XBlog - XNet Information Systems, Lisle/Naperville, IL

Join us at “Very Prairie Christmas 2008” for Networking and Drinks

admin — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:23:40 +0000

We’re happy to announce we’ll be hosting “Very Prairie Christmas 2008” on December 4th, an informal after-hours gathering we’re hosting for attendees of our Silicon Prairie Social tech networking events.

This is the second Christmas party for the Silicon Prairie Social community; last year we gathered at Quigley’s in Naperville. This time, we’re back at Mullen’s Bar and Grill, host to our large events. As a thank-you, Mullen’s is throwing in some free pizzas for you; our thirsty guests.

We’re already feeling the excitement build over the last week as we’ve had the chance to talk to people in the tech community. You won’t want to miss this chance to get together with like-minded people; it’s a great opportunity to meet new customers, partners, and friends, and to bring clients to extend their own networks.

For more information and to RSVP, please visit the Silicon Prairie Social web site for details.

XNet Announces Third Silicon Prairie Social

admin — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:42:11 +0000

I am proud to announce that XNet will be hosting yet another Silicon Prairie Social this July 10! This time around it’s especially exciting. For the past few months, I’ve heard story upon story from past attendees; of the great connections they have made, the solutions they have found, and the new business they have picked up, all as a result of attending the Social.

The feedback has all been great, with everyone feeling welcome, and the networking they have achieved has surpassed their expectations. The energy is already gathering for the July event and we are expecting our largest crowd yet.

If you haven’t heard about the Silicon Prairie Social, then click here, you really don’t want to miss out on the best technical networking event in the suburbs.

Three Scenarios to Illustrate the Total Cost of Downtime

Tim Courtney — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:43:12 +0000

It’s easy to dismiss a couple hours of downtime as a simple inconvenience. A time where your staff, frustrated that they can’t get their work done, takes to chatting around the water cooler or catching up on filing. In reality downtime has much greater consequences; each idle employee, every hour of technician time spent restoring your systems, and every moment your critical systems are down has a cost associated.

Have you ever taken the time to determine what this actually costs you?

We took a few typical company scenarios; a small service business (perhaps a consulting firm), a slightly larger company, and a mid-sized OEM. The numbers below are hypothetical but are a powerful illustration. Note that the cost for even two hours of downtime could far exceed the cost of hosting a full rack of servers at XNet for an entire year!

The table below is a simplified version of Sudora’s Cost of Downtime Calculator (referenced with permission from it’s creator, Charlie Meyer). To figure your own cost using your own numbers, use the original calculator here.

Typical Company Scenarios*

Revenue	$1 Million	$10 Million	$50 Million
Employees	6	40	200
Hourly Revenue Per Employee	$83	$125	$125

System Restoration
Labor Hours to Replace Lost Data & Restore System	4	8	20
Per Hour Cost	100	125	125
Cost of Labor	$400	$1000	$2500

Lost Productivity
Total Hours Downtime	2	2	2
Percentage of Employees Unproductive During Downtime	50	70	80
Cost of Employee Downtime	$499.98	$7000.00	$40,000

Lost Sales Opportunities
Number Sales Per Year	50	1000	40000
Estimated Number Sales Lost Due To Outage	2	10	15
Cost of Lost Sales Opportunities	$40,000	$10,000	$18,750

Lost Customers & Damaged Reputation
Total Number Customers Last Year	50	1000	40,000
Average Revenue Per Customer	$20,000	$10,000	$1250
Number Lost Due to System Failure	1	8	20
Customer and Reputation Cost	$20,000	$80,000	$25,000

Total Cost of Network Downtime	$60,899	$97,500	$86,250

* Note: These are hypothetical scenarios designed to approximate the total cost of downtime to various sized organizations.

You can easily see from the above that 2 hours of downtime can cost more than you would have imagined.

Now, think of a situation where you can’t access your mail or database server, even for an hour. What happens in your office? Take yourself through the line items above and estimate your own cost using Sudora’s calculator.

