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| Data
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| Tech
Fact Sheet |
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Tech Alliances |
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To ensure our customers’ and partners’ critical data and Web sites are secure, Hostway has developed a sophisticated security protocol for both preventative measures and incident response. These processes are deliberate, tested, and continuously reviewed and updated to provide Hostway customers the safest, most reliable service available.
Physical Plant
Hostway generally utilizes two datacenters in Chicago and Austin to service telecom partners due to the unlikelihood of these areas being affected by natural disasters. We can also utilize our global capabilities to create a customized network of data centers dependent on your needs.
Our data centers are designed to minimize the risk of disaster through the use of redundant power and networking infrastructure. From a networking and software application standpoint, we have consistent systems across data centers, which allow us to relocate critical systems to another data center on relatively short notice.
Hostway employs 24/7 security guards to ensure the physical security of our data centers.
All of our data centers are equipped with a complete fire suppression infrastructure, including either dry-pipe pre-action sprinklers or FM-200. All of these are regularly inspected and tested to stay in compliance with local fire safety codes and environmental regulations.
Firewalls will be placed both at network hops and at the host level as appropriate. VPNs are setup between customer facilities and our secure networks where encryption and limited access is required.
All of our data centers are located in facilities that receive power from multiple substations and all have battery backup UPS systems that are sized sufficiently to power all of the equipment for temporary power failures of less than an hour. For longer outages, our data centers have additional protection available via diesel generators. UPS’s and generators are serviced on a regular schedule and tested monthly to maintain their backup ability.
Server Traffic
We support all standard, non-hostile protocols.
Networks and servers are separated from other customers by layers 1, 2 and 3 separation outside of the switching core, clear IP delineation, optional firewalling routers, and server- based firewalls.
Denial of Services and other attacks are handled with locally developed and standard firewall tools. We protect against Denial of Service attacks via special arrangements with upstream providers that enable us to quickly halt malicious traffic before it enters our network.
For major upgrades of software, the new versions first go through extensive testing to ensure its compatibility with the rest of our infrastructure and to make sure that customers will not be adversely affected by the upgrade. Customers are given at least two weeks warning of the upgrade schedule for upgrades that are not deemed urgent for security reasons.
Hardware throughout our data centers is regularly inspected to make sure it has sufficient capacity for our customers’ needs. Upgrades and/or replacements are planned based on this, and are scheduled to occur in off-peak hours in order to minimize disruption to our customers and our operations staff.
Security Audits
To ensure our data centers meet our strict security standards, Hostway retains a third-party security auditor to perform quarterly reviews.
Security incidents are responded to 24x7 by our security staff. A sophisticated tripwire system alerts the staff of any abnormalities, which are logged and responded to immediately.
Due to extensive host lock down and activity logging, host compromises are rare, but in the event of a successful penetration, containment is quick and complete.
Given our network of data centers, we have a number of disaster recovery options we can provide, ranging from regular offsite backups of critical data to fully redundant failover systems across geographical areas.
Our multiple datacenter structure will utilize local backup and inter-datacenter backup of critical customer and internal data. In the unlikely event of a catastrophic failure in the primary datacenter, our disaster recovery plan utilizes multiple data centers in North America to ensure your customers' sites are back up and running as quickly as possible.
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