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Racksquared Data Centers Expands into Louisville, Kentucky

Racksquared Data Centers Expands into Louisville, Kentucky

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3 iSeries Tips from a Rookie

I am new to the world of IBM Power but in the last 6 months, I've learned a lot and would like to share some of those keyPicture1-2 learnings with you. I'm going to talk about how staying current on your OS avoids trouble, why you need to follow the 3-2-1 best practices rule for backups, and how having a disaster recovery plan prepares you for a worst-case scenario.

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IBM Power: Hosted On-Premises or in the Cloud?

According to TechTargets, “The term cloud came into widespread use in 2006 when Amazon launched AWS with the Elasticon-premises IBM Power Compute Cloud (EC2) service”. Since that time, there have been endless debates as to whether it is better to host IT infrastructure on-premises or in the cloud. From my perspective, the answer is a definite “it depends”. How do you figure out what’s best for you? Check out the three questions you need to ask as you determine on-premises versus the cloud. Your company should have the expertise, technology, and environment to support your business requirements. 

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IBM Power Disaster Recovery Story: From V5R3 to V7R4 in 36 Hours

Earlier this year, I wrote an article entitled The IBM Power Trap that described how a series of decisions related to how youRacksquared IBM Power DR manage your applications and IBM Power can leave you stuck. A few people reached out to me with questions so I thought it might be appropriate to share a real-life story about one of our customers, we will call them Glass Corp International (GCI), that got caught in this trap and had to be rescued.

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The IBM Power Trap: 3 Mistakes that Leave you Stuck

Jason Hardy on Jan 30, 2023 1:48:26 PM IBM Power, Cloud

IBM it jungle articlePower has long been known as a stable, reliable hardware platform and as a result companies have leveraged it to run their most critical business applications. For many, it has become so ingrained in their business that they would never choose to migrate away from it. But for some, IBM Power has become a trap from which they can’t escape. This is not a malicious trap that suddenly jumps up and grabs you but rather a trap that is triggered by a series of decisions made over time with each compounded by the previous. So, what are these decisions that create the trap? At Racksquared Data Centers, we have classified them into three categories, application neglect, operating system ambivalence, and hardware apathy. Let’s look at each of these.

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IBM Power: How Strong Is Your Backup Game?

Jason Hardy on Jun 16, 2022 9:32:06 AM IBM Power, Disaster Recovery, Backup, Cloud

Your business runs on IT and chances are if your systems are down, your business is down. Have you contemplated the IBM Backup Blog most common reasons for data loss and whether your strategy can protect you in the event of natural disaster, hardware failure, fire, ransomware, human error or theft? Depending on the reason for your outage, you may experience data loss and need to leverage your backups to recover. Are you confident in your backup and recovery strategy?

One of the simplest tests you can do to assess your backup strategy is to see how you stack up against the 3-2-1 best practices for backups. This requires that you have 3 copies of your data on 2 different media with 1 of them being offsite. When I visit companies and talk to them about their backup strategies, very few are meeting the 3-2-1 best practices.

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POWER10: A simple and smooth migration to the cloud

Jason Hardy on May 11, 2022 10:45:52 AM IBM Power, Cloud

Why haven’t you made the move to IBM Power in the cloud?

Is it because you like the big upfront capital expense and the depreciating asset? Is it because installing PTFs and doing OSshutterstock_422798644 upgrades gives your IT team something to do during slow times? Or maybe it’s because the thought of migration and downtime is just completely overwhelming to you? While I don’t have an answer to the first two reasons above, I’m here to tell you that a migration does not have to be difficult, and downtime can be practically nonexistent.

I recently spent some time with an IBM reseller, and he walked me through the steps of migrating to one of the “big IBM Power in the cloud service providers”. To say that it was complex, and self-service would be an understatement. I know there are many companies that like the self-service cloud model. Give them an interface and they are happy to configure, manage and tweak the environment on their own but I talk to companies every day that want to walk away from hardware management and don’t want the added burden of planning and executing a migration to the cloud. With their limited iSeries expertise on staff, they are happy to offload the project to someone else.

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Moving Time: Why Your IBM i (iSeries) Belongs in the Cloud

Carl Miller on Mar 9, 2022 11:16:09 AM IBM Power, Cloud

shutterstock_1006224250What if you could do one thing to save money, gain time for new projects, and protect your business operations?

That’s what many companies gained when they moved their IBM i to the cloud. After weighing the pros and cons, the reasons to migrate to the cloud are too compelling to ignore. See why the cloud is the best environment for your IBM i, and start planning your move today. You’ll be on your way to cost savings, freed-up staff time, and more protection for your business.

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The IBM i skills shortage isn’t going away

Jason Hardy on Mar 18, 2021 9:03:57 AM IBM Power, Cloud
blog2The IBM i skills shortage isn’t going away
Here’s what you should do about it

 

A shrinking IBM i talent pool has been a major concern for years. 

Back in 2015, dwindling access to IBM i professionals was blamed by IBM’s own top brass on revenue shortfalls. A system that had been around for nearly three decades, it was only a matter of time until the veterans left for greener pastures. The problem was, and continues to be, that fewer young professionals have been eager to master the same set of skills.

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Prepping for Cyber Disasters: 3 Steps and Custom IT Solutions

Racksquared BlogIs your business prepared in the event of a cyber threat? Worse yet, would you know how to react if something catastrophic were to happen to your company’s data. It’s a scary thought, however it’s important to have a plan in place to protect your business’s information. Thankfully, there are specific steps and custom IT solutions that you can implement to ensure your company’s data is as safe as possible. To get started, explore the 3 helpful tips below to better guard your data this year.

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