I recently read an article by Eduardo Porter of The New York Times titled “Keeping the Internet Neutral.”

The article highlights specific examples of how stifling net neutrality could affect innovation.  We have seen firsthand in Kansas City the excitement and new ideas already evolving from the Google Fiber project, which is also referenced in the article.   1102 GRAND is a carrier neutral collocation facility that has a Meet Me Area with many network service providers that invest millions and in some cases billions of dollars to build out their nationwide and global networks. I am interested in hearing your feedback on whether or not the service providers should be able to control content on their networks.  Sound off on Twitter @1102Grand and/or Facebook.

Keeping the Internet Neutral

Imagine a network of private highways that reserved a special lane for Fords to zip through, unencumbered by all the other brands of cars trundling along the clogged, shared lanes. Think of the prices Ford could charge. Think of what would happen to innovation when building the best car mattered less than cutting a deal with the highway’s owners.

A few years ago, Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School and a leading thinker about the evolution of the “information economy,” warned members of the House judiciary committee that this could be the fate of the Internet. Companies offering broadband access, he said, should not be allowed to discriminate among services online. If they did, the best service would not always win the day. “It’s not who has a better product,” he explained. “It’s who can make a deal with AT&T, Verizon, Comcast or Time Warner.”

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Networking, networking and yes, more networking!

Last Thursday night, 1102 GRAND was thrilled to be the Host Sponsor for the KCnext IT Happy Hour at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. The venue, of course, was solid and the vibe was excellent as 450+ people relentlessly networked. We have always been huge believers in the power of face to face networking and this event did not disappoint.

I had meaningful conversations with CIOs, developers, CTOs, IT directors, owners, etc.  I was able to visit with a few local startup companies and listened to challenges they are facing.  Conversely, I spoke with a larger company and learned what types of innovative projects they have coming down the pipeline.  What a great dynamic!

If you happened to miss this networking opportunity and want to save the date for the upcoming KCnext  Summer IT Networking Happy Hour  it is scheduled for Thursday, July 26 at the Negro League Baseball Museum. Also,  if you would like to learn more about KCnext and check out the membership page go to http://www.kcnext.com/index.php/membership/ .

Hope to see you there, or at the next KCnext event!

Fortune 500, Inc. 500, government as well as small to medium size clients count on 1102 GRAND every day for their colocation needs.  I enjoy reaching out to our clients regularly to see how their businesses are growing and changing, and how 1102 GRAND can assist with any challenges they may have.

Adam Ward, CTO of Admo.net, took a few minutes to update me on how things are going for his company and I wanted to share them with you.

Adam, tell me about Admo.net:

In 1998 Admo.net began offering shared hosting to the masses. We quickly learned that it wasn’t all about servers and technology. Sure, it’s very important for us to be prepared, knowledgeable and technical; but what’s really important is people. It’s the reason we’re in business-to provide world class service and support to real people around the world. We realize that you need someone to speak to you on a human level and to understand your business needs to reach your goals. We understand people and we believe that is what makes us different.

What products or services do you currently offer your clients?

Admo.net offers an assortment of enterprise-class services including offsite backup, dedicated servers, collocation by the rack unit, virtual private data center, virtual private servers, reseller and shared hosting. We also offer supplemental consulting services including on-site VMware consulting for new and existing environments.

Where have you seen the most growth over the last year?

In the last year we have had the most growth in our highly-scalable cloud solution and in our DDoS mitigation services.

Why did you choose 1102 GRAND to collocate a portion of your IT infrastructure?

Admo.net chose 1102 GRAND because they are Kansas City’s premier carrier-neutral facility. Their prices are reasonable, and we have a world class team committed to our success. 1102 Grand delivers the ability to connect to any provider in the metro area and this is key to our success as a hosting provider.

If a company wanted to utilize your services, how would they get in touch with you?

Please get in touch with us on our website at www.admo.net, via email at sales@admo.net or just give Adam a call direct at 816.866.0123.

Thanks Adam for taking the time to share with us a little about your business.  We wish you continued success.  As always, if you would like to schedule a tour to check out 1102 GRAND, or have any general questions feel free to send me an email at Greg@1102Grand.com or give me a call at 816-213-7731.

Change is good, if you stay the same you are dying on the vine…

I had the privilege of attending two excellent speaking events this week in the Kansas City area. Jeff Hoffman, a Priceline.com co-founder, spoke at Johnson County Community College, thanks to the Thinking Bigger Speaker Series.   The title of Mr. Hoffman’s presentation was “Growing Your Business in Today’s Changing World.”  Ben Milne, founder of Dwolla (a revolutionary company that I signed up for this week), was the other speaker who was brought to speak to the community as part of the Tech Entrepreneur Speakers Program, put on by UMKC Small Business and Technology Development Center.  Here is a recap from V3 on Ben’s thoughts of his entrepreneurial learning experiences.

While both presentations were quality learning experiences for me, they both conveyed the same message in very different ways.  Technology is moving fast and you better keep up or you will be left behind.

The cool thing is, other professionals in the area know that as well and they are moving fast to educate themselves and our local youth. I want to highlight a few of the local technology success stories that have recently taken place but please feel free to contact me at Greg@1102grand.com with any other technology news that you would like to bring to my attention.

First, hats off to the CAPS program through the Blue Valley School District.  Here is a little bit about the program if you haven’t heard about it.

“Innovation is what will grow our economy and ensure that every family prospers in an increasingly competitive global market. Our students must acquire 21st century skills to be successful in the “Innovation Generation.” Blue Valley’s Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) inspires students to succeed in the critical areas of Bioscience, Business, Engineering and Human Services.” For more visit www.bvcaps.org.

Next, great job to the Olathe Northwest Robotics Team, Ravonics Revolution, which is comprised of 40 students, and is the only one from the area competing in the World Championship on April 25, in St. Louis.  Good luck guys and girls!  It is great to see that learning is being taught via doing in addition to the traditional methods.

Finally, the CEO (Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization), which was highlighted at Johnson County Community College this week, was refreshing.  Here is their Mission- “CEO’s mission is to inform, support and inspire college students to be entrepreneurial and seek opportunities through enterprise creation.  While we have a strong academic program at JCCC, we are always looking for ways to enhance entrepreneurial education by providing opportunities beyond the classroom.” It appeared to have great student involvement- for more information go to http://ceo.jccc.edu/index.html.

If 1102 GRAND can be of assistance to any educational endeavor in the region, let us know.  We would be glad to help if we can.

I ran across an article on Forbes.com by Joe McKendrick that discusses how IT departments are now devoting a good portion of their budgets to the cloud.  1102 GRAND is a Midwest colocation facility and Internet hub, and we have seen quite a few new and existing customers building out their own private cloud which resides at 1102 GRAND.  Some of our customers offer their private cloud as a solution for those companies that need to adhere to PCI, HIPPA, SOX or other compliances and are not able to utilize public cloud.  The offerings are evolving daily, so if you have a need and want to learn more, let me know and I would be happy to help. We offer the best of both worlds.  You can collocate your company’s equipment in our data center facility and have full control of it, but you can also tap into the multiple private cloud offerings at 1102 GRAND as you wish.  I would be happy to work on a solution for you and your company.  I can be reached at greg@1102grand.com.

More Than One-Third of IT Budgets Now Spent on Cloud: Survey

Companies are investing heavily in cloud computing, a new survey of 1,650 IT and business executives shows. On average, they report, more than a third, 34%, of their current IT budgets are now allocated to cloud computing solutions.

These are some of the findings of the IDG Enterprise Cloud Computing Study, conducted in January 2012. Most of these budgets are going to private clouds hosted within the walls of enterprises. Private cloud deployments are currently where the majority of information is stored in the cloud (24%), and the trend will continue to dominate 18 months from now (33%).

The fact that cloud now comprises more than one-third slice of IT budgets suggests the computing approach has gained serious traction within enterprises. And cloud isn’t just being brought in to enhance applications or to save money. One-fourth of respondents from the business side, in fact, report they believe cloud will play a critical role in shaping business strategy.

Cloud may grab an even bigger slice of IT budgets in the next few years. Close to two-thirds of companies expect to increase cloud spending in the next 12 months. On average, organizations will increase cloud computing spending by 16%.

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1102 GRAND is thrilled to have the opportunity to be the host sponsor for
the upcoming KCnext IT networking event. We firmly believe that when you
bring together the best and the brightest in the IT community to exchange
ideas, meet new contacts and help connect the dots, good things are sure
to follow. We have witnessed the power of networking at this level first
hand and cannot wait until the next KCnext IT Networking Event on April 26, at
LIVESTRONG Sporting Park from 5:00-8:00 p.m. There will be plenty of food
and beverages as well as some excellent giveaways and facility tours.
We look forward to seeing you there!

Learn more about this event and register here.

