Powering the Digital Economy: The Data Center Reimagined

How can data center operators insulate themselves from the increasing risks posed by aging centralized power grids prone to outages and vulnerable to natural disasters? 

Data centers are the critical link between the digital and physical world. They power almost every aspect of our economy today, consuming close to 3% of global electricity in the process. Increasing demands on data center infrastructure are being propelled by the shifts to the cloud, machine to machine communication, mobile technologies, VR/AR, AI, 5G and IoT. 

As the world continues to innovate, data center builders and operators grapple with the question of how to navigate a myriad of facility design complexities – balancing 24 x 7 x 365 operations with growing power demands, elevated risks, and the urgent need to reduce the sector’s carbon emissions. 

Elevated risks to critical power infrastructure 

Covid-19 has highlighted our economy’s digital dependence, elevating risks and exposing harsh new realities. 

An aging centralized power grid that is prone to outages and natural disasters, coupled with a dangerous cyber-threat landscape has left society heavily reliant on an electric delivery system that has simply not kept pace with the evolution of its surrounding environment. 

>>> Read the Full Article at Data Center Dynamics… >>>

Webinar: The Data Center Reimagined – Lower Cost to Build and Operate Your Facility

 

It’s vital for companies to invest in data center operations that are simple in design, easy to operate, and minimize infrastructure needed to achieve data resiliency. By doing so, companies can realize energy efficiency and resiliency by building and operating mission-critical data centers that cost less, can be deployed faster, are easily scalable, and perform better.

In this webinar, Peter Sacco of PTS Data Center Solutions offers groundbreaking views for data center operators pursuing solutions to key operating challenges. Leveraging advanced technology like fuel cells, microgrids, and indirect evaporative cooling, PTS offers revolutionary solutions to cost and resiliency challenges.

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Key takeaways from the event to include:

• • Balanced approach to cost, performance, speed of deployment and ease of management
  • Complexity reduction in both data center facility and IT systems
  • Step change reductions in CAPEX and OPEX without sacrificing resiliency
  • A data-centric workload strategy focused on latency, cost, security, application performance, platform reliability, and regulation

Date: Wednesday, February, 10, 2021
Time: 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM Eastern Standard Time

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Contactless Body Temperature Scanning for Safer Reopening

Reopen with Confidence

As the world enters the next phase of the pandemic, businesses are forced to make changes to accommodate not only a changing workforce, but also a changing workplace.  Brick and mortar businesses need to reopen a safe environment in order to protect their employees, clients, and visitors.

Zero-Contact Body Temperature Scanning 

Near the building entrances, employees and visitors will now pause to have their body temperatures checked. The scanner resembles a small tablet on a stand, and produces an accurate temperature reading in seconds. A voice confirmation assures “Your body temperature is normal,” and entry is allowed. All visitors should be scanned every time they enter the building. 

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Increase the safety of employees and visitors

• Complies with U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) COVID-19 Policy
• Non-Contact Touchless Scanning
• +/-0.5°F Accuracy for use in the fight against COVID-19
• 0.1 of a second scans keeps lines from forming
• Suitable for adjunct use in public areas, entrances, doorways
• Easy to install
• Easy to use
• Integrates with management system to manage alerts

Non-Contact Body Temperature Scanner 

The new normal is anything but normal. The modern workplace will require both employees and visitors to be screened for any indication of high temperatures. 

Technology designed to keep everyone safe.

Bloom Energy Webinar: Microgrid Strategies for Hospitals and Healthcare Organizations

Strategies to Continue Operating During Power Disruptions and Improve Air Quality

Title: Microgrid Strategies for Hospitals and Healthcare Organizations Webinar 

Date: Thursday, August 20, 2020 

Time: 1:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time (10:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time)

Duration: 1 hour 

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The nature of today’s hospitals — 24-hour services provided by teams of specialized professionals, supported by an expanding use of technology — creates an extraordinary demand for energy. Now, as the health care field is tackling the most challenging pandemic of our lifetime, resiliency in healthcare energy systems is getting even more critical. Hurricanes, storms and wildfires are unavoidable, but when coupled with viral threats such as COVID-19, reliance on the central grid alone is no longer an option. 

