Hosting, Colocation & Backup Insights

Why Data Centre Access Matters for UK Businesses

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When evaluating a data centre for server colocation or rack hosting, “access” gets less attention than power and network, but it matters more than you might think. Here is why being able to walk into your cabinet at 2am with confidence is part of the service you are paying for.

1. Hardware repair is faster on-site

Most issues with colocated hardware can be resolved over remote hands: a power cycle, a drive swap, a cable check. But some issues need you (or your engineer) physically present. BIOS-level work, complex hardware swaps, rebuilding a RAID controller. Being able to drive in and fix it directly is the difference between a one-hour outage and an overnight ticket.

2. Compliance auditors expect it

If your business sells to enterprise customers, regulated industries, or public sector, your customers’ auditors may insist on the right to physically inspect where their data lives. A data centre that you cannot access at all is one your customers cannot audit. ISO 27001 audits include physical security walkthroughs as standard.

3. Trust matters when things go wrong

Outages are when relationships are tested. The ability to drive 30 minutes to your data centre, walk in, see your hardware powered up, and talk face-to-face with the engineer who runs the network, is worth more than any SLA document. Every UK small business that has had a serious incident remembers the people who picked up the phone, not the people who pointed to the contract.

4. 24/7 access, not 9-to-5

Real production outages do not respect business hours. A data centre that closes at 5pm on Friday and reopens Monday morning is not somewhere your production workload should live. 24/7 access by prior arrangement, with a duty engineer reachable around the clock, is the entry standard.

5. Photo ID, escort, visitor log

Good access controls are not optional, they are the proof that physical security is real. Photo ID at reception, signed visitor log, escort to your cabinet, exit log. ISO 27001 audits explicitly check these. If you can walk in without ID, the building is not secure.

6. Pre-approved badge holders for your team

If you have multiple engineers who will visit, get them onto the approved badge holder list ahead of time. Pre-approved holders can escort their own colleagues, which speeds up multi-engineer maintenance windows. Removing leavers from this list is part of your own ISO 27001 obligations, not just the data centre’s.

7. The “if something happens” question

Ask the operator: if I have to be on site at 3am on a Sunday for a production failure, what happens? The answers should be: someone meets me at reception, I show ID and sign in, they escort me to my cabinet within 15 minutes, they stay on-site while I work, they sign me out when I leave. Anything less is not 24/7 access.

8. Distance from your office

Not strictly an access feature, but worth thinking about. A data centre 200 miles from your office is fine 99% of the time, but the 1% where you need to drive there is unpleasant. Most UK small businesses find that 60-90 minutes is the comfortable maximum for the “physical visit on a bad day” scenario.

What HA Hosting offers

Our Sheffield data centre has 24/7 access by prior arrangement, photo ID and visitor log at reception, escort policy, ISO 27001 certification, and our engineers on-site to walk you to your cabinet. Most UK customers find Sheffield reachable in 60 to 90 minutes from anywhere in the Midlands or North of England. We sell UK Server Colocation with this access policy as standard, no premium tier required.

Are You Using the Wrong Type of Virtual Server?

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Are you using the wrong type of Virtual Server?

There are two main types of Virtual Server that you can buy but many vendors aren’t clear which type they are selling. We believe you should know exactly what you’re looking into, so here’s a quick rundown of Virtual Servers.

The two main types are:

– Virtual Private Servers

– Container Based Servers

 

A Virtual Private Server (or VPS for short) is virtual server that has a completely separate operating system. Think of this as a “Private” installation of Windows or Linux.

A virtual server based on a Container is just a slice of an operating system, which means it’s ideal for running one task very efficiently and quickly.

It’s important to note that any one isn’t automatically better than the other. It massively depends on what exactly you are trying to do.

If you need a full operating system to run and install different pieces of software, with the best uptime then a VPS is probably the best option for you. However, if you are running a single website, on something like WordPress, and you want the very best performance then a container will give you the best results.

 

So, are you using the best type of Virtual Server for the job?

To help you figure this out we have created a check list which highlights the features/benefits of  VPS and Containers. Take a look at the bottom of this blog post!

Something to Keep in Mind:

Containers and Virtual Servers. Not everyone uses the same names in the same way.

A Container is a slice of a server operating system, as the OS is being shared you only get limited control. This is great for specific applications. If you need to make substantial changes then you may need to build a new VPS.

A Virtual Server is not shared. So you have full control over the operating system, in a similar way to having a hardware server.  

 

If you have any questions or want to find out more about Virtual Servers, then you can get in touch with us here.

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VPS vs Container guide

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!