In light of the above, “expenses” relating to securing your equipment and keeping it online 24/7/365 should be viewed as trivial. If you’ve thought before about hosting your equipment but have opted not to due to cost, don’t wait until the next power outage or server failure to revisit it.

How many power outages do you have each year?
How much time does it take to bring your critical services back online?
How many non-technical employees stood idle during this time?
Were the phones not ringing? How long was your Customer Service unable to serve your customers?

If the total cost of downtime is more than you’re comfortable paying, or if you don’t like your answers to the above questions, perhaps we should talk.

Certification Magazine: At XNet, It’s All about Attitude

XNet — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:26:36 +0000

Certification Magazine just published an interview with Arthur Zards of XNet entitled “At XNet, It’s All About Attitude.” The article zeros in on the attitude XNet hires for and how certifications are often a by-product of an attitude of self-improvement and perpetual learning.

Click here to read the Certification Magazine article: At XNet, It’s All About Attitude.

Naperville Sun Article: The big generator that could

XNet — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:24:39 +0000

Last week, XNet was profiled in the Naperville Sun in the article “The big generator that could: XNet keeps businesses on the grid.” The article focuses on our boutique data center services and how our infrastructure keeps small and medium-sized businesses online in the event of a storm or power outage. In the article, XNet customer Mark Mayle of Equitas Group LLC talks well of his experiences with us over the last seven years. Thanks, Mark!

Read the article on the Naperville Sun web site.

Business Ledger Article: Surviving power outages without going broke

Tim Courtney — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:45:00 +0000

XNet’s Arthur Zards wrote this article that originally appeared in the January 21 TechLink section of The Business Ledger.

Surviving power outages without going broke
By: Arthur Zards

The most common IT disruption for small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) is by far a general power outage. From rolling brownouts in the West coast, to springtime Chicago storms; power outages are fairly common and are on the rise due to an ever increasing commercial demand for power, and limited resources to meet the growing demand.

When looking at your business continuity plan for a loss of power (you did do this, right?) You probably found out that there are not too many cost effective options. A typical UPS (usually your only option) will add only minutes of emergency back-up power. Plus, the more computers you stack on the UPS, the less time you have. With how heavily companies rely on technology, a power outage can grind business to an immediate halt. No power means no email, no servers, no website, and equally as important—no Internet access.

Are there any cost effective options for your critical computers? Luckily there’s one, you just may not know about it. The boutique datacenter.

For many non tech-oriented executives, “the datacenter” conjures up thoughts of gigantic warehouses filled with technicians in labs coats busily managing gigantic supercomputers—at a price tag far beyond your budget. This may have been true years ago, but due to the growing need for business continuity for the SMB market, there are now numerous smaller, boutique-style datacenters that cater specifically to the SMB.

What is a boutique datacenter exactly? It is a facility that has all the features of an enterprise datacenter; redundant power with a UPS, back-up generators, industrial-grade cooling (with back-up units), that’s networked across multiple locations with two or more backbone-level Internet connections. Translation: if any one piece fails, you stay connected. These facilities allow you access to your equipment 24×7 while keeping it secure, and best of all, the services are all tailored especially for the SMB.

Boutique datacenters serve small businesses who need to host as little as a single critical email server, where larger facilities require minimum space allotments that dwarf these customers’ needs. Plus they add special services to help the small IT department manage and grow their company network and systems, so their network can keep pace with their growing business. Best of all, they offer friendly, helpful services to non-technical executives who know they need their equipment secure, but might not know exactly how to accomplish it.

If this is you, and you are not too sure how to protect your systems from a power loss, contact a boutique datacenter that caters to your market. You’ll be surprised at the level of IT help they can offer you, at a price that is very attractive.

Bio:
Arthur Zards is President and co-founder of XNet, a Lisle-based boutique data center, the XNet Critical Computing Facility. Since 1992, XNet has been instrumental in growing Internet technologies in the Chicago area, and is now the largest independently owned Internet service provider in the Chicago area.