This webinar will consider a strategic focus on how health care systems can prepare themselves for resiliency under pandemic situations. Our speakers will address energy procurement strategies, onsite energy generation technology, , how to reduce energy costs, mitigate revenue loss from canceled procedures, and doing all this while deploying clean energy solutions that improve air quality by eliminating smog-forming pollution and particulate matter. 

What You Will Learn:

• How to reduce energy costs and mitigate revenue loss from canceled procedures.
• How to create energy security during pandemics, natural disasters and planned and unplanned outages.
• How to implement sustainable energy sources, without emitting NOx, Sox and particulate matter and improving local air quality for sensitive patient populations.

Speakers:

• Nirupama Prakash Kumar, Bloom Energy, Senior Product Manager – Healthcare Microgrids
• Ryan De La Cruz, Ecom Energy Inc,  Director of Business Development

We invite you to join this discussion and Register Now!

What is DRaaS, and How is it Different from Backup?

Backing up critical data is clearly a major component of any comprehensive Disaster Recovery (DR) plan, but is that all that is needed to ensure your business is safe from catastrophe? What is the difference between DR and Backup? Is DR the same as DRaaS (Disaster Recovery as a Service)? Some definitions of these terms will help create a better understanding of the best way to preserve business continuity, in case disaster strikes. Of course there is no "one size fits all" solution to address the areas of backup, DR, and business continuity, but these definitions will help direct you towards the most suitable DR plan for your enterprise.

What is Disaster Recovery/DRaaS?

• Disaster Recovery (DR) is the replication of hosting of servers (physical or virtual) from a primary "production" location (typically, your onsite data center) to a secondary "DR" location (a co-located data center, or to the cloud). This replication provides fail-over in the event of catastrophe, as well as fail-back (recovery) when the production data center becomes available.
• Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) is DR that uses a service provider's cloud-based secondary data center location and compute/storage infrastructure. This is especially critical if your enterprise does not have a secondary data center location.
• DRaaS On-Demand is DRaaS that uses a service provider's cloud-based secondary location, but you only pay for server fail-over/recovery when it's needed. However, you will still have to pay for the ongoing backup data costs.

What is Backup?

• Backup can refer to data backup, or in a DR context, virtual server environment backup.  Data backup is simply an extra copy of data. Virtual Server Backup is a snapshot of your virtual machine(s), taken regularly (typically daily), stored in a separate location. This backup serves the short-term purpose of restoring the virtual environment.
• Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) is backup to a service provider's cloud-based secondary data center.

What About RPO and RTO?

Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) are two fundamental components of a disaster recovery plan. Each addresses business decisions that must be made as part of a disaster recovery plan:

• Recovery Point Objective (RPO) determines how frequently data backups are created to addresses the acceptable level of data loss a business is willing to handle between backups. Businesses need to consider how much data they are prepared to lose if disaster strikes.
• Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is the time it takes for a business to resume regular activities following a catastrophic event. The business consideration here is: how much post-disaster downtime is acceptable before recovery is completed?

The Difference between Disaster Recovery and Backup

Disaster recovery covers the plan to be used to quickly reestablish business operations following an outage. This includes access to applications, data, and IT resources. Paramount to this recovery process is how fast and how non-disruptively you can recover. Keep in mind that data recovery alone, although part of the recovery process, are NOT sufficient to guarantee business continuity. Understanding that backup does NOT equal DR is a major move toward mastering the data protection challenges every enterprise will face.

On-Demand Webinar: 10 Minutes to DRaaS with PTS and Datrium

With the rampant rise in ransomware attacks, the ability to recover quickly and without paying the attackers has never been more critical. But traditional DR has been expensive, complex and unreliable. In this webcast, you'll learn about:

• The most important capabilities in a DR solution according to IT leaders
• How to get started with cloud-native DR in 10 minutes
• How to get 10x savings on DR with an on-demand model using the public cloud

Join Datrium and PTS Data Center Solutions for a virtual event and learn how to recover instantly after a ransomware attack. After you attend the webinar, we will email you a complimentary $25 Uber Eats gift card you can use to support your local restaurants or we can make a donation in your name to Feeding America.

Date: May 13, 202
Time: 12:30pm - 1:30pm ET
Speakers:
Peter Sacco, Founder & President, PTS Data Center Solutions
Datrium Keith Mossberg, Sales Engineer, Datrium

Register to View the
On-Demand Recording!

