Digital West Blog

You know how difficult it can be to lose a file, like a report you’ve been working on for days. That’s why using remote backup is so important. Now imagine you’ve lost not just that file, but data on all the servers housed in your business or data center.  Now you’ve lost your accounts receivables, tax records, customer information, personnel records -- everything you need to run your business.  That’s what disaster recovery platforms are for; they provide a redundant, offsite, near real-time copy of your entire business operations in the event that a fire, flood or other disaster destroys your server environment and the data that’s in it.

It’s only been a few months since VMware's production release of vCloud Director 9.0, and Digital West is pumped to have the new environment up and ready for business. This cloud management platform provides the foundation for public, private and hybrid cloud environments. 

The workplace is becoming more mobile. Ninety-three percent of businesses have employees using a mobile phone as their primary communication device, and 59% have full-time employees working remotely. Do you have the right communications systems in place to keep everyone connected and productive? 

With so many Internet options (e.g., copper, fiber, VDSL, wireless) available from so many different providers and so many speed combinations (e.g., (5/2, 20/20, 60/5 Mbps), it can be hard to know where to start. Below are some of the questions Digital West asks our prospective customers to help them choose the right connectivity solution for their business.

Clarifying Questions

• What is your physical location? Your location will help us determine proximity to different circuit types (e.g., fiber, VDSL, wireless, etc.).
• Do you have more than one location? If so, we’ll take that into account as we design a secure network between your locations.
• Approximately how many computers are in your office? This provides us a sense of your preliminary bandwidth needs.
• If you have servers, are they onsite or hosted in the cloud? This gives us a further clue into your bandwidth needs and whether you’ll need a symmetrical connection.
• What types of files or data do you exchange on a day-to-day basis? Some businesses, such as architecture firms or medical offices, exchange large files that require more bandwidth.
• What kind of phone system do you have, on premise or cloud-based, and will it run over this same network?
• Do you need backup or redundant connectivity? Though no one likes to deal with the occasional planned or unplanned outage, some businesses -- like banks and credit unions -- must have a redundant connectivity in place at all times.
• What other concerns, budget parameters or issues are you experiencing that we should take into consideration?

With these questions answered, Digital West will guide you to the best solution. And, of course, we’ll handle the installation, set-up, monitoring and ongoing, local technical support! Contact us to request a quote.

With so many choices, it's tough to know where to begin when choosing a new phone system.  There are at least two main categories of phone service: on premise land lines and cloud phones, the latter of which may also be referred to as Voice Over IP (VoIP), hosted phone, voice over broadband, or IP telephony. 

The technology landscape continues to evolve, minute-by-minute. For businesses that means the playing field is changing. At Digital West, we are discoverers. Our mission is to inspire our customers and our community by exposing them to life-changing technology. We want to give area businesses the home field advantage, to take care of their technology needs so they can focus on other priorities.

Hosted phone systems, also referred to Voice Over IP (VoIP), IP telephony, voice over broadband or cloud phones, have gotten a bad rap over the years and often for good reason. Lost packets, jitter and latency aren’t some strange condition related to coffee-drinking, they are culprits that affect voice quality in VoIP conversations. Businesses have come to expect the outstanding call quality of landlines and are sometimes hesitant to transition to a cloud phone system, despite the cost savings, ease of programming and elimination of onsite service calls.

FACTORS THAT DEGRADE HOSTED PHONE VOICE QUALITY

Bandwidth – Speed is generally the top factor driving whether conversations are spotty. If you have two dozen employees making concurrent phone calls, 5/2 Mbps isn’t going to cut it. Without adequate 

For the third consecutive year, Digital West has successfully completed a SOC 2 Type 2 examination of the security and availability of our colocation services. The exam was conducted by the independent firm, 360 Advanced, in accordance with standards put forth by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). They conducted an evaluation of the controls Digital West has in place to protect our clients’ data security and availability.

Engaging in the SOC 2 exam is a demonstration of Digital West’s commitment to world class data services, and establishes us as the only carrier neutral data center between Santa Clara and Los Angeles Counties to have passed this rigorous evaluation. “Our customers have always had great faith in our ability to securely store and 

Two more telco giants recently announced they are consolidating: CenturyLink and Level 3 Communications. This latest deal comes off the heels of AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner for $85 billion. And, not to be left out of the excitement, just this week Windstream and Earthlink agreed to a $1.1 billion merger.

The Society for Information Management (SIM) published a report not too long ago defining the Top 10 concerns that CIOs have in 2016. Not surprisingly, “security and privacy” and “cost reduction” were on the list, but what is notable is the growing understanding that technology and business must work hand-in-hand. A company’s IT investments are key factor in its ability to innovate, to create efficiencies, to create alignment.  This quote from the report summarizes it well: