quest strategic advisor newsletter, july/august 2011 0 type ii and sox use a framework developed by...

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STRATEGIC ADVISOR JULY/AUGUST 2011 THE MEANING OF TRUST Inside Quest's Service Delivery Centers A s I see it, says Tim Burke, Quests President and CEO, IT service provider trustworthiness is all about commitment. Most of all, we have to be committed to paying genuine attention to what our customers tell us they want so we can figure out a cost-effective way to deliver it. Of course, cost-effective delivery of IT services takes commitment, too. We have to be committed to attracting and keeping staff with the right expertise. And, of course, we have to be committed to investing in a leading-edge tech- nology infrastructure thats flexible and scalable, Tim says. Quest Service Delivery enters and counting Quests commitment to its infrastructure has resulted in a large and growing network of 2 x x 5 Service Delivery Centers (SDCs) that now extends across the nation (check out the map on page ). Every one of Quests 20 SDC fa- cilities can provide Quests many IT capa- bilities all of which can be customized to meet particular requirements loud/Managed Services. Quest's Cloud/Managed Services are available on securely-partitioned shared or dedicated server platforms in unified virtual data centers that embed monitoring, provisioning, and management into the infrastructures network fabric. So Quest Service Delivery Centers house a single, redundant, uniform pool of resources that can be configured on demand. And since every aspect of the servers and their I/O connectivity is automatic, those resources can be put to use in minutes instead of hours or days. IN THIS ISSUE What makes Quest's Service Delivery enters so trustworthy 2 3 3 4 Network perations enter (N) functionality. Quest's anonymous and secure NOCs provide 2/ ser- vices using dedicated staff and tools. Quest NOCs have the ability to scale with any network configuration or platform, the flexibility to accom- modate servers adds, changes, and updates, and minimal startup costs. olocation environments. Quest offers space where customers can place network, server, and storage devices with minimal cost and complexity. usiness esumption enter () worksites. When a customers THE BOTTOM LINE Quest's Service Delivery Centers can be trusted to provide IT capabilities ranging from backup to cloud services to disaster recovery and more all of which can be expertly customized. INSIDE QUEST'S SDCs (Cont. on p. 2) From Tim urke: Two Myths of Cloud Computing Profile: Quest SDCs All the IT Capabilities, All the Time Did You Know? Why SAS 0 Type II Matters What's New... Quest's New Mobile Device Management Service www.questsys.com

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STRATEGIC ADVISORJULY/AUGUST 2011

THE MEANING OF TRUST

Inside Quest's Service Delivery Centers

As I see it, says Tim Burke, Quests President and CEO, IT service provider trustworthiness is all about commitment. Most of all, we have to be committed to paying genuine attention to what our customers tell us they want so we can figure out a cost-effective way to deliver it.

Of course, cost-effective delivery of IT services takes commitment, too. We have to be committed to attracting and keeping staff with the right expertise. And, of course, we have to be committed to investing in a leading-edge tech-nology infrastructure thats flexible and scalable, Tim says.

Quest Service Delivery enters and countingQuests commitment to its infrastructure has resulted in a large and growing network of 2 x x 5 Service Delivery Centers (SDCs) that now extends across the nation (check out the map on page ).

Every one of Quests 20 SDC fa-cil ities can provide Quests many IT capa-bilities all of which can be customized to meet particular requirements

loud/Managed Services. Quest's

Cloud/Managed Services are available on securely-partitioned shared or dedicated server platforms in unified virtual data centers that embed monitoring, provisioning, and management into the infrastructures network fabric.

So Quest Service Delivery Centers house a single, redundant, uniform pool of resources that can be configured on demand. And since every aspect of the servers and their I/O connectivity is automatic, those resources can be put to use in minutes instead of hours or days.

IN THIS ISSUEWhat makes Quest's Service Delivery enters so trustworthy

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3

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Network perations enter (N)functionality. Quest's anony mous and secure NOCs provide 2/ ser-vices using dedicated staff and tools. Quest NOCs have the ability to scale with any network configuration or platform, the flexibility to accom-modate servers adds, changes, and updates, and minimal startup costs.

olocation environments. Quest offers space where customers can place network, server, and storage devices with minimal cost and complexity.

usiness esumption enter () worksites. When a customers

THE BOTTOM LINE

Quest's Service Delivery Centers can be trusted to provide IT capabilities ranging from backup to cloud services to disaster recovery and more all of which can be expertly customized.

INSIDE QUEST'S SDCs (Cont. on p. 2)

From Tim urke:Two Myths of Cloud Computing

Profile:Quest SDCs All the IT Capabilities, All the Time

Did You Know?Why SAS 0 Type II Matters

What's New...Quest's New Mobile Device Management Service

www.questsys.com

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facilities are not usable, Quest BRCs can provide everything a business needs to function 2 x x 5 communications infrastructure, data systems, highly-skilled people, and uninterrupted delivery of Quests Pro-fessional and Managed Services.

