How SMBs can meet today's remote security challenges

By Andy Liu | Feb 9, 2010

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Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) today all face the same sort of tension – between performing what is essentially core business and the various sundry support activities that allow core business to actually happen. IT, for example, is often essential to the ongoing performance of key business functions, but is itself a subsidiary activity.

No SMB is likely to have the resources to craft out separate departments specifically for the administration of these non-core functions, or to hire specialists to service their needs, when that money might better be spent on enhancing the company’s own stock of experts in its own field. That is expertise that brings in revenue, after all. IT projects undertaken by SMBs therefore are largely driven by functionality.

However, as systems and businesses evolve, SMBs are now more in need of one-stop solution providers that can provide solutions applicable to their business and infrastructure needs.

With information technology, security is key and not merely an issue of access to or control of information. Network security is more than just protecting data from hackers and other unauthorized access. It is about ensuring that mission-critical systems are up and available at all times and that the power delivered to the data center is clean. It is closely tied in to even more basic concerns such as maintaining precision cooling and climate control within the facility.

At the rack and individual device level, SMBs need to know how much of the infrastructure resources are being consumed and where proactive changes can be made to improve service levels and reduce costs. General alarm systems do not provide enough information to make appropriate dispatch decisions. Instead, SMBs need an appropriate remote monitoring solution that can answer the following questions:

• Security: Has somebody accessed the rack or entered the computer room? Unauthorized access can cause damage to the whole system; Illegitimate users can tamper with the equipment.
• Power Management: What capacity do I have left in my rack? What is the status of redundancy? It’s important to have complete visibility of your power supplies. This includes monitoring power supplies as well as system capacity.
• Temperature: Is your rack getting too hot? What is the humidity status in the rack? A great deal of downtime is caused by overheating; without a monitoring system to detect temperature and humidity levels within the rack, components such as servers can get damaged.
• UPS Overload: Is the UPS being overloaded? What is the status of the UPS battery? To gain complete visibility of your power supplies, you need a system that monitors everything including commercial power availability, battery voltage levels, generators and generator fuel levels.
• Smoke/Fire: Is there smoke or fire in the rack or the room?
• Water Leaks: Is there water present in the rack or the room? Make sure your remote monitoring system monitors all your site environmental factors including humidity and flooding.