Chris Allen

Colocation – What Exactly is it?

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Colo-what?

So, we’ve chatted about Colocation before and it’s one of the core services we provide here at HA Hosting. But what exactly is Colocation?

 

A Quick Rundown

Colocation is a service where a provider will offer the facilities to hold your physical servers for you. They will provide power, internet, temperature management, and security, to make sure your server stays running as much as possible.

They will often have rack space available, to which your server(s) are installed. You are then given the appropriate information and means to access your server 24/7.

The biggest benefit is that you can have the benefits of having your servers but without the huge costs of setting up your server room. This is often ideal for IT companies who have a lot of servers but don’t want/have the room to store them all in-house.

Colocation services are usually paid for month by month.

 

What’s the Benefit of Colocation?

The biggest benefit is that you can have the benefits of having your servers without the upfront/ongoing costs. Setting up and managing a server room is expensive after all.

This is usually much better for businesses that don’t need to necessarily have their services immediately on-hand.

Another benefit is that the facilities/process are specifically put in place to ensure constant uptime/access. On top of this, the conditions of the server and server room are monitored by experts. So, if anything goes wrong you can be informed straight away as well as fix the issue as soon as possible.

Any decent Data Centre will have the appropriate security measures in place to make sure your servers stay safe. We can’t speak for others, but our Colocation is protected by:

  • 24/7 CCTV
  • Controlled-access areas (restricted by designated key fobs)
  • Number-locked colocation racks.

To go with this, we follow the ISO27001 framework to help ensure data security. The security of your data shouldn’t be something you should have to worry about!

Another benefit that people forget about is that it means your servers are kept off-site from you. This means in the case of any fires/floods/theft, that your data/servers are kept safe. Meaning your services can stay up and consistent no matter what.

 

Isn’t Colocation Expensive?

You make think initially yes. However, when compared to the costs of keeping and managing your server facilities the cost is significantly less. It’s no secret that constant server maintenance can be expensive. The hardware alone can cost a small fortune. Also, if your business means you need those server facilities for it to operate, then it’s usually worth the investment.

 

Want to Know More?

This blog post has just gone over some of the basics of Colocation. If you would like to know more about Colocation you can take a look at our Colocation page on our website, which will tell you a lot more about it. From tech specs to overall usage.

Also, if you have a specific question about Colocation or want to know if it would be right for you, you can get in touch with us here. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can, hopefully giving you the information, you need.

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Ready to put a physical server in a UK data centre? Take a look at HA Hosting’s server hosting colocation in our Sheffield UK data centre.

5 Reasons You Don’t Need Backup

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5 Reasons you don't need backup thumnail

Backup. Lots of people talk about why backing up your data is the best way to stay protected from data loss. What a load of nonsense. Here is 5 reasons why you don’t really need backup.

 

1 – You Never Really Need a Backup

Why would you ever need to use a backup? If you happen to lose any data, then you can just create that data again. Why would you bother with spending money on something you could just do for free yourself? Remember: Time = Money, so why would you not spend all your time painstakingly recreating your data rather than spending actual money. We all know we shouldn’t be spending money on things when we don’t have to. Surely it can’t take that long and it would be crazy to assume you’d be busy already. Sure, backups can be useful and are great to have as a contingency, but why bother paying for it when you can just make it again.

 

2 – You Like the Risk

What’s life without a little bit of excitement and risk in it? Just knowing that there is an ever-looming threat of data loss when you least expect it is exciting and keeps your regular day-to-day data management much more exciting. Who knows when it might happen – it could be next week, it could 3 years from now. What we do know for sure is that the mystery around it gets our hearts racing and dealing with the aftereffects of data loss is all part of the fun right? Imagine not having to worry ever about your data, knowing it was secure no matter what. Sounds boring right?

dice

3 – Accidents? What Are Those?

You are perfect. We all know it. No matter what it is that you do, you’re going to nail it without a hitch. So, it only makes sense that this applies to looking after data too. You’re a shining example of data management. After all, why would you need to bother worrying about recovering your data when you’re never going to lose it. For data to be corrupted or deleted something must go wrong, and you don’t do wrong. Ever. Day after day you perform nothing but flawless execution. Spill a coffee on a machine? Impossible. Accidentally overwrite a file? Not going to happen. Download malware or a virus by mistake? Nope. Recovery means data loss, and you’d never lose data. It just can’t happen.

 

4 – You Always Work in One Place

You’ve heard that online backup software has extra utility by letting you access your data and download it from anywhere. But why would you ever need to do that? It’s inconceivable that you might have to work from somewhere else other than where you normally do. The same goes for having to access your data from a different device to normal. Imagine working and having access to your files from across multiple devices or locations – seems like an unnecessary faff because you’d never have to travel with work. And why would you ever want to access your files and data outside of office hours? It’s unheard of.

no travel

5 – It’ll Never Happen to Me

You’ve never experienced data loss before and you’re not planning on changing how you use or store data anytime soon, so why should you worry? If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it – am I right? It’s so unlikely to happen, there is no use worrying about it every day. And if you’ve not needed so far and nothing is changing, then why would you pay to protect yourself from something that might not happen?

 

Admittedly this blog post was pretty fun to write. And while taken to the more extreme ends of the scale, does give a bit more perspective on why some people think they don’t need backup. Hopefully you’ve realised that this blog post is a bit of fun! If you’d actually like to learn about the benefits of what backup can do for you, you can read our blogs or watch our short videos here. Not sure where to start? Here is a good place.

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Backup Issues – Common Concerns

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Backup Issues – They Exist?!

Thumbnail for Backup Issues blog post.

Backup issues do in fact exist. Shocker.

We won’t pretend that backup is the perfect solution. However, it is definitely much better than not having it. Here are some of the most common issues that can be found with backup. And more importantly, and what we do at HA Hosting to avoid them, to ensure a smooth backup experience.

Let’s get started!

Corrupted Backups

One of the main reasons that backups are super useful to have in place is they can be used to restore from if your local data is deleted to corrupted. But what if the backup file somehow gets corrupted? It’s not common but it CAN happen. However, before you go cancelling backups and ripping hard drives out of data centres it’s not as big as a problem as you may think.

Any Data Centre or Backup provider worth their salt will have contingencies in place. One way in which we do this is by offering Archived Versioning of your data. Simply put, this means we will save multiple copies of your data creating versions, usually as time progresses. So, if the data somehow corrupted on Day 10, we could grab the data from Day 9. Make Sense? We follow a fairly standard 30-day retention period, but this could be different depending on the provider. Make sure you check if this is something you’re using or want to use.

Human Error When Backing Up

As with anything, accidents or inexperience can lead to mistakes being made. You won’t believe how many people think they can do it themselves and end up deleting their data! This could be due to incorrect formatting/set up of the backup, or maybe overwriting the wrong thing.
We always recommend that your backup be set up and performed by someone who has plenty of experience with that particular software. The process can differ depending on the software and set up of hardware, so there is no ‘one glove fits all’ situation I’m afraid. Of course, we recommend learning how to use it if you’d like to know more about it, just maybe not with your important data ?

Alternatively, you can use a Managed Backup Service. Where providers such as us, will as the name suggest, manage the backup for you. This will include everything: set up, maintenance and even reports on how it’s functioning. We recommend a service like this for those would like backup but maybe don’t have the technical expertise. You can avoid a lot of unwanted stress and frustration this way!

Backup issues can be bad enough when they come from just the tech side. Why add more to that?

Delay from Disks Being Kept Offsite

If your backup is a physical backup and is being kept offsite, at somewhere like a data centre, then there will always be a delay. This is due to physical disks being found and transported. Obviously the further away you are, the more travel time there is.
Easy work-around for this one. Online Backup. Cloud Backup services are common nowadays and offer the security of backup but with added convenience due to being over the internet. You can simply log-in and access your data from anywhere. Pretty nifty aye. Naturally, the better your internet, the more you’ll benefit from this service.

What If a Bug is Replicated to my Backup via Remote Mirroring?

Bit more of a techier one. Firstly, remote mirroring is where changed to a file or data in one location is automatically copied and changed to copies saved in other locations. Applications such as Office365 or Google Drive are examples of this.
Similar to accidental deletion, Archived Versioning is the answer to this one. If multiple versions are saved, then it’s simple to roll back to a version without the bug and restore from that point. Remember that programs like Dropbox or Office365 aren’t backups, so make sure you’re saving copies of your data elsewhere too!

IT Staff Aren’t Available for Recovery/Restoration

Whether you have your own IT staff or not, if people who are experienced with your backup software aren’t available then you’re a bit stuck. Managed Backup services could be a solution for you to consider. Any good backup providers should offer 24/7 support in some shape or form so that you can get your data back should it all go wrong.

