Thank You.

Thank You.

For many companies, an election year and an economy struggling to get itself back on track paint a picture of modest if not restricted growth possibilities. Not so for Binary Net, a Lincoln-based information technology company specializing in data storage and management solutions.

“In a lot of ways 2011 was a revolutionary time for our industry,” said CEO Layne Sup. “It was a year when a lot of what had been cutting edge technology became a lot more mainstream.”

The company, located at 134 S. 13th St. in Lincoln, under its 34-year-old CEO’s guidance has grown to provide IT services including Web hosting, domains, emergency backup and recovery, server hosting and bandwidth.

Leading the pack are cloud replacements or upgrades to existing systems want to hear all of their options, which opens the door for new ideas.

“For many businesses, there comes a point where they have to reach a decision about upgrading their platform,” Sup said. “That’s usually a good time to discuss newer, more efficient technologies.”

Another factor that has accelerated the growth of these technologies in companies across the board has been the maturation of IT field in general. While the company still serves a number of clients who have a better idea of what they want technology to do that what tools to implement that picture is rapidly changing. Binary Net finds itself serving a much more technologically-savvy clientele, even in small companies. Larger firms are even more sophisticated since the days when IT operations were relegated to a spare room full of servers.

“Many of today’s chief information officers have business degrees as well as technology degrees,” Sup said. “That means they are making business decisions when it comes to technology, based on how well it works in real world situations.”

Binary Net has been able to attain growth in this market climate by being what Sup calls “technologically agnostic,” that is, not advocating a single system or software for client issues, but rather breaking down customers’ needs and applying potential solutions accordingly.

While that sounds elementary, it is actually an important point of differentiation between Binary Net and some of its competitors and it has proven a successful formula.

Binary Net clientele includes public and private entities coast to coast as well as a limited number of international customers, across a variety of industries.

Having such a broad base of increasingly sophisticated customers when it comes to technological matters has helped the company grow by expanding existing business, even in the face of a down economy. Not that economic downturns are necessarily a drag on firms such as Binary Net, who find demand for their services actually increase when clients go through periods of belt-tightening.

“During times like what we’ve seen lately, companies look to do more with less and that means relying on technology to help them operate more efficiently,” he said.

Sup’s tenure with Binary Net began when he was a college student and a subscriber of the company’s dial-up Internet services. After graduation, he partnered with the company in different business ventures, eventually buying the now 16-year-old Binary Net in 2008.

About Binary Net
Binary Net is a leading provider of integrated datacenter services. Binary Net offers the services, facilities and technologies to solve today’s business technology demands for moving to the cloud or supporting onsite networks and computers. For more information visit www.binary.net or call 402-484-5211.

Redundancy does require redundant onsite power options; however, no matter the size of your generators and battery backups, solid utility power should be one of your first decisions in selecting a data center location.

Why do you care where your power comes from?

Generator Power is One Step Closer to Failure. Whether your equipment is in a Tier 3 or Tier 4 facility, backup power is just that, backup, which means one or two more failures and you are completely out of power (depending on maintenance schedules and your level of redundancy, Tier 3 is redundant except during maintenance and Tier 4 is redundant even during maintenance). Without a solid first line of defense, you may be rolling the dice on a complete failure more-often than you would like.

Generator Power Costs More. Running on any sort of reserve simply isn’t as efficient as your primary power. Coordinating diesel trucks or natural gas deliveries requires additional effort and all systems must be more closely monitored during backup time periods. Costs may be passed to you as a client or encourage shortcuts in the data center.

Relying on a Backup isn’t Ideal. The argument that relying on backup power is just as good is like saying you wouldn’t mind recovering files from a backup.

In downtown Lincoln Nebraska we are fortunate to have an extremely reliable electric utility company and our facility has 2 connections to the redundant power grid. We have some of the most reliable power in the country and have not been subject to the rolling brown/blackouts like much of California, Texas and the Northeast.  In fact power to downtown Lincoln has been down less than 2 minutes/year for the last 18 years. (more than five nines of reliability on power).

Flooding can keep you from getting to a working system. Often a system that you cannot physically reach is worse than one that is a smoking hole in the ground. The decision-making process with floods is often difficult to understand when to move into disaster-recovery mode with critical systems.

Flooding may segregate a workforce. With a widespread flood as large as this year’s Missouri flood, many workers may have a 30 minute commute turn into a couple hours as bridges are closed. Technology professionals need to understand that these disasters may increase the number of teleworkers. Make sure you plan ahead if you need additional licensing for SSL, Citrix or other remote connections.

Flooding is often regional. Whether your main location is affected or not, you may have workers living in temporary housing. If your community is flooded, expect that many workers cannot simply work from home.

Flooding affects logistics. The 4hr response-time you selected on your server purchase may no-longer be reasonable. If you need to get parts or rebuild systems during a disaster, your plan needs to be altered. Depending on the nature of your business, you may need to consider having redundant systems available to fall-back.