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OMNIconnect Broadband Internet and Data Centre (OCDC)

Data Centre, Internet and Private Networks

OMNI racks Colocation. 35 kilometres outside of the CBD 'Risk Zone',
OCDC is ideally located to keep your data safe. [su_button url="http://themeforest.net/item/sarraty-retina-responsive-multipurpose-theme/7038266?ref=im_ahmad" style="sarraty" target="blank" size="2" icon="icon: shopping-cart"]Purchase Now![/su_button] OCDC racks OCDC. A boutique data centre, offering colocation space for you hosting requirements. Colocation. 35 kilometres outside of the CBD 'Risk Zone',
OCDC is ideally located to keep your data safe. [su_button url="http://themeforest.net/item/sarraty-retina-responsive-multipurpose-theme/7038266?ref=im_ahmad" style="sarraty" target="blank" size="2" icon="icon: shopping-cart"]Purchase Now![/su_button]

New Pricing for Business Grade Broadband

 

To Celebrate a new Financial Year, OMNIconnect has released new pricing for OMNIconnect Fibred Estates.

The fibre pricing packages are $299/m for 2Mbps, $599/m for 10Mbps or $1990/m for 500GB of Business Grade Symmetrical Broadband.
These services can also connect to other sites via our hybridWAN, or just provide ultra fast internet.
For more information visit business grade broadband.

The Back-up Plan (Not the movie)

We all have emergency back-up plans for our home to ensure against floods, fires or even thefts. But what about your business? Does it have a back-up plan?

With natural disasters affecting many businesses in Australia and New Zealand the need to review disaster recovery plans is urgent.

IDM magazine headlined their recent release with “Councils Dealing with disaster. Business Continuity in the face of floods, wind & fire”. They referenced Sydney Liverpool City Council as a case example. In August 2010 a fire incinerated the council’s offices leaving massive devastation. Archivist Keith Smithers said, “This incident has reinforced the value of electronic records and reinforced the importance of backing them up.”

Symantec Corp, renowned security firm, recently released their findings of their 2011 SMB Disaster Preparedness Survey, which measured “the attitudes and practices of small- and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) and their customers toward disaster preparedness.”

The survey findings showed that while SMB’s were at risk of data disaster, a disaster recovery plan was still not high on the agenda. The survey also analysed the costs of not being prepared. “Disasters can have a significant financial impact on SMBs.  Downtime costs SMBs a median of $12,500 per day.  It costs small businesses a median of $3,000 per day and medium businesses a median of $23,000 per day.”

The conclusion? “Don’t wait until it’s too late!”

Start getting your disaster plan together, and if you already have a plan in place – Test it!

If you would like a quote for colocation or redundancy in our disaster recovery centre for your business back-up plan, please give us a call on (03) 9770 333 or email enquiries@omniconnect.com.au

Our Secret to Power Monitoring

In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death, taxes, and the cost of power increasing.

 

If you have looked at an electricity bill recently you may have noticed that it’s gone up… again!

 

The Age newspaper was recently told by Ben Freund of price comparison service GoSwitch: “The current conservative forecast is for a 100 per cent (electricity price) increase over the next five years… And that is a conservative estimate.”

 

Environmentally responsible companies like OMNIconnect do their best to reduce the amount of ‘black balloons‘ that ascend from their data centres by choosing ‘greener’ ways of running them like the innovative fresh air cooling system. However, in the back of everyone’s mind is the rising cost of power, the increasing density of servers, and how these costs can be accounted for and passed on fairly to customers.

 

Although power monitors have been around for many years, an aggregated yet granular way of monitoring power at a server, rack, or client level has been difficult.

 

But with Smart Power Cables from Packet Power, power monitoring has become a whole lot more manageable. Smart Power Cables provide granular power management allowing monitoring at any level, be it per port, per rack, per room or per customer across multiple rooms or racks.

These Smart Power Cables use wireless mesh networking to aggregate the data to a central server and then massage it into a readable format so it can not only accurately pass on power costs to the appropriate customers, but also very easily manage rack and room power density.

 

Ultimately, having this sort of capability encourages customers to be more selective in choosing efficient hardware which results in less ‘black balloons’ for everyone.

In Our Backyard – An Australian First

Frankston City Council News October 1st 2010 published article:

Carrum Downs Industrial Estate is the first estate in Australia with a service equal to or better than that provided by the proposed National Broadband Network (NBN), offering the potential to improve business productivity.

