Efficient IT Infrastructure: Priority or Pipe Dream?
Efficiency and sustainability have long been hot topics in the data center industry, though the action plans continue to vary as much as the results. Uptime Institute has a longstanding commitment to...
View ArticleData Center Discussion: Hybrid IT and the Changing of IT Infrastructure
Data center strategies have shifted because many businesses now require a connected ecosystem. Enterprise IT no longer lives in a single, on-premise data center but utilizes hybrid IT infrastructure...
View ArticleWho are the new managers of hybrid cloud?
The requirement for more agile, quicker to respond infrastructures is creating a rise in the hybrid cloud market. It’s clear that many workloads require a combination of public and private cloud to...
View ArticleMaking Data Centers More Energy Efficient
CenturyLink is proud to announce that we are now part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Challenge. By joining this leading-edge government initiative, we are committed to improving...
View ArticleTornado Season: Can Your Data Center Handle a Natural Disaster?
Spring is a beautiful time of year: flowers blooming, the baseball season starting and warmer weather slowly making way for barbeques and pool parties. However, it’s also the time of the year when...
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CenturyLink Takes Top Honor at 2016 Datacloud Awards
There may not have been multi-hour television coverage, but BroadGroup’s recent Datacloud Awards in Monaco brought together the who’s who of the international data centre and cloud industry. Attendees...
View ArticleTelecom Exchange NYC 2016: The Future of Fiber Optics
The United States is at the forefront of many emerging technologies and important scientific research. However, we’re still falling behind in other areas, one of which is the utilization of fiber...
View ArticleKeep Your Cool: Dispelling the Myths of Data Center Temperatures
Ever since the first automobile rolled off the assembly line, people have had a fascination with the auto industry. Beyond the look and feel of the car itself, much of this interest focuses on...
View ArticleNeatness Counts! Structured Cabling Keeps Your IT House in Order
Neatness counts: It’s one of the first things we learn as children. Whether drawing a picture or delivering a presentation, the power of keeping things orderly and in place has its benefits. And what...
View ArticleThe Evolution of EHRs: How One Health IT Company Dealt With All the Data
According to a report by MarketsandMarkets, the healthcare analytics market is expected to reach $18.7 Billion by 2020. Part of this growth can be attributed to healthcare mandates from the U.S....
View ArticleIntegrating IT Infrastructure to Meet Business Growth: Connecting the Dots...
As technology continues to evolve and businesses expand their operations into new markets, data requirements are rapidly growing, requiring more bandwidth and increased network speeds. In addition, the...
View ArticleDCD Webscale: Big Data Decisions
According to IBM, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created globally every day. That’s quintillion, as in one thousand raised to the power of six (1018) or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000. It’s also the...
View ArticleCenturyLink Data Centers: Innovation by Example
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” – Steve Jobs, IT entrepreneur and inventor Innovations in technology often affect the direction of the digital world. About 15 years ago,...
View ArticleCalculate Your Data Center Cost Savings
Growing is a part of life, whether it’s going through the inevitable aging process or expanding our measurements – both vertically and horizontally. Preparing for that growth isn’t always possible, but...
View ArticleThe IoT and Business IT: a New Environment
Every year brings new industry buzzwords, and 2016 is no different. I see terms like big data, actionable analytics, artificial intelligence and Internet of Things pop up in almost every newspaper...
View ArticleData Center Strategies: Predicting the Unpredictable in Scalability (#1 in...
Many things in life are unpredictable: the weather, the economy, the outcome of sporting events and more. In fact, as the wise character Remy in the Disney movie “Ratatouille” said, “The only thing...
View ArticlePredicting the Unpredictable: Consider the Cloud (#2 in Series)
As I mentioned in my most recent blog, anticipating and responding to the unpredictable is essential for businesses, especially when it comes to their IT needs. The three biggest areas I see as crucial...
View ArticleData Center World Fall 2016: The Changing Data Center Market
Approximately 25 years ago, the Internet had just gone commercial, and bulky bag cell phones and new video game consoles were all the rage. Things were different then, too, in the data center industry....
View ArticleDiagnosing and Treating Your Data Center
Sometimes, it’s easy to see when something is aging: a car starts to break down and needs expensive repairs, a washing machine stops washing or a computer is as slow as molasses. Our own bodies start...
View ArticlePredicting the Unpredictable: Using the Right Resources (#3 in Series)
Keeping a business running smoothly is tough enough without having to plan for IT needs and resources years into the future. Lacking an IT crystal ball, companies continue to invest in forecasting...
View ArticleGoing Global: Expanding IT
There are many popular brands here in the United States that are also well-known across the world: fast food restaurant chains, athletic apparel vendors, technology companies and many more. However,...
View ArticleGoing Global: Expanding IT (Part Two)
In my most recent blog, I discussed some challenges companies face when trying to expand their footprint on an international level. Whether spreading IT infrastructure among multiple, smaller data...
View ArticleEnsuring ROI and Maximizing Uptime: A Panel Discussion
The cost of an unplanned data center outage can be as much as $9,000 per minute, and outages cost enterprises an astounding $700 billion per year. IT professionals have their hands full with this...
View ArticleExecutive Roundtable: Growing Your Business, Not Your Data Center
Businesses that build their own data center may have complete control over their operating environment and the capability to leverage existing space, but those data centers often lack the necessary...
View ArticleThe Data Center Market: Converging on Canada
Canada continues to grow and expand as a strong market for colocation and data center services. In fact, data center space in some key Canadian markets – such as Toronto and Montreal, for instance –...
