Whether you are a company or a sole trader, the laws regarding security and privacy affect you. In addition, at a company level there is also a responsibility to make decisions that at the least, do not adversely affect your company.
Security and privacy can be simple or complex. Each business has different requirements.
From a hosting point of view though, there is an internationally recognised starting point; ISO 7799 (in Australia, AS/NZS 7799).
From a due diligence business perspective, there is an additional factor to consider, and that is the ability of a hosting provider to deliver what is expected or promised as a total system, which includes much more than just a data centre presence.
In the next few paragraphs we will discuss Data Centres and Network Connectivity, two quite different issues that are often confusingly linked.
Data Centre
A data centre's purpose is to keep computers secure, powered up and cooled down. It also provides a point where connections can be made to the Internet.
There are huge differences in data centres across Australia, and even greater differences in the types of internet connectivity that providers use within them.
ICO's main Data Centre is a 7000 square metre high-security facility. We do 90% of our hosting there, but we also use a similar Melbourne facility so that we can provide our clients with unique solutions. These typically include geographic redundancy and specialised communications services. You can learn more about our main Data Centre by using the link in the top right corner of this page.
Our main Sydney suburban Data Centre has full N+1 failover systems that can meet mission-critical standards. It also meets and is certified to the demanding global 7799 security standard. But as good as that is, data centre security and failover systems are not the whole story when it comes to real world uptime.
As mentioned above, different hosting providers often use the same data centres, but connect to the internet from these centres in vastly different ways.
Network Diagrams
If you are betting your internet business on the reliability of your internet presence, then you should ask your potential hosting provider for a number of things. One of these should be a network diagram that shows how the hosting provider is connecting your server to the Internet, showing all devices between your server and the Internet backbone. You need to ask (at the least) about actual bandwidth available at all points, names of upstream providers and whether or not there is any redundancy in the system.
One part of ICO's network, for instance, uses redundant multiple Tier 1 Internet connections wired through two identical $3 Million Cisco 12000 series switches. In the event of the failure of a connection or switch, the other is designed to take over (without losing a connection) in 26 seconds. From these points, ICO provides completely unrestricted bandwidth. We have always met every peak load, including the e-commerce for the Athens Olympics.
Written SLAs
In addition to asking for a network diagram, ask your potential hosting provider for SLAs for every part of the system being offered; network connectivity, power, air-conditioning, server downtime, support; operating system and application, to name a few.
A few minutes spent checking these important issues at the beginning of a project could save months of problems later on. In today's climate, that checking is simply due diligence.
But please don’t believe what you read here, or elsewhere. Compare providers. See for yourself. We welcome your inspection of our Data Centre and will be happy to provide you with network diagrams and SLAs that show why we consistently provide the highest levels of reliability in the industry.
Please call us or write to us to arrange an inspection. 1 300 727 733 or service@ico.com.au