The Passive Optical Network (PON) with its own Data Centre is already available on this estate located in and around Frankston Gardens Drive and Lakewood Boulevard.
Through the innovation and partnership between the developer and a local business operator – OMNIconnect Telecommunications – businesses establishing in the area are connecting to the premises network, which enables the secure and extremely high speed transfer of information. This in itself leads to improved business productivity.

A ‘Fresh’ Approach to Cooling

If you live in Melbourne as we do, you would know that winter is here, and it is COLD!

Typical temperatures during a winter’s day don’t exceed 13-16 degrees celsius, which begs the question: Why are many data centres spending a fortune on ‘cooling’ to 19-25 degrees, when the ambient outside air is already colder than their data centres need to be?
Most data centres use chilled water and refrigerant based air conditioning systems that aren’t exactly friendly to our precious environment. So, to us it doesn’t make sense to put so much effort into mechanically ‘cooling’ a data centre inside when there is so much cooling available outside.
But, a change is in the wind… literally! Why not take this infinite supply of cool fresh air from outside and bring it inside the data centre? This saves in power costs, but more importantly reduces our greenhouse gases by up to 90%!
Many new data centres are going down the same road. Data Centres in cooler climates are even being built without chillers! There are many ways to do this, but ultimately the goal is to bring the cool air inside without the need of mechanically cooling it.
We have chosen a revolutionary new air conditioning system which does just that. It eliminates the need for refrigerants by using 100% fresh, filtered, outside air. A single unit alone has the same cooling capacity of a 17 kw air conditioner but uses only a maximum of 600 watts of power during the hot weather when it is cooling the warmer air that has been brought in from outside.
Assuming both were running at full capacity, this would save 160,000 kg of carbon emissions per years, on just one unit.
Coupled with our 25,000 litre rainwater collection system, we feel our choice for cooling is a very environmentally responsible one.

The Power Struggle

Over the last few years Melbourne has experienced some alarming wake-up calls to their energy supply. From failing power due to Bushfires, heat waves and violent storms, to simply not enough power to sustain an expanding city, Melbourne’s “Energy Crisis” has only started to rear its ugly head and it’s affecting everyone, especially ISP’s.

Inner city hosting providers are finding themselves at capacity, unable to provide more than 2-3 Kilowatts per rack due to unsustainable ageing infrastructure. This has seen a push towards Data Centre establishment outside of Metro Melbourne.

OMNIconnect are taking a lead in this direction. While they do house several Data Centre’s in Melbourne CBD, they have built and established their main Data Centre in Carrum Downs at the end of the newly constructed Eastlink Freeway.

Peter Hutton, Managing director of OMNIconnect, explains the reasons for this move: “The decision to move OMNIconnect’s main offices and Data Centre to a greenfield site with ample underground power in Carrum Downs was supported by various reasons. A main concern was of course power. There is less load on the grid down here and it is easier to upgrade power whenever the need arises. There was also the advantage of ample space to expand and store our diesel generators. Really, our servers and computers need to be where it easy to get power in real estate that’s affordable, Melbourne city simply didn’t offer a practical or scalable solution.”

However, many ISP’s shy away from the idea of moving too far from the city. Perhaps the fears of connectivity or access to the city have outweighed their fear of failing power availability. Peter Hutton explains how he overcame this potential problem: “Really, there has been no issue with connectivity into Melbourne. Our Microwave links give us line of sight into the heart of the CBD and the surrounding local ranges giving us diversity into Melbourne. In addition to this, we have Fibre directly connected to a distribution hub in Melbourne. The Eastlink freeway has made access to the city simple.”

The struggle for power in Melbourne’s CBD has only started but if you’re interested in keeping your data safe, contact OMNIconnect for details about their safely located DC.

25,000 Litres of Rain

As we are committed to building a sustainable and dare we say ‘green’ data centre and business, we have installed a 25,000 litre rainwater tank with a filtration system that rivals Melbourne Water’s.

A combination of triple particle filters followed by ultra violet light treatment, makes our water some of the purest around. Now everything from drinking to flushing is supplied by the collected and filtered rainwater, meaning that we are off the water mains, and self-sufficient!

ISP Filtering Trial

OMNIconnect have agreed to be part of the Australian Government’s Filtering Trial. In order to answer your question we have prepared to following FAQs.
 
