I wanted to make sure that everyone knew about the resources mentioned in Wednesday’s webinar, What to Look for in a Data Center.

You can download the slides, request the Buyer’s Guide to Colocation or contact us for the Colocation checklist at sales@visi.com or 612.395.9090.

Thanks to everyone that attended.

In a follow-up to publishing the Colocation Buyer’s Guide, Ray Hagen, product manager at VISI, is presenting a webinar tomorrow on “What to Look for in a Data Center.”  How do you decide whether to host your IT infrastructure yourself or use a colocation provider?  We will review the key features of a data center: power, cooling, security, facility, staffing and provide a cost comparison between using a data center provider or hosting yourself.

The webinar is tomorrow at noon. Reserve your seat here.

VISI is currently going through our annual SAS 70 Type II review.  This review involves time from both internal and external resources (accountants and lawyers), but is necessary for maintaining our certification. I’m often asked, “If I’m a customer of data center services, why should I care?”

Let me share a real life example.  Recently we had a company approach us in a panic.  Their largest customer was completing a routine audit of their suppliers.  During this audit they required all of their suppliers to provide proof of SAS 70 Type II.   This company was required to prove SAS 70 compliance within 30 days or be terminated as a supplier.  VISI assisted this customer in moving their servers to our data center and they retained their largest customer.

We are observing more companies in the marketplace that have requirements for this certification.  The general consensus is that we are moving into a more regulated business environment.  Most publicly held firms, financial institutions, government agencies, and health care corporations require SAS 70 Type II certification.  It’s not a “nice to have”, it’s a “must have.”

When I hear that customers don’t need SAS 70, I deliberately find out if they ever plan to do business with the segments of the marketplace that require it.  Most of these organizations assume that you have these certifications in place and eventually will audit all of their suppliers.   Caveat emptor!

Perhaps you’ve purchased colocation services before or this is your first time in the market for data center services. Regardless of where you find yourself on the spectrum, the challenges faced (and choices available) today are different than you faced a few years ago and will no doubt be different from what you will face in the future.

VISI released the Buyers Guide to Colocation to help in making sense of your requirements and to shed light on how data center features can directly benefit your organization.  We hope you find the Buyers Guide of value in your research and our sales team is available to answer any questions you may have throughout the process.

Each year about this time, I reflect back on the prior year on what went right and how we can improve.

As I reflect on last year at VISI, I’m very proud of the accomplishments our organization made.  We introduced a Server Replication product that customers had been asking for.  Our customers now have an affordable way to protect their organization in the event of a disaster.  Our solution eliminates hardware investment and compatibility issues by virtualizing your environment.  In prior years this type of redundancy would only be available for the largest of organizations.

We also introduced new virtualized server offerings.  It seems every few years a new technology takes the marketplace by storm and last year was arguably the year of VMware.  The growth of virtualization has been nothing less than phenomenal.  As a provider of technology, we at VISI have incorporated virtualization technology into our offerings as a way for companies looking to leverage their IT investments.

The virtualization trend has required us to continue to expand our power infrastructure at our data centers.  We added a 2.25 megawatt generator last year to support future growth and add another layer of redundancy.  This new generator is located in the basement of our facility.  In Minnesota, winters can be brutal.  It’s reassuring to know that if we need to start our generator it is not outside in -50 degrees.

We are constantly striving to make our organization better.  One thing we heard loud and clear from many of our customers is the desire for clean processes, automation and self-serving. Internally we have been spending a lot of time and effort making process improvements across the board from engineering and hosting to product development and sales.  We know you have a choice when selecting a data center and our goal is to make it as easy as possible to work with us.

As with all great goals, we know our work is never done.  Thank you for your business and we look forward to serving you in ’09.