Interface/Process of Backup is Too Advanced for Me

If you can’t do it yourself then get someone else to do it for you! Services like Managed Backup exist to help people who can’t do it themselves/don’t have the time to. It can differ from provider to provider as to what they offer but the main benefit is it will reduce the amount of backup issues. At HA Hosting we will setup, manage and maintain your backup, to make sure it’s always working at it’s best for you. This includes daily reports letting you know it how it’s performing and if there are any issues. We also offer 24/7 support should you need it. Most other managed backup providers should offer something like this but be sure to check thoroughly.

 

Is Online Backup Reliable and Secure?

Online Backup can be used even with slow internet, as there are several options you can do to minimise clashing with regular internet use. These are things such as data compression, out of hours backups and bandwidth throttling. As long as you have an internet connection, online backup will work.

You can find out more about using backups with slow internet connections here.

And for those worrying about data security, online backup data can be encrypted before it’s transmitted, meaning it’s as safe as it would be if you were to encrypt your data on a hard drive.

Hopefully that covers all the main concerns you might have about having a Backup. If you would like to know more about backup, then we have a variety of blogs and guides here, ready to help! If there are any more concerns or questions you have, or perhaps you’d like to know more about any of the above you can get in touch with us here. We’d be happy to help in anyways we can!

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#8 Speed Vaults & Restore Times

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What is a Local Speed Vault?

Do you have a slow internet  connection? Does this affect how long it take to restore your data from an Online Backup? How would it work in an emergency or time-sensitive situation?
This can make it seem like an unreliable solution/method. A Local Speed Vault can help drastically improve this! A local speed vault is an additional physical copy of the backup data. It’s kept on an additional external storage device which can be used for faster restores.

Why Use a Speed Vault?

The benefit of having a Local Speed Vault is its dramatically faster restore times compared to restoring from over an internet connection. This is due to restoring from online is limited to your internet speeds and usage. It can impact your regular internet use as well, as the download would be bandwidth intensive.

But a speed vault is stored locally. The data transfer is much quicker and is only limited by the infrastructure you have in place e.g. USB or cabling speeds. This is particularly important in a time of crisis or time sensitivity, where you may have need of your data ASAP!
Another benefit of this is that a copy of your backup cans still be saved even if your internet is down. Meaning you have more protection in place for your data at all times.

How Does It Work?

Think if a large amount of client information was deleted or corrupted but luckily you have a backup. And then to make things worse you need the data as quick as possible to maintain standard business operations. A large delay waiting for a restore could mean a potentially large interruption of service. In this situation the Speed Vault would allow for the selected data to be restored much quicker.

A Speed Vault is setup so that it is connected to your network, so that as your data is backed up online, a copy is automatically saved to your external storage device too. This is one of the benefits if having online backup software as this means you don’t have to manually transfer data to the external device.

An additional storage device is needed for a Local Speed Vault to work, so there is an additional cost. This will be as expensive as the storage you buy, if you have higher data usage and demands then a larger memory device will be needed. Along with this, you are limited to the amount of physical memory on the device.

What If I Just Use…

“What if I just have an external storage device with my backups on, instead of using online backup software?”

This is a point that we hear a lot. The simple answer to this is that physical backup copies kept locally should only be used as contingencies. This is in case of a physical threat, such as fire, theft or even accidental damage, happening which could then damage and corrupt your physical storage.

It used to be the case that disks were sent off physically to another secure location. And in the case of a restore being needed, it would then be transported back. Of course, this came with the downsides of waiting on physical travel time. With the power of the internet, an Online Backup will now do the same thing but with much more convenience. Having a copy of your data offsite helps to ensure the security of it.

Want to Know More?…

If you would like to find out more about how backups work or which type would most benefit you, you can read more about them in our Blog posts. Or alternatively you can watch out short video guides here, to quickly get up to speed with all things backup!
If you have any questions that we haven’t covered yet, or perhaps you would like to discuss how backup would work for you, you can get in touch with us here. We’re happy to help and will get back to you as soon as we can!

#7 Can Virtualisation Save You Money?

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Can Virtualisation save you money?

Are you paying too much to back up your virtual servers?

Are the costs of backing up multiple servers stopping you from doing it, potentially leaving your data at risk?  

 Watch our short video guide below for a quick rundown on Virtualisation:

What is a Virtual Server? 

A virtual server is, as the name suggests, a server that is virtual rather than physical. Think of it like a digital server that has no physical components. These are kept on a physical server. They come with a benefit that multiple virtual servers can be kept on a singular physical server. And this means you can save on physical space and money – as a result of this, they cost less! Plus, these work almost the same as a regular server, except aren’t physical. Of course, you’re limited to the number of physical resources available. You can’t magically create hardware, unfortunately! 