Quest SDs: Meeting tough SAS Type standardsEvery Quest SDC is SAS 0 Type II certi-fied, which means it has passed a SAS 0 Type II audit testing the operating effectiveness of internal controls for service organizations. SAS 0 Type II compliance indicates that Quests Service Delivery Center processes adhere to the highest possible safety and security standards concerning

• Organization/administration• Corporate governance• Customer contract and provisioning• Incident management• Change management• Facilities management • Logical, network, physical, and en-

vironmental security• Computer operations• Emergency response• Business continuity/disaster recovery.

"Making sure all our Service Delivery Centers pass a SAS 0 Type II audit is important to us, Tim explains. It assures us and our customers that were doing it right twenty times over.

SD redundancy and securityTo keep any hardware, software, or network failures from impacting cus -tomers, multiple redundancies have been built into SDC security, replication/ recovery, network/application monitor-ing and management, and Internet communications resources.

And the virtual machines in Quests cloud infrastructure are securely iso-

lated before theyre connected to se-cured storage systems via a segmented, secured network. So the safety and integrity of customer data and access is rigorously maintained without com-promising workload performance.

x emote ands colocation servicesEngineers and technicians can deliver a wide range of services right from Quest's SDCs, so colocation customers can stay focused on their business rather than get bogged down by IT hassles.

Quest SDC Remote Hands services include power cycling and rebooting

servers swapping backup tapes and hardware, circuit, and cabling installation, testing, and modification.

And then theres the peopleJust like we make sure all of our Service Delivery Centers meet high standards of performance, availability, and security, we also make sure on-site staff have the expertise to ensure smooth IT operations for our customers as well as strong technical support no matter how customized a customers services may be, says Tim. After all, trust has to be earned.

hrough the years, Ive seen folks buy technology thinking theyve bought capability like buying data backup technology and assuming it equals disaster recovery/business continuity capability.

Im seeing it again with cloud computing. Theres so much about cloud thats good but theres also a lot of hype. Heres what I tell my customers to be wary of before they go cloud shopping

The notion that loud = Solution. Going cloud does ot automatically deliver a solution. Maybe you need to move to the cloud to acquire the right solution to your business problem or to exploit an opportunity. Maybe you dont. First figure out the capability youre trying to create, then decide if the cloud is the right choice.

The notion that loud = etter. If, say, you dont like your current CRM system, going cloud will not necessarily make you any happier. Remember Cloud technology is ust a delivery mechanism, not a business application.

As always with any new technology, make sure youre buying a solution or a capability rather than a product. If youre not confident about whats real and what isn't, talk to a trusted technology partner.

Two Myths of Cloud ComputingFROM TIM BURKE...INSIDE QUEST'S SDCs (Cont. from p. 1)

STRATEGIC ADVISOR

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CHECK OUT MORE OF TIM'S THINKING ATwww.questsys.com/ceoCorner

Since the arrival in 2002 of the Sarbannes-Oxley Act (SOX) and more stringent financial accountability standards, the role of SAS 0 Type II audit and certification has grown.

That's because both SOX and SAS 0 Type II use the same model of controls so a SAS 0 Type II certification is the best way third parties (like customers) can be assured of acceptable service organization controls.

SAS 0 Type II and SOX use a framework developed by the

Treadway Commission's Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO), which contains five components the Committee believes effectively describe and analyze internal control systems as required by financial regulations. The components are Control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication, and monitoring.

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Why SAS 70 Type II Matters

Quest's Service Delivery Centers:

All the IT Capabilities You Need, All the Time

DID-YOU-KNOW?

Quest professionals are expert at customizing Quest assets to ensure they deliver the exact IT capabilities you need. So consider this listing of Quest Service Delivery Center capabilities a starting

point as you ponder what IT capabilities your business might profit from.

Quest loud ServicesCloud services delivered via Quest's 20 SDCs include desktop virtualization, virtual application development, and data replication/disaster recovery/business continuity. And our cloud experts can adapt and customize Quest's powerful unified virtual cloud architecture to meet a broad range of additional customer needs.

Quest Managed Services Among the ever-widening range of Managed Services provided from Quest SDCs are> Multiple managed security services> Mobile device security services> Managed messaging/email hosting> Data storage/data vaulting/email archiving> Compliance management

Quest Network perations enters (Ns)The NOCs housed in every Quest Service Delivery Center provide many services, including

> Application, network, email, VoIP monitoring/management> On-site or remote network health monitoring> Unified threat monitoring/management> Remote employee access monitoring/management> Single-portal end-to-end performance monitoring> Service level management

Quest olocation facilitiesQuest SDCs house secure, environmentally controlled colocation sites designed to provide 100% network uptime for customers' servers in private cages and lockable, fully-ventilated cabinets available in half or full sizes.