As 1102 GRAND continues to grow at a rapid pace, I wanted to take a moment to share with you a couple pictures I took of our new private cage colocation area.  In this new space we have designed the cages modularly to accommodate different sizes of colocation footprints.  Typically there are four 12’x12’ cages, but we can configure the space to a 12’x24’, 12’x36’ or even a 12’x48’ space.  This allows us and our clients the flexibility to have the space to expand in a contiguous fashion or to accommodate anticipated growth.  There is also a 12’x22’ space available in this area.

This space is similar to our other colocation areas within our SSAE16 Type 2 facility.  Clients will find multi-factor security authentication, gas-based fire suppression, N+1 HVAC, UPS and generator supported power feeds, the ability to connect to any of the 30+ carriers/providers in our Meet Me Room, along with a multitude of other features.

In addition to this expansion, we have begun work on two other floors within our building for anticipated colocation/datacenter growth.  If you are in the area and want to schedule an appointment for the “GRAND” tour, feel free to email me at Greg@1102Grand.com.  I welcome the opportunity to share what we have been building here.

At 1102 GRAND, we recognize that creating a platform for tech-focused individuals and businesses to exchange ideas and work toward common goals is a necessity for a strong technology community.   1102 GRAND is excited that KCnext , The Technology Council of Greater Kansas City, has chosen Ryan Weber as president and we look forward to seeing him take the organization to the next level.  The programming and events they have already put together look fantastic!  I wanted to do a little Q and A with Ryan to see what is new with KCnext, how to become involved  and how to join.

Q. Tell me about KCnext

• KCnext – The Technology Council of Greater Kansas City serves as the regional advocate for the tech/IT industry, supporting more than 65 tech/IT company members, and growing, in the KC area. By focusing on key industry priorities, KCnext works to connect, promote and support the KC region’s community by amplifying our tech assets, increasing the tech/IT workforce pipeline and attracting technology companies to KC. KCnext also works to grow the existing base of technology firms in the KC region through workforce development and industry advocacy.
• KCnext is housed in Union Station and governed by a 10-member Board of Directors from the local tech community.

I would be willing to bet if you asked ten people what their definition of cloud computing technology is, you would probably get ten different answers. There are a number of reasons why this is the case and there are quite a few levels to understand. There are a number of ways we are seeing our clients at 1102 GRAND develop their cloud strategies. The two we have seen to be the most popular are:

1) Clients have their own private cloud, utilizing their infrastructure that physically resides in private rack or cage space at 1102 GRAND. Some are building out their private cloud for internal uses and others are offering private cloud as a service to their customers.

2) Clients are developing a hybrid cloud approach, utilizing private cloud for their sensitive information and using the public cloud for other data.

I ran across an article, “Forget Public Cloud or Private Cloud, It’s All About Hyper-Hybrid,” by Thor Olav of CIO, that dives deeper into the hybrid approach.

Cloud is certainly not a one size fits all approach, and each company will have to decide what will work best for their overall strategy. If you want to be in touch with companies that are offering private cloud services at 1102 GRAND, I would be happy to make the connection for you. Also, if you would like to check out 1102 GRAND, let me know at greg@1102grand.com.

Also, come and join us at Centriq’s Cloud Intelligence Conference – April 12, 2012 in Overland Park. Learn more and register here!

In a recent article from the Kansas City Star, “‘Data farms’ draw big tax breaks, incentives from states,” Scott Cannon touches on reasons why the Kansas City area makes an ideal spot for data centers to locate their operations. This is something all of us at 1102 GRAND have been saying for a while.

Darren Bonawitz, principal of 1102 GRAND, was interviewed for the article and added that tech businesses want to be located near the “clouds” that store their data. So not only is Kansas City a good location for data centers, but a Kansas City data center is good for the area.

Read the entire article here:
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/24/3450585/data-farms-draw-big-tax-breaks.html#storylink=cpy

As legislators continue to make the Kansas City area even more attractive for data centers via additional incentives, here are more reasons to look at Kansas City to locate a primary or backup data center:

• Relatively inexpensive power compared to other markets
• Reliable power
• Geographically centered in the US and used as a fiber hub for many
  carriers
• Well educated population
• Strong economic development groups
• Active technology community

Of course there are even more reasons, which you can read more about here:
http://1102grand.com/kansas-city-colocation/

If you have any questions about the Kansas City data center market, feel
free to send me an email at greg@1102grand.com. I would be happy to help
point you in the right direction.