Bloom Energy Webinar: Stepping up in a Crisis: Rapidly Deployed, Clean Microgrids for Healthcare Facilities

Overview

Title: Stepping up in a Crisis – Rapidly Deployed, Clean Microgrids for Healthcare Facilities 
Date: Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Time: 2:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time (11:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time)
Duration: 1 hour

 

As companies step up across the globe to combat the crippling effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bloom Energy is fighting the war on two fronts by helping COVID-19 patients breathe easier in very different ways. 

As the U.S. faces a critical shortage of ventilators, a critical medical device used to treat respiratory failure in COVID-19  patients, we are exercising our manufacturing expertise and capabilities to refurbish thousands of out-of-service ventilators across the U.S working with state agencies and healthcare customers.

Due to the success of the ventilator refurbishing efforts and to further our support of essential businesses on the front lines of this pandemic, we have launched a new, rapid deploy microgrid solution to power existing and temporary hospitals, as well as biotech facilities with resilient and pollution-free power. Recent medical studies show a sharply higher mortality rate among coronavirus patients in areas with even slightly increased levels of air pollution. Respiratory disease requires clean air systems, and traditional backups like diesel generators create pollution and air quality issues that are harmful to coronavirus patients. This solution is initially targeted at healthcare facilities but can also be utilized for any facility in need of a rapid power resiliency solution.

Please join us in this discussion when we will showcase this new solution and detail its application at two first-of-its kind projects at temporary field hospitals in California.

We invite you to join this discussion and Register Now!

PTS Partner Bloom Energy Repurposes Old Ventilators for Coronavirus Duty

As the number of COVID-19 cases continue to grow, the number of patients in dire need of expert care has already begun to put a strain on our healthcare systems worldwide. In the U.S. specifically, hospitals have been unable to supply enough ventilators for critically-ill patients during this pandemic.

California Governor Gavin Newsom called on Bloom Energy to see if the Bloom team could repurpose some old ventilators. While other manufacturers are studying and looking at the feasibility to help support production for new medical devices such as ventilators, the Bloom team took action and answered the Governor’s call. As you may know, ventilators are critical to preventing respiratory failure in patients with COVID-19. While the original ventilator service provider told the Governor it might take a month to begin refurbishing, Bloom Operations knew that wasn’t an option with lives at risk. Less than 24 hours later, Bloom's manufacturing team had refurbished 24 ventilators and is now refurbishing an additional 25 more in California and expect to begin similar refurbishment work in Delaware this week.

At this rate, Bloom estimates they can refurbish hundreds of ventilators a week, helping to meet the anticipated high demand. The Society of Critical Care Medicine estimates that 960,000 coronavirus patients in the U.S. may need to be put on ventilators, but there are only about 200,000 such working machines available – while thousands sit idle, having reached their end-of-service life.

Bloom's team's willingness to innovate, solve tough challenges, and commit to the “art of the possible” in this time of need is a true showcase of Bloom's resilience. Their manufacturing teams are working with the State of California and the State of Delaware, and have offered services to other states, to begin refurbishing the thousands of out of service ventilators available in the U.S. Bloom is also working with state agencies and customers – many of which are hospitals and medical device companies – to identify additional supplies of ventilators that need refurbishing.

"While unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures, I could never have predicted that Bloom could have such a direct impact on our society. I am deeply humbled by our team's strength and ability to step up to this challenge. As a U.S.-based manufacturer, we take our responsibility to this country seriously and we stand ready to serve. Like our customers and the communities we serve, we are strong and we are resilient. I am blessed to work with such an amazing group of people."

Andrew Patterson Director, Partner Engagement BloomEnergy Corporation

How you can Help

If you know of any businesses or state agencies with out-of-service ventilators, please email Bloom at:  ventilatorrefurb@bloomenergy.com or visit Bloom's ventilator refurbishment web page at: https://www.bloomenergy.com/ventilators for more information.  Bloom Energy can also be reached on their hotline: +1 (888) 544-2644

PTS Support During the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic

Being a technology company, PTS is well-prepared to run our organization and support our clients remotely. We are operating as normal as can be expected under the current circumstances. You will continue to receive the exemplary level of service that you have come to expect from PTS.