View ArticleThe Data Center Industry: Concentrating on Market Changes
Like many other industries, the data center industry has experienced numerous changes over its existence. Wholesale data center buyers previously included large enterprises and service providers, while...
View ArticleM&A: Combining IT Infrastructure Doesn’t Have to be Complicated
Although the United States economy represents approximately 20 percent of total global output, its real gross domestic product (GDP) grew only 1.2 percent in the second quarter of 2016 and 2.1 percent...
View ArticleM&A: Thinking Strategically About IT Infrastructure Moves
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) typically result in expanded capabilities and enhanced revenue opportunities for companies, but they also tend to create real challenges for the CIO and the overall...
View ArticleCH3 Data Center: Making it Big
You may have heard the phrase “whatever you’re thinking, think bigger.” In business, getting bigger usually is a positive thing, regardless of the industry. When it comes to colocation, bigger means...
View ArticleA Career in Colocation: My Story
When you ask young children what they want to be when they grow up, you often receive a lot of the same answers: firefighter, nurse, police officer, teacher, veterinarian, etc. Not many kids say their...
View ArticlePartners in Innovation
Silicon Valley leads the nation as a region conducive to supporting successful start-up and global technology companies. In fact, Silicon Valley tech companies’ total GDP (gross domestic product)...
View ArticleUnleash the Power at the Gartner Summit
December is always a busy month, and it’s no different here at CenturyLink. Though we enjoy occasional office holiday festivities and those extra calorie cookies and desserts like many others, we...
View ArticleDisaster Recovery Planning: Preparing for Winter Weather
The arrival of winter means many things: family gatherings, cozy fires and warm sweaters and scarves. It also means cold weather, fewer daylight hours, the flu season and travel hazards including...
View ArticleData Center Infrastructure Management: Sharing Best Practices & Lessons Learned
Data center infrastructure management (DCIM) is increasingly being utilized by companies to convert the promise of software-defined IT into value. In fact, the DCIM market is expected to grow to $2.81...
View ArticleGartner Data Center Conference 2016 – Unleashing the Power
You’ve most likely heard the phrase “What happens in Vegas stays in Las Vegas.” Though that may be the case in some instances, CenturyLink’s participation in the Gartner Data Center, Infrastructure...
View ArticleCenturyLink Data Centers: Building Carrier Density and Cloud Connectivity
The best technology likely won’t work correctly if it’s not operated correctly. You can buy the most expensive computer available, but it won’t of much use to you if you don’t know how to utilize it....
View ArticleNetwork Diversity: Expanded Options
Having a lot of options is usually a good thing, especially when investing a lot of money through a purchase. For example, many people buy cars, but some buy them to fit a family with small children...
View ArticleTalking Trends: The Data Center Industry in 2017
January is often a time to look toward a new year and perhaps find ways to improve from the one prior. It’s also a time for people to forecast what might happen in the near year, whether it’s a new...
View ArticleData Center Connectivity: Continual Improvement
Companies that utilize colocation need to have access to strong network connectivity, especially with the rapidly increasingly amounts of data prompted by “big data” and the Internet of Things (IoT)....
View ArticleActive-active vs. Active-passive: Which Data Center Architecture has the...
Companies in multiple industries continue to utilize colocation for their mission-critical IT infrastructure and data due to the scalability, reliability, resiliency and security it provides. It...
View ArticleActive-active vs. Active-passive: Which Data Center Architecture has the...
As I noted in part one of this blog, active-active and active-passive data center architectures are often used in businesses’ disaster recovery and business continuity plans. Without such plans in...
View ArticleOperational Excellence: The Key to Safeguarding Your IT Infrastructure
Technology can streamline mundane tasks, enable people to more easily keep in contact with family and friends around the world and allow TV shows and movies to be viewed almost anytime and anywhere....
View ArticleOperational Excellence: By the Book
This article was previously published in Forbes Voice. Many large technology products come with a handbook when purchased. For example, if you buy a new large-screen television, the box in which it...
View ArticleDiscussing the Data Center of the Future
Many children grow up with toys you’d expect: bicycles, stuffed animals, dolls, building blocks, etc. It wouldn’t be surprising to find a Magic-8 Ball in their arsenal that gives them ambiguous answers...
View ArticleBest Practices: Data Center Cooling
The brilliant Albert Einstein once said, “If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.” That phrase can be applied to many things, including business. The most...
View ArticleVMware Cloud: A Partner in Network Diversity
Partnerships play a vital role in the success of many companies. For example, a movie production company can’t show its films to many people without partnering with movie theaters across the country...
View ArticleBusiness Continuity Planning: The Distributed Data Center Approach
The terms “disaster recovery” and “business continuity” often are used interchangeably when applied to the data center industry. Though both terms describe areas that need to be addressed by businesses...
View ArticleData Center World Global – Unleashing the Power of Colocation
The greatest ideas – the most impactful innovations – come from recognizing an opportunity and then trying new approaches. As I look forward to the Data Center World Global meeting to be held in Los...
View ArticleBusiness Continuity Planning: The Distributed Data Center Approach (Part Two)
As I discussed in my most recent blog, some companies utilize a distributed data center approach to achieve redundancy, scalability and high availability as part of their plan for business continuity....
View ArticleInnovations in Data Center Connectivity
Many businesses must avail themselves of the latest technology to remain competitive in their industry. For instance, many car manufacturers now include backup cameras, Bluetooth and GPS capabilities...
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