Secured Hosting Services Frank Adams / Tom Carter.

Secured Hosting ServicesFrank Adams / Tom Carter

What is Application Hosting…

• Increasingly popular practice of outsourcing software applications to 3rd Party providers

• Alternative to managing applications in-house• Involves your software applications residing on

3rd party servers• Provides access to your application from

anywhere in the world

Internet

WERCS / TimeWarner Co-Location

Secured Facility

Office / Home

WERCS Software Application

Benefits…

• No Up Front Hardware Capital costs• No budgeting necessary for unpredictable

maintenance• Predictability of IT Budget – monthly costs are

known• Access to application from anywhere • Data located in secured data center• Redundancy and Server Protection Features• Offsite Storage of backup tapes

Benefits…

• No need for expensive Servers, IT consultants, Internal Upgrade costs

• Focus on Core IT Competencies• Remove mundane day-to-day IT work• WERCS Regulatory Subscription Upgrades• All WERCS® Software Release Upgrades

Experience…

• First Hosted Customer in 2002• Servers located within TimeWarner Telecom co-location

facility• Co-Locaton = “WERC servers are installed on the

TimeWarner premises. Management of WERCS servers remains in the hands WERCS”

• Facility located minutes from WERCS Headquarters• TimeWarner leading provider in 44 major U.S. markets /

strong reputation / financial stability• Scalable solution• Technical backup support

Wercs Customer Trends…

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

2002 2004 2006

Hosting Facility…

• Three separate fiber routes into building• Fiber network via SONET technology• Concrete & Steel constructed facility• Two separate AC feeds backed up by 1000 KVA

generator & UPS• Lightning protection system and ground field• FM 200 fire suppression and detection system• 24X7 monitoring and production • Video Surveillance / Biometrics Access

Hosting Server / Data…

• Redundant Power Supply and NICs• Raid 5 / Hot swap hard drives• 24X7 four hour response from manufacture on hardware• Hardware replacement guarantee• Full nightly backups on 2 week rotation• Restoration of all data within 14 hours of a disruption• Offsite storage of backup tapes with Iron Mountain• Periodic security audits and monitor for security

vulnerabilities

Periodic Security Audit…

• Security concerns can quickly erode customer confidence

• “External Infrastructure and Application Security Assessment” performed in October 2006

• Purpose– Identify Vulnerabilities– Evaluate WERCS seriousness– Communicate any risks

Security Audit Results…

• Summary– External Infrastructure = Risk Rating “LOW”– Application Assessment = Risk Rating “Nil”

• Recommendations were provided during Audit process– Recommendations were taken under consideration

and appropriately implemented

Are you a Candidate?

• Difficulty relying on Internal IT Infrastructure• Internal Costs for maintaining applications rising• Internal Costs for Upgrades prohibitive• Limited IT Resources

Hosting Case Study Example…

Challenge:• Limited/Strained Internal IT SourcesWPS Response:• WERCS Application Hosted at Secured WERCS hosting Facility

(TimeWarner)• WERCS staff performs routine updates, backups, maintenance on

WERCS applications • WERCS performs routine server maintenance, operating system

updates• WERCS staff does quarterly regulatory updatesResult: • Significant Reduction of Internal IT Costs / High ROI• Seamless to customer• Stable and Well Tuned Solution

Performance / Uptime…

• Performance Goal is 95% System Availability• Since 2002 99.99% Uptime• 1 Unexpected Downtime since 2002 (45minutes)• All Maintenance and Upgrades are down in Non-

Business Hours or Holidays

Further Information…