Overheard at TurnKey Internet, straight from the CEO: “Attaining the SSAE 16 Type 2 certification was a significant goal and milestone for us. We pride ourselves on our unparalleled reliability, quality of service, and—most importantly—customer satisfaction. This certification not only proves that we are excelling in those areas, but also assures our new and existing clients that they are receiving the best possible service.”

You heard right, ladies and gentlemen! We are proud to add SSAE 16 Type 2 to the list of certifications that our green data center in Upstate NY has attained. “What’s that,” you ask? SSAE (or The Statements on Standards for Attestation Engagements) No. 16 (SSAE 16) Type 2 certification is an internationally recognized compliance certification, that was created by the Auditing Standards Board of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants in April of last year (2012). It replaced the Statement on Auditing Standards No. 70 (SAS 70) to better supplement international auditing standard ISAE 3402.

After a thorough examination, conducted by SOC audit specialists The Moore Group CPA, LLC., our facility was deemed compliant with the regulations required to attain SSAE 16 Type 2 certification. This audit investigates several core areas: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. It verifies that TurnKey Internet is of the utmost security, integrity, and reliability. It confirms that we have procedures and safety precautions of the utmost efficiency in place to ensure the security of our facility and our clients’ data within.

Needless to say, we’re pretty excited. We couldn’t wait to share the good news! You can read the full press release here >

Why move to the cloud? Here is January’s quick cloud tip:

The cloud follows the “pay-for-what-you-use” model…

This particular characteristic of the cloud focuses on the fact that cloud computing and managed cloud services are truly cost-effective. This means that users will have to pay only for the amount of service used by them. This way, money spent on improving business through the cloud does not entail extra, unnecessary expenses. Small to medium businesses benefit the most from the type of facility the cloud offers, but large businesses benefit as well.

“Hindsight gives you 20/20 vision,” is a statement you should keep in mind as you read this blog article. Many businesses that were just recently affected in some way by Hurricane Sandy could have avoided the complete standstill to their services by preparing and planning out just what they would do if their facility suffered a catastrophic loss. Hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes,  snow storms, flooding, and fire are some of the most obvious causes of potentially disastrous losses that could halt the operations of a business. In fact, the property of a business does not even have to have any direct damage for a natural disaster to halt their business. For example, loss of electricity, telephone, or internet connectivity can cause problems with functionality, as those services are paramount.

The question any disaster recovery consultant will ask you is, “how would your business survive if it was affected short-term and/or long-term by some catastrophic event?” If you understand that any type of disaster could destroy your computing infrastructure – where all of your company records and data are stored, which could quite possibly destroy your business – then you should have a plan in place to alleviate that possibility.

At the very least, any