saving

Higher Availability

Enhanced Security

Fonality Trixbox IP-PBX software solution allowing employees to manage their company's communication straight from their desktop with an Internet connection.

*With a unified presence on the HUD (Heads Up Display) you can be available without being in the office.  Working from a remote location has not been easier.

*The color coded HUD status screen allows you to see if another employee is on a call, conference call or available.  If an employee is on a call you can communicate effortlessly with the chat on the HUD for an immediate response.

*With a mouse you can simply drag and drop to transfer a call from HUD interface, making communication seamless.

*Outlook and Trixbox contacts can be synched together to help you manage your time with calling clients.

*Trixbox can also be integrated with Salesforce CRM or Sugar CRM.

Getting High Speed Internet Access with the VoIP PBX Solutions from Fonality can increase productivity and provide Business Continuity.

Lightbound will be having a customer appreciation event on June 17, 11:30 at our Lightbound data center on 731 West Henry Street.   Fonality, one of the leading SMB VoIP PBX Solutions provider will be at the event presenting.  Lightbound is one of the few VoIP Service Providers in the area that can directly supply SIP to Fonality's trixbox server.   We will also be providing tours of our data center at this event.   Lightbound's data center is a great solution for business continuity and server collocation that can be used with the Fonality solution.  

If you're business relies on having high availability Internet service make sure that your Internet DSL Internet or High Speed Internet in Indiana provider has upstream redundant connections.   Ask your Internet providers what business continuity and data disaster recovery plans they have to keep service running in event of upstream service interruption.  There are many Internet providers that only have a single upstream connection to the Internet.  There was a major outage in the area last week due to a fiber cut in a key communication line to an upstream Internet Provider in Chicago.  This left many customers without Internet Service.   Lightbound, which provides High Speed Internet in Indiana, has two 2.5 GB upstream connections, one to Herndon, Virginia and the other to Chicago.   Even though the Chicago connection was cut there still was a full 2.5 GB connection to Virginia that provided Lightbound customers uninterrupted Internet Access Indiana. This is very important if you are using managed servers hosting or server collocation in a facility that needs always available High Speed Internet in Indiana.                                                                                                                          

For Data Recovery Indiana consider setting up a Managed Servers Hosting at Lightbound's data center.  Many Small Business Server Hosting customers who are looking for business continuity are now setting up their backup or even their primary servers at the data center.   Lightbound provides 24 x 7 x 365 managed support with a high availability data center with power, HVAC, and security round the clock. Customer's can consolidate their data and use our Off site Data Backup Service along with Server collocation to protect their servers.  If they have a VOIP PBX solution they can move all their voice services to the data center as we are one of the few SIP Indiana VOIP providers.   Additionally centralizing WAN communications at the data center can completely provide a robust solution to keep a business up an running through most any type of weather related incident.  Look to Lightbound data center for the optimum in business continuity.

Companies that are looking for ways to cut costs in this economy should look at consolidating voice and data WAN circuits in a data center.   The data center can now become the central hub for distributing services for Internet, Voice, and Data connectivity.  Many data centers have a large number of carriers to choose from.   Instead of using a single carrier the data center staff can help  find the best value and cost for services by using multiple carriers.   Instead of paying large fees to deliver the last mile of the circuit the customer essentially has the cost of cross connects at a fraction of the cost.   In addition to costs savings business continuity can greatly improve because a data center generally has better redundancy for power, cooling, and security.  Data disaster recovery can be enhanced by having servers at the data center that backups can be restored on or even mirrored production servers.   Data centers typically have staff available 24 x 7 x 365 that can take care of issues when normal operations support staff are not available.  In most cases problems are taken care of before a customer knows there is a problem!  Small businesses can get the same type of support as large enterprises by using managed server hosting along with WAN consolidation. With cost saving and improved reliability it make sense to consider this option. 

The recent winter weather resulted in thousands of people being without power and probably effected hundred of businesses.   As a result there was a great deal of lost revenue from closed businesses and lost productivity due to workers not being able to get to work.   In order to minimize the lost revenue and productivity a business should have a business continuity plan to address situations.  A few key strategies to keep the business running is to host critical IT and Voice systems at a data center with server collocation.  When power goes down at the main office the critical systems are up and running.  Remote workers can get  to  the systems with Indiana DSL Internet and a VPN connection.  VoIP PBX solutions housed at the data center could take incoming calls and route to cell or home phones of home workers.   If workers are in areas that don't have power or phone service at the very least messages are going to voice mail.   I was able to work from a home office yesterday and was fully productive as I could get phone calls from customer and access all business IT systems remote to conduct my daily business.   My productivity may have been down after 2 hours of snow shoveling, but I was at least able to do all the normal activities I do at the office.

I ran across an interesting article about Indiana Health IT driving Economic Stimulus.   See :

http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/0-0&fd=R&url=http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl%3FACCT%3D104%26STORY%3D/www/story/01-28-2009/0004961987%26EDATE%3D&cid=1298199546&ei=G4eASbD6GIbElQT254H-AQ&usg=AFQjCNG2ZTF8PbhV92mvleOLxFemAiBcTg


It's pretty interesting that Central Indiana is considered a leader in Health IT.   I think much of this has to do with the Internet Service Indiana providers that facilitate high speed broadband connectivity to many of the Health providers.   Typically in the past T1 circuits were typically used, but now 10, 100, and Gigabit Ethernet circuits are becoming common to connect health care providers.  This is necessary to due the large amount of data that medical imaging requires and access that remotely connected physicians need to access it.   Many of the medical providers in Indiana WAN are being moved to data centers to provide business continuity to facilitate always on connectivity 24x7x365.   The cost of high speed broadband in central Indiana is helping to facilitate the exchange of information to improve health information exchange.