Category Archives: IT Technology

A critical component of security is surveillance of physical locations such as building entries, storage facilities, schools, home and business security, industrial plants, prisons and many more. To maintain initial investments, many organizations choose to consolidate older systems and digitize their surveillance installations.

IP-based KVM switches provide a digital interface to remotely access and consolidate non-IP, legacy surveillance architectures such as closed-circuit television (CCTV). To bridge the technology gap, legacy CCTV systems can be modernized by adding remote access into the mix. A CCTV can be extended to provide security professionals with real-time monitoring of physical locations from remote areas.

Surveillance of multiple locations can also be centralized using KVM technology. In a typical surveillance installation for a multi-building facility, a CCTV controller is paired with only one control point for each building. A dedicated security team is needed to monitor and control each building at all times. When combined with an IP KVM switch, staffing is significantly reduced by centralizing the entire facility.

Kiosks are everywhere. Some examples include check-in kiosks at airports and hotels, ATMs, coin counting dispensers, movie rental machines and more. To manage these all-important kiosk devices, a tool is required to access the internal technology remotely. Enter KVM switches.

Should a kiosk device fail at the software level, a digital, or IP-enabled KVM switch, could be leveraged, from a remote location, to connect to the kiosk at the BIOS level to troubleshoot and/or reboot the operating system. KVMs can access the BIOS- or hardware-level of computer devices in kiosks, allowing for remote repair or reboot of the system if the operating system crashes.

With an IP-based KVM switch, organizations no longer are required to dispatch field technicians to kiosk sites to provide service. All maintenance tasks can be performed via the Internet ' significantly reducing costs and ensuring kiosk uptime, which translates into improved customer satisfaction.

Google recently announced that it has purchased nearly 7 acres of land in Kowloon, Hong Kong, to build a new data center.

Although the company has declined to reveal the exact location of the property, a spokesperson said the firm expects to spend nearly $100 million on the project, including the cost of land, construction and necessary equipment. The company says that it is still working with local partners and government officials to finalize its plans and has made no official announcement regarding a project timeline.

The actual construction phase of the project, however, is expected to last about two years, officials say. The company expects that the facility will require 20 full-time staffers once it opens, along with a small pool of contractors for IT, electric and mechanical engineering, catering, and security.

In addition to the Hong Kong data center, the company also has plans to build data centers in Taiwan and Singapore in order to boost its services throughout Asia.

'More people are coming online every day in Asia than in any other part of the world, so locating data centers here is an important next stage of Google's investment in the region," said a company spokesperson.

Google has 15 offices and thousands of employees throughout Asia and claims that its Hong Kong data center will be among the most efficient and environmentally-friendly on that cotenant.

Data Center News

Wal-Mart has finalized the $5.3 million land deal necessary to pave the way for construction of a 210,000-square-foot corporate data center in northern Colorado Springs, announced last July.

The world's largest retailer completed the purchase recently, buying up four parcels totaling 24 acres, according to a company spokesman. Wal-Mart officials have previously stated that construction on the project would begin in October and completed in late 2012.

Wal-Mart was apparently wooed by local officials through nearly $4.5 million in sales and business personal property tax rebates for the project which is expected to inject about $488 million into the regional economy over 15 years.

The company says that it will likely employ 30 people to operate the center, with salaries of $30,000 to $70,000. While officials have not commented on the project's cost, some experts estimate that Wal-Mart will spend nearly $100 million to build the data center and invest at least $50 million in machinery and equipment costs over that 15 year period.

Colorado Springs is already home to data centers belonging to many major companies, including Progressive Insurance, FedEx and Hewlett-Packard.

Datacenter Blog

Twitter continues to grow and, as a result, its infrastructure is growing as well. The popular micro-blogging service recently reached a milestone of 100 million active users and is again expanding its data center network to keep pace with that growth.

The company has announced that it has chosen Atlanta, Georgia as the location of its newest data center. The existing 990,000 square foot site, known as the Metro Technology Center, is currently operated as a data center owned by QTS (Quality Technology Services) and is located in the downtown area.

By adding infrastructure in Atlanta, Twitter will now have server hubs on both coasts, following in the footsteps of other large companies like Facebook and Apple, which have supplemented their West Coast server farms with huge data centers in the East. This approach will put Twitter's infrastructure closer to more users in an effort to improve delivery speed for the more than 230 million Tweets users send each day.

Until 2010, Twitter utilized managed hosting services from NTT America, housing its servers in NTT's Silicon Valley and Ashburn, Virginia data centers. In 2010, Twitter announced that it would begin to operate its own data centers, opening its first new facility in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The new Atlanta space offers plenty of room for expansion, which was a consideration in Twitter's decision, officials say.

Twitter appears to be preparing for long-term growth, reportedly scouting a number of sites and providers. Company officials were recently quoted as saying that they projected the company will add another 26 million users by the end of 2011, meaning that there will be more data center expansion in Twitter's future.

Data Center Blog