We will be leveraging all the technologies at our disposal to engage and support you. Rest assured: our commitment to you during this situation remains as strong as ever. PTS will continue to operate at full capacity servicing our clients. We are well equipped with the resources and technology to work remotely, and plan on operating all other aspects of our business as usual.

How to Reach Us:

• Communication among all parties will continue as usual. PTS employees are available via email or by phone.
• Our main office phones (201.337.3833) will still be answered. Phone calls will be directed to employee cell phones or company voicemails which will be continually monitored.
• We are no longer holding in-person meetings at this time; however, we will continue to hold virtual meetings and conference calls.
• Our hours of operation will remain: Monday - Friday, 9am to 5pm.

At PTS, we are dedicated to supporting the well-being and utmost safety of our employees, clients, and families. We appreciate your patience during this challenging time and assure you of PTS’s commitment to continuing to serve our clients.

Following is a brief list of services that we are prepared to help you with in a pinch. Please visit our website at www.PTSdcs.com for a more comprehensive list.

Data Center & Facility	IT	Workplace
Emergency Repair Emergency CRAC Repair Battery Replacement Rental UPS	NOC-Based Managed IT Helpdesk Support CTOC-Based Cybersecurity Remote Access BaaS (Backup as a Service) DRaaS (Disaster Recovery as a Service)	Video Conferencing Hosted VoIP Virtual Desktop

Here are some external links offering helpful advice to businesses in dealing with the pandemic:

• Uptime Institute’s COVID-19: Minimizing Critical Facility Risk
• 7 Things Data Center Businesses Should Do During the COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic

Thank you for your business and stay safe.

Ransomware is the Number One Cause of Disaster Recovery (DR) Events

When ransomware infects a company's IT systems, it often leaves the target helpless and at the mercy of the attackers.  Stored and backup data become encrypted, and, as such, are irretrievable unless the attackers demands are met or the system can otherwise be restored from clean backups.  In response, the enterprise scrambles, often in vain, desperately trying to restore systems and data to a point prior to the attack. This disaster recovery process is often manual and time-consuming, resulting in costly downtime. In many cases, businesses (like a hospital, for instance) cannot function without their systems active, so they may feel added pressure to pay the criminals to decrypt their data more timely. It is truly a nightmare.

Some shocking ransomware statistics:

• Since 2016, Ransomware Growth: 700% – Gartner
• Cost of Ransomware in 2019: $11.5 Billion – Fortinet
• Companies that used their DR Plan in Past 24 Months: 80% – Gartner
• Companies that did NOT Meet Their RTO and RPO Objectives: 94% – Gartner

The DRaaS Solution to Ransomware
PTS and its partners are ready to offer an elegant DRaaS (Disaster Recovery as a Service) solution. Backup and DR is simple with VMWare Cloud on AWS.  Backups are deduped and stored on S3 in a steady-state. Runbook automation instantly turns these backups into live VMs during a DR event. You get instant RTO for thousands of VMs. 

10x More Cost Effective. Fail over to on-demand VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC targets using ControlShift DR plans and store forever incremental, native backups in S3. DR sites are ready when needed, in the cloud, whether for testing or actual failover. Pay for SDDC only when you need it while your data is ready to use on low-cost AWS S3. Efficiently fail back with minimal AWS egress charges by transferring only changed and globally deduplicated data. Select from a broad range of DR sites around the world.

Instant RTO Restart from Recent Snapshots or Deep Backups on S3. Easily restart instantly from recent snapshots or backups that are months or years old. With converged backup and DR, you have millions of point-in-time consistent recovery points to choose from, so you can quickly restore your entire data center. That can be critical for ransomware attacks, which often only become apparent months after the initial event. Achieve instant RTO with zero copy and no rehydration as ESX hosts directly mount a live NFS datastore hosted in AWS.

“Developing and delivering transportation solutions requires highly available and secure IT systems even during disasters. Our DR solution had to have low RTO and the high reliability and security of a leading government service that could be audited, tested, and verified regularly. Datrium DRaaS met all our demanding requirements while reducing our TCO by 80%.”

- Michael Beerer
Senior Section Manager Information Systems
Orange County Transportation Authority

Contact PTS to discuss DRaaS options 

to better protect yourself against Ransomware.