Data Foundry Blog - Managed Services

Data Foundry is now an official Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute Partner. ExpressRoute is a private, dedicated network connection between Microsoft Azure data centers and our customers’ IT environments. Azure ExpressRoute is one of the multiple paths to the cloud included in Data Foundry’s CloudTap service. CloudTap™ provides secure, end-to-end private connections to top cloud service providers such as AWS, CenturyLink, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure.

A massive DDoS attack on DNS provider Dyn last Friday resulted in limited or no access for many users on major websites and platforms such as Twitter, Pardot, Spotify, New York Times, Netflix, SoundCloud and other popular websites. (Learn more about DNS in our ICANN article.) The attack was conducted using a self-replicating botnet called Mirai to infect devices connected to the Internet. Tens of millions of IP addresses were associated with the attack. This is not the first time a DNS network has fallen under attack – NSI experienced a massive, combination DDoS attack back in May that involved simple volumetric attacks to complex DNS lookup attacks.

Many of our customers have come to us with questions about HIPAA-compliant cloud storage. There’s a lot of marketing rhetoric online about HIPAA-certified Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) and other types of certified providers for that matter. First of all, there is no such thing as an official HIPAA certification. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the organization that enforces HIPAA, does not provide HIPAA certifications, nor does it require them. This doesn’t mean that a CSP cannot be HIPAA-compliant, only that HHS does not guarantee their compliance. Also, no matter what type of certification a CSP claims to have, compliance is ultimately up to you, the “covered entity” or health services provider.

Companies often lack essential network documentation, and they don’t know where to begin with designing and optimizing their networks to align with business goals. That’s why our network engineers provided network assessments to colocation customers that expressed a need for it. Because of the improvements our network engineering team made for these first customers, the team saw the value in the contribution they could make to our customers’ IT strategies and achievement of business goals overall. As a result, we have launched network assessment as one of our official services. This is a service we offer to colocation customers and non-customers alike. Our network assessment service and network documentation provide a real transfer of knowledge through a consultative approach.

According to IDG Research, costs associated with ransomware totaled $209 million in the first quarter of this year alone. One factor contributing to the rapid increase in ransomware and DDoS threats for ransom (also known as ransom DoS or RDos) is that people and companies are paying these ransoms, allowing cyber criminals to establish a steady stream of income. What would your company do if faced with a DDoS or ransomware threat? Here are four good reasons paying up shouldn’t be an option.

An article posted on Data Center Knowledge back in May states, “It’s clear that the cloud should be part of your IT strategy, even if your team has yet to determine how to leverage it.” Data Foundry recognizes the advantages cloud services offer, and as a result, we have added Cloud Services to our managed services offering.

Data centers that provide colocation, also known as multi-tenant data centers or MTDCs, have evolved to offer much more than just space for rent and installation assistance. As an Internet Service Provider and an operator-owned company, customer service has always been at the forefront of Data Foundry’s offering. We have always provided a consultative approach to guide our customers toward an infrastructure setup that is in their best interest. As organizations large and small shift to the cloud for storage and the use of applications, there is a greater need for interconnectivity, network management and security services on behalf of the data center. We have evolved to offer services in all of these areas, and we consider ourselves our customers’ IT partner.

Unstructured data is growing exponentially year after year with the advanced capabilities of modern devices. These devices generate mass quantities of emails, images and audio and video files. Growing pools of unstructured data become difficult to organize, manage and search. This is where object storage comes in. Object storage is ideal for organizing, managing and searching through high volumes (200 TB+) of diverse and unstructured data. Object storage platforms also give companies the ability to start making sense of the big data they have at hand and extract insights that aid in the development of business goals.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have continued to escalate year after year, and this year was no exception. Attacks have increased 125% since 2015. Source and target countries have shifted. Ransom as a motive has increased and attackers are getting smarter. See our DDoS infographic to gain an understanding of how DDoS attacks have grown and evolved from 2015 to 2016. Our infographic is based on a compilation of DDoS and network security reports from Radware, Akamai and Neustar.

Due to the superior work our infrastructure experts have done with structured cabling for our customers’ deployments, we’ve been asked to complete several cabling projects outside our data centers. The clean-cut and highly detailed work of our cabling team has lead us to launch an official Data Foundry Structured Cabling service as part of our infrastructure services.