Quest usiness esumption enters (s)Every one of Quest's 20 Business Resumption Centers sites is SAS 0 Type II certified,

and some BRCs exceed even these standards. For instance, Quest's Sacramento BRC sits in an

especially seismically stable area outside of flood plains. The San Diego BRC offers 12+ megawatts of power and N+1 or better redundancy on all systems and a videoconferencing room. The Seattle and Austin sites offer Tier-1 Internet backbones. The Boise and Salt Lake City sites enoy some of the nation's lowest power costs. And Quest BRCs provide CCTV digital surveillance and biometric-controlled access.

STRATEGIC ADVISOR

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Coming in the next issue of Quest Strategic Advisor:

CLOUD ADOPTION — AN INSIDE LOOK

What' s New...Quest Launches Mobile Device Management Service

Now it's easy to optimize company mobile communications functionality and security while minimizing downtime.

Quest's new Mobile Device Management Service secures, monitors, manages, and supports 50 to 5,000 mobile devices, regardless of whether these devices are company-owned or BYOD (bring your own device). The Service is available for virtually all smartphones and tablets, including iPhone®/iPad®, BlackBerry®, Windows® Mobile, Palm™, and Google Android™/Android™ Tablet.

Quest's Mobile Device Management Service helps organizations systematically manage their burgeoning populations of mobile devices, ensuring compliance with corporate policies. The service tightens cost controls, too, thanks to such capabilities as> Identifying unused smartphones,> Tracking smartphone utilization rates at the individual user level, and> Assessing key data points (e.g., use) during business versus non-business hours.

With Quest's Mobile Device Management Service, organizations can remotely troubleshoot devices, which can also be remotely configured singly, in defined subsets, or as an entire fleet. So software and updates can be transmitted and devices can be remotely locked or wiped (useful should a device be lost or stolen).

And Quest provides detailed real-time notifications of potential security anomalies and documents compliance issues with historical reports.

Publisher: Tim BurkeEditor: Barbara Klide

Contact the editor [email protected]

All contents copyright © 2011 by Quest® Media & Supplies, Inc., unless otherwise noted. Quest Strategic Advisor is published bimonthly by Quest Media & Supplies, Inc. Informa-tion contained in this newsletter is believed to be reliable but cannot be guaranteed to be complete or correct. Quest Media & Supplies, Inc. assumes no liability for any use of this newsletter and/or the information or opinions it contains. Quest Strategic Advisor and questsys.com are trademarks of Quest Media & Supplies, Inc. Other product, service, and company names mentioned herein may be servicemarks, trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective holders. To the best of Quest's knowledge, cited data and research findings belong to the organizations to which they are attributed and Quest Media & Supplies, Inc. asserts no claim to them. Quest® is a Registered Trademark of Quest Media & Supplies, Inc.

IN THE MEDIA ROOM

FROM THE QuestCatalog.comDiscover where the HOT DEALS are and which PRODUCTS are TOP SELLERS.Check it out at www.Questcatalog.com

Visit http://www.questsys.com/media.aspx for

VIDEOSNEW VIDEO! Service Delivery Centers: Find out about Quest's nationwide Service Delivery Centers and watch as we focus in particular on Quest's Business Resumption Center, strategically located at one of California's most seismically stable and secure locations. We'll show you why you can count on Quest when you're looking for the ultimate in disaster preparedness.

Who We Are: Colleagues describe achieving business sys-tems success with Quest's help.

Data Security Video: Hear direct from the FBI, security ex-perts, and your peers about the in-depth security issues and how Quest can help protect your company.

Business Continuity Planning/Disaster Recovery: More than 25% of businesses damaged from natural and/or man-made disasters never recover. Ensure your future.

Video overview of our Infrastructure Services: Wireless, Broadband, Fiber-optics, Fiber Splicing, Infrastructure Cabling, and more.

PODCASTSQUEST ON THE RADIO: Download the podcast on Quest's Threat Review Process.

PCI Compliance podcast: Join (Co-Hosts) Scott Draughon (My Technology Lawyer) and Oliver Rist (InfoWorld) as they interview Mike Dillon (Quest CTO) and Jon Bolden (Quest Director of Professional Services) about PCI (Pay-ment Card Industry) compliance.

NEWSLETTERSGet current and back issues of our popular newsletter.Manage your Newsletter subscription.Let us know how you want your newsletter sent athttp://www.questsys.com/SANpreference.aspx Choose hard copy via USPS or the electronic version through your email.

STRATEGIC ADVISOR

DILBERT: © Scott Adams/Dist. by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.

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