Virtualisation became a thing because companies were trying to be more efficient with resources and making the most of their money. And it was common for servers to have spare resources for busy periods and maybe future growth. Makes sense, right? However, because of this, servers would only be using 10% of their resources. So to combat this, virtual servers were created, so that multiple servers could be kept on a singular physical hardware server. The result being that servers now often use 80% of physical resources which much more cost-effective and efficient. Think if you had the option to choose between creating 5 virtual servers or buying 5 physical servers which could be the best value for money? Remember not all the physical servers will likely not be fully utilised.

Physical servers are like driving an empty bus around, whereas virtualisation is more driving like a bus full of passengers. It utilises more of the potential. 

How Virtual Servers Work 

Virtual servers work by using Hypervisor, something that acts as a translator between the physical hardware and the virtual ‘hardware’. Each virtual server only needs to talk to the hypervisor (not the hundreds of types of hardware) which means that the Virtual Machines are portable between physical servers.  

A VM is saved as a couple of files. One as a configuration file and the other which is the whole server and its data. 

Virtualisation is common nowadays, being a cost-effective way to host multiple servers for less physical resources. There are two ways to back up a virtual server: 

The traditional way. This is where each Operating System has a backup software installed to it and then you have however many backups you need running individually.

You can instead have a single machine that runs at the hypervisor level which will back up the server images. An ‘image’ in this sense is essentially a singular file containing everything. Including a virtual server’s Operating System and all the data associated with it. In other words, it simplifies the process.

 

Pros & Cons

It’s saved in such a way so that all the data can be saved in one pass and is easy to manage. This is important if you were to have multiple virtual servers running on one machine. So it makes backup management easier. 

The advantages of backing up at a Hypervisor level are that it is much easier to maintain. This is because only one instance of the backup software is running. This means that you can pay for only one license, which can help you save a lot of money.  

The disadvantage to this method is that you can’t have application-specific backups as it saves it all as an image, as mentioned above. If you want to learn more about what an application backup is, you can read about it in our ‘Types of Backup’ blog post. 

 

Next Step

Now that you understand the basics of what a virtual server is and how it could potentially benefit your business, so now you can think about if it would best suit your situation. If you’re struggling to decide if this would be right for you, or maybe you’d just like some help or more information, then you can contact us here. We’re happy to help in any way we can, so you can make the best decision for protecting your data and get peace of mind that your data will be as safe as it can be. 

Also, if you’re interested in finding out any more about backup you can read or other blogs and watch our short video guides here, hopefully, they’ll be useful for you! 

 

Remember, backing up your data is easy to do. But it’s just as not to. 

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3 Months at HA Hosting?!

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Three Months at HA Hosting

Hi everyone, Chris here – I hope you’re well. So, it’s been 3 months already…That’s certainly flown by!

It’s hard to believe that it was 3 months ago that I was writing about how I had just started and what I was going to be up to here at HA Hosting. Since then I think it’ safe to say I’ve fit right in with the rest of the HA Team. It’s been a warm welcome and I’ve enjoyed (an am enjoying) working on all things digital marketing for us.

 

A Few Highlights

I’ve not got too much to say here really. So here are a few highlights in terms of projects/things we’ve implemented here at HA Hosting, that you may (or may not) have noticed us doing.

  • New website is up and running and being added to and improved constantly
  • A regular series of short video guides/blogs helping people to understand backup
  • Much more presence on social media, letting you know what we’re up to and hearing what you have to say
  • A lot of things behind the scenes which make my/other people’s life easier

 

What’s Up and Coming

So, what can you be expecting from me and in general from HA Hosting in the coming months? Here’s a little sneak peak at what we’ve got lined up:

  • A snazzy intro video – I’ve been given almost free reign on this one, so expect something overly cinematic and artsy (I was a film student after all)
  • Video Testimonials
  • A jazzy, dedicated page to all our video content on our website
  • More social media posts and content
  • More behind the scenes which should make your experience with us all around much better

That’s about all I’ve got to say for a quick little update like this. I’m looking forward to the coming months and projects we’ve got lined up, and hopefully so are you.

I’m sure you’ll be hearing from me again soon enough on here and in the meantime, you can catch me on HA Hosting’s social media channels. Chances are you’re probably speaking to me if it’s over social media.

Until next time,

 

Chris