CityNAP Colocation Facility

CityNAP (www.citynap.com) is a carrier neutral colocation facility located in San Antonio, Texas.  For those not familiar with colocation I will give a brief overview.  Typical colocation centers provide ping, power and pipe.  What this means is that colocation facilities provide racks or floor space to house servers (to which customers can ping or access remotely), electrical power (often filtered, providing battery and generator backup) along with a pipe of internet or other data solution so that the data can be accessed remotely.  This provides major advantages in terms of cost savings, higher availability and disaster recovery solutions that can be implemented quickly versus a company trying to build these capabilities internally.  Based on market data it no longer makes sense for most companies to try and build this themselves as it is much more cost effective in the long run to work with a colocation provider.

While we accept connectivity from all providers, we have many carriers on-net in the facility such as:  AT&T, Alpheus, TW telecom, Time Warner Cable, Qwest and others  which means we are sitting on the fiber backbones of many major networks.  We also have commitments from several other carriers to build in during 2011 and 2012.  These fiber options result in a robust and diverse bandwidth solution that can be implemented based on customer needs.  Along with basic colocation services, our data center provides a number of enhanced offerings such as backup, storage, compliance consulting, virtualization, monitoring, managed services, security, gap analysis, disaster recovery planning and business continuity.  Our staff is highly skilled as we have a number of vendor certifications from Adtran, Cisco, Extreme, Microsoft, VMWARE and Red Hat along with industry certifications such as CISSP, CEH, CFI, GIAC and more.

Besides offering both basic and advanced solutions to our customers, we strive to be a responsible corporate citizen.  For instance, our facility utilizes wind energy to help offset our carbon footprint.  We also support demand generation.  For those not familiar with the practice, we utilize our gen set to produce electricity in coordination with the electricity provider in our area.  This is a win-win situation for all parties as this gives CityNAP ample opportunity to fully exercise and test our backup power generation while providing assistance to the utility by offloading power requirements from the grid when demand is greatest.

The excellence of our facility and expertise of our staff is matched only by that of our customer service. Many businesses in search of colocation services choose CityNAP because of the caliber of our customer service.  Our customers have remarked that the support they receive from our team is simply “phenomenal.”  So whether your business is looking for a single cabinet or needs advanced design from experts you can trust, CityNAP has a suite of custom solutions for you.

About the Author – Don Douglas has literally grown up in the technology field as he joined its ranks as a programmer at an early age and took on his first professional engagement writing custom software while in high school.  He has worked in a wide variety of industries applying technology solutions to improve performance, reduce expenses, enforce compliance, increase speed to market and provide a competitive advantage.  Mr. Douglas currently oversees a number of technology companies including CityNAP, that not only solve business problems but often provide clients with a true competitive advantage.

Why should you start your home based business today

As the new world of downsizing continues to make news and the Internet makes telecommuting even more productive, more and more entrepreneurs are discovering the benefits of running businesses out of their homes. If you are looking to get out of the rat race, to spend more time with family and friends, and to live a more sound life, a home-based business may be the right decision for you. According to the U.S. Federal Highway Administration the average American spends 348 hours each year commuting. So you can imagine, with a home-based business, you have those extra hours to have power over your personal life. Plus, there are no bosses, no dress code, no set work schedule, and no office politics to maneuver. All you need is, discipline, personal drive, and time-management skills. Just think you don’t have to wait for a raise or a promotion. The harder you work the more money you get to make. Also, you save so much money on the little things like food and gas. You will find yourself eating what you want and not what you just have time for. That usually means a happier and healthier life for you.

Along with having more time, there are also many tax advantages of having your home and business under the same roof.  These advantages include; a percentage of your mortgage, property taxes, insurance, utilities, and/or the expenses of household maintenance. Now that sounds exciting. Another thing to think about is if you have kids, you can set your own hours to tend to them if they are sick or have a school function that you don’t want to miss. Life is too short to miss out on.

“An empowered organization is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organizational success.” –Stephen Covey