What is the ‘Internet Service Provider (ISP) Filtering Live Pilot’?
The ISP Internet Content Filtering Pilot is an Australian Government initiative specifically designed to block access to Web sites containing illegal child sexual abuse images (CSAI).
What is the purpose of the ISP Content Filtering Live Pilot?
The ISP filtering Pilot provides the opportunity to test a range of content filtering solutions in a real world environment, with the cooperation of ISPs and their customers.
This Pilot will help add to the information obtained via the laboratory-based tests of filters recently published by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
The outcomes of the Pilot will inform the Government’s decision making on the ISP filtering framework.
How is content filtered for this trial?
The ISP receives a list of investigated illegal CSAI websites from the Australian Communications and Media Authority. These websites are then inaccessible by the volunteering participant of the trial.
What Internet Access Methods will be included in this trial?
OMNIconnect has several access methods to the Internet that may be filtered for this trial. These include: Wireless, DSL and fibre.
Will it effect the Performance of my Internet service?
This filtering trial is being used to determine whether there will be any effect on Internet performance. We do not anticipate any performance issues at this stage.
Why is OMNIconnect participating?
We would like to state that we take a neutral position in relation to the debate on Internet censorship. However, OMNIconnect management are fundamentally opposed to ALL forms of illegal content, including the abuse of children through child pornography.
Our reasons for participating in this trial are primarily because it gives us the opportunity to assess and critique some of the latest technology for filtering solutions. We will be able to examine any effects of this trial filter on our own network and with our own clients, compiling first-hand information.
This trial will provide us with the opportunity to share our view of the technology involved with any government proposed filtering implementation based on our first-hand experience.
OMNIconnect also recognize that many of our current and future clients will desire the choice to either have or not have a content filter on their service. We want to give our clients the latest information on technology that may effect their service.
Many businesses already have defined company policies in regards to information access. Trialing this technology allows us to offer a filtering system that will give them the ability to enforce their policies.
What is the length of the Trial?
The ISP Internet Content Filtering Pilot is a six-week long trial. The date for this trial is yet to be advised.
Who will participate in the ISP Filtering Pilot?
This filtering trial will be conducted on a voluntary basis only. Only OMNIconnect clients who have volunteered will be able to participate in this trial. All other OMNIconnect customers will not have their Internet traffic filtered.
Participants of this free trial are simply required to use the Internet as they would normally do so. At the conclusion of the trial, they will be asked to complete a survey focusing on their experience with the filtering system. All information will be kept anonymous and no Internet browsing will be monitored.
Participants of the trial are able to request the removal of the filtering system at any time.
If you are an OMNIconnect client, and would like to participate in the free ISP Internet Content Filtering Pilot, please email: filtering@omniconnect.com.au

OCDC becomes first Data Centre to have Telstra’s new Wholesale Wavelength Service

OCDC (OMNIconnect Data Centre) has become the first data centre to have Telstra’s new Wholesale Wavelength Service (WWS) offering speeds of 1Gbps, 2.5Gbps and 10Gbps (and multiples of). This will allow hosting customers to connect back to their other locations at greater speeds than previously offered by data centres.
WWS was announced by Telstra on Nov 21, 2011 as a new backhaul offering that is reliable, cost-efficient and be scaled up with minimum disruption.
Key features of WWS include:
  • Coverage: WWS leverages Telstra Wholesale’s national backhaul reach across selected capital city, metro and inter-capital routes to provide point- to-point connectivity between wholesale customer network points of presence (PoPs). WWS can be delivered to up to approximately 600 metro Exchange Service Areas (or ESAs).
  • Managed Service: Telstra Wholesale can detect issues and maintain the service to specified standards.
  • Capacity: High capacity choices of 1Gbps, 2.5Gbps and 10Gbps per channel.
  • Performance: Reliability, security and transparency to customer network traffic on dedicated fibre routes. Support for data-centric Ethernet and SDH protocols (1 Gbps Ethernet, 2.5 Gbps SDH, 10Gbps Ethernet and 10Gbps SDH services will initially be available).
For more information regarding Telstra’s WWS, see the links below:

South Gippsland Region Network Acquired

OMNIconnect has extended it’s reach by acquiring a large network in the South Gippsland region. The network previously owned by Chariot/TPG covers a wide area including POP’s in Foster, Koonwarra, Korumburra, Wonthaggi, and Lookout Hill.

South Gippsland Water is the principal client on the network, whose extensive service area covers over 4,000 sq kms. South Gippsland Water’s network of facilities and sites, are connected via the OMNIconnect Wireless/DSL network providing Data and Internet carriage.

A major upgrade of sites and equipment has commenced to ensure future reliability and continuity of services. For more information on OMNIconnect’s solutions in the South Gippsland region or elsewhere please contact Sales on:

(03) 9770 3333 or sales@omniconnect.com.au