Congratulations to all the winners:

First Flight-

• 1st Place – James Networks
• 2nd Place – K&W Underground
• 3rd Place – Time Warner Cable Business Class

Second Flight-

• 1st Place – KCNAP
• 2nd Place – Lan-Tel Communications/tw telecom
• 3rd Place – 1102 GRAND/NIC/RSM McGladrey

• Closest to the Pin – Don Burkhart (Mobile Communications Group)
• Longest Putt (9) – Tim Lattimer (RSM McGladrey)
• Men’s Longest Drive – Chris Hendrickson (James Networks)
• Women’s Longest Drive – Carody Kephart (GSI)
• Longest Putt (18) – Duke DeKay (1102 GRAND)

The tournament was also a rewarding networking opportunity for all. Ideas were exchanged, new introductions were made, and business deals are still unfolding as a result of the event. To us at 1102 GRAND, that makes it a success.

Now it is time to get to work on our next Networking Event at Boulevard Brewery. Mark your calendars for September 17th!

Here are a few team photos

Brad Hoffman, ISG; Miles Franz, ISG; Henry Weber, FuseMail; Bryan Heitman, FuseMail

Don Burkhart, Mobile Communications Group; Carody Kephart, GSI; Jonathan Lavender, GSI; Kelly Kephart; GSI

Craig Young, ShoMe Technologies; Brent Robinson, TW Telecom; Rod Couch, K-Powernet; DJ Good, LK Communications

Chris Spear, David Edwards, Dan Hamilton and Steve Wilson of Wilson Construction

Larry Foland, Ted Bolin & Chris Rey of Time Warner Business Class

So how in the world did this happen? First of all, toll fraud is not a new crime and was even more lucrative back in the days of sky high domestic and international long distance. Remember those days when mom would call the grandparents and sound like a speed reader trying to sync up on life while dad stood there tapping his watch and wondering if a second mortgage may be in the future? It seems like a distant memory in these days of unlimited minutes with free long distance on cell phones.

Anyway, I think the issue stemmed from two things: (1) people do not perceive toll fraud as a major threat any longer. In fact, I bet call accounting records are rarely kept let alone reviewed by very many companies these days, and (2) the recession nearly a decade ago saw separate telecom and IT departments at most organizations become a thing of the past. From my experience, I witnessed a lot of telecom staff being let go and the task of maintaining the phone system passed onto the IT department. As IP phone systems have matured, there is definitely some value in doing this anyway, but the problem is that these departments were generally not skilled/versed into the nuances of telecom and more importantly were already overworked and often under budgeted. So they never had the chance to really drill down and learn about things such as toll fraud, call accounting reports, etc.

One ironic thing I read had to do with default passwords. It turns out that the brute force necessary to hack some systems was not so brute after all. Well known default login and passwords were all that was necessary. This was left unchanged by many of the same people who cast judgment on the average employee who buys a SOHO wireless router for their home and just plugs it in and goes without changing the login/password or setting up security measures. So besides not judging non-technical employees, what is there to learn from this fiasco? There are several things but two items that stick out in my mind are (1) the industry needs to heed this as a wakeup call and realize that the threat of network attacks are not limited to data networks. Voice networks pose their own risks and challenges, and (2) Executive management at companies need to realize that security is not a luxury but rather a priority and start budgeting more money to address issues proactively rather than reactively. Why do companies have to be burned before they perceive any value in this space?

By Darren

Areas of the U.S. most affected by hurricanes

Locating data centers in the Midwest is popular for several reasons including the lower costs for items such as power, real estate costs, construction, and labor. In addition, the Midwest has advantages in geography itself. Nearly all of the major fiber routes go through the Midwest in order to connect the east and west coasts. That means that many areas have access to a large number of providers within a given area. In addition, since network latency is related to distance, the latency is lower from the Midwest to either coast than it is from one coast to the other. Much of the Midwest is also located away from many of the natural disasters and other data center threats including: earthquakes, hurricanes, wild fires, and rolling power blackouts.

Areas of the U.S. most affected by Tsunamis

When evaluating all of these criteria, it is no wonder that most data center location studies are largely comprised of Midwest locations such as Kansas City in their Top 10 lists. In fact, in the Boyd Group’s 2008 report, Kansas City was listed as the 2nd most affordable major market data center location. As the carrier hotel and internet hub for the region, we welcome the opportunity to discuss how we can help your organization and share what sets our facility apart from others in the Midwest.

Areas of the U.S. most affected by Wildfires

By Darren

When raised floor systems were originally developed, they served several purposes including:

• Establishing a plenum of cold air that could be distributed to cabinets via perforated tiles
• Providing a pathway for electrical cabling
• Providing a pathway for connectivity media (coax, fiber, copper, etc.)
• Providing a pathway for condenser or chilled water lines
• Providing the ability to ground equipment to the raised floor grid

After installing electrical and data cabling along with water lines under the floor, the air flow efficiency of the under-floor plenum is reduced (often significantly if operators are not careful) which is obviously counterproductive. Consequently, it is often recommended that raised floor spaces should be a minimum of 24” (36” recommended) in order to provide adequate cooling to today’s IT equipment. That is one of the reasons that many newer raised floor data centers utilize at least overhead data cabling and often cooling lines that are installed above the rack.

Proponents of raised flooring systems often tout the fact that raised floors can cool higher power densities, and I cannot argue that there is some truth to this if designed properly. With that said, physics also says that cool air drops rather than rising which favors an overhead cooling solution and placement is critical to the success of either raised or non-raised floor environments. Moreover, if a data center is not utilizing tools such as blanking panels which help prevent air mixing, it is entirely possible to have a non-raised floor data center outperform a raised floor space in terms of cooling efficiency.

There are also definite drawbacks to raised floor systems as well including the fact that they are more difficult to keep clean underneath, limits to the amount of air that can be forced through a perforated tile, and the fact that many raised flooring systems simply cannot handle the weight of today’s heavy racks when fully loaded. Unforeseen collapses have been well documented due to everything from too many tiles being removed at a given time to earthquakes.

Just being on a raised floor does not mean limitless cooling capabilities either. There are still limits to how much a raised floor data center can cool with traditional perimeter computer room air conditioners (CRACs). That is why many newer types of cooling solutions are becoming more common in higher density environments, and the majority of these active solutions do not require raised floor by design. So if anything, the trend is moving away from raised floor systems even in high power density environments.

So I guess my point is that there is so much more to consider than simply whether or not a data center has raised floor. With regard to flooring, prospective buyers need to evaluate and question several other elements including power and data cabling distribution, the height of the raised floor if they feel it is a requirement, the power density limits in comparison to the equipment they wish to install, etc. In closing, please remember that 1102 GRAND utilizes raised flooring systems and non-raised floor solutions. So I am certainly not an anti-raised floor person. I am, however, a major proponent of utilizing the correct solution and helping guide customers to the offering best suited for their particular application.

By Darren