Veroxity Wavelengths • Category Archives • Business Continuity
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- New Veroxity Whitepaper: VPLS for Any-to-Any Ethernet Connectivity
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- From Guest Blogger Jeffrey Harrington – The Outside Plant Puzzle: Pre and Post Build Process
- Customer-Centric Culture
- Google’s Plan for Fiber-Optic Networks
- The Consultative Approach to Disaster Recovery Planning: Part Two
- The Consultative Approach to Disaster Recovery Planning: Part One
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2010
From Guest Blogger Jeffrey Harrington – The Outside Plant Puzzle: Pre and Post Build Process
My title, Outside Plant Manager, might immediately bring to mind thoughts of pulling fiber through manholes and construction of plant up on telephone poles. Although I am on the construction side of the house here at Veroxity and am out in the field on a daily basis, much of what I do is more about the coordination, preparation, and maintenance that goes into the build rather than the actual build itself. I would argue that 80% of my team’s time is dedicated to these pre- and post-build phases while the other 20% is spent installing the fiber itself. Getting our fiber from point A to point Z is always going to be the name of the game but in order to do that, we have to hit every letter in between.
Relationship-building (with city officials, utilities, etc.), planning, permitting, surveying, and quality-control are all incredibly important pieces of the Outside Plant (OSP) puzzle. Getting the cable in the ground or on the pole is the easy part. Going through the tedious and pain-staking process of planning and permitting a route or working with impossibly long timelines that you have no control over is where it tends to get sticky.
Permitting and licensing has always played an integral role in fiber builds. But in a down economy with fewer licensors and increased competition, the timelines can be pretty daunting. The trick is to have alternative plans. Getting the customer up and running on schedule while abiding by every rule, regulation, and standard (and believe me, there are many!) is the end goal and in order to accomplish this, we usually need to adjust the original plans. For example, if it is going to take over a year to license a fiber-run aerially and the customer needs service in 8 months, then we have to find another way to get the job completed. Is an underground run an option? Can we construct our own conduit?
In addition, making sure every necessary detail has been carried out in all phases of the build process is essential to the success of each project. We are constantly looking for ways to expedite the entire construction process from start to finish. New and improved equipment, strategizing fiber routes around utility and city permitting timelines, and selecting contractors that are right for each specific job are all a part of this. Our project managers and field crews work tirelessly to support this methodology.
Don’t get me wrong; every now and then I definitely get my hands dirty. But it’s often with a pen as we painstakingly plan out the best ways for Veroxity to exceed our customers’ expectations.
Jeffrey Harrington
Outside Plant Manager
jharrington@veroxity.com
2010
The Consultative Approach to Disaster Recovery Planning: Part Two
There are different reasons for needing any or all of these services. Your main concern might be email, application or database backup, or it might be that your servers and connectivity are active at all times. For some organizations, it might not be critical that email is undelivered for a short period of time in the event of a disaster as long as all of the emails within the database are backed up. In this situation, the focus is on database backup rather than constant connectivity. This is why our sale is very consultative in nature. If a customer asks for a connection from point A to point B, we need to understand what it will be used for. Once we understand the purpose for the connection we can gauge the need for diverse entrances, protected services, etc. The answers to these questions enable us to tailor the appropriate solution. It is so important to sell the right size tool for the job at hand. You would not go out and buy a John Deere riding mower to use on 10 x 10 patch of grass just like you wouldn’t grab a knife out of your drawer to eat a bowl of ice cream.
Many service providers today tend to walk into sales meetings with a menu and ask a potential customer what they are looking for. But that prospect may not need what’s on their menu; a different solution may be required. That’s why today’s sales HAVE to be more consultative. What is required by a customer to run their business as smoothly as possible? What exactly are these services going to be used for? Once we have the answer to these questions, we can customize and deliver the best possible solution.
2010
The Consultative Approach to Disaster Recovery Planning: Part One
From a service provider standpoint, the term disaster recovery is very broad. It has varying levels of importance that are dependent upon organizational goals. It can encompass your network, your databases, your applications, your internet access; again, it’s all about the business need. The scope of a disaster recovery plan changes from one business and industry to another. As a carrier, our goal is to ensure that we have the most survivable network possible so that we can deliver on our Service Level Agreements (SLAs). This is exactly why we have invested in a SONET based infrastructure, developed multiple entrances for lit buildings, and have dual pops in every location so that any one ‘disaster’ can’t bring down customer connectivity.
There are basically three flavors of disaster recovery planning for which clients engage with carriers. They can be provided in conjunction with each other or separately. These plans mean different things to each individual company utilizing them as defined by their business. Each has varying levels of importance based upon business need:
1. Internet Access: A company needs internet access in order to conduct day to day business. However, companies that gain business via the web are looking for diverse routes and more than one carrier. Due to the nature of their business that centers on Internet transactions, they cannot afford to put all of their eggs in one basket.
2. Basic Connectivity: When a business has multiple facilities, connectivity between these locations must be available at all times. From a disaster recovery planning standpoint, a network that will maintain that connectivity to each geographically dispersed location at all times is ideal.
3. Data Center Back Up: It used to be that a company’s primary data center was located at a company headquarters while their secondary backup centers would be remote. We are seeing more and more customers will have a primary, off-site data center in addition to secondary backup locations that are also remote. Connectivity is needed between all of these sites. It is the organization’s business model and goals that determine the need for this connection and at what level. For example, pharmaceutical companies require huge amounts of data storage, so they will keep all information in two or three places. If one of those data centers goes down, this information can be found in the alternative locations. Some companies have applications that are running at all times, i.e. their customers are constantly tracking their online orders or making purchases, etc. If anything happens to either the server connectivity or the servers themselves these companies have an absolute need for another that is standing by, ready to go online.
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Check in next week for Part Two of The Consultative Approach to Disaster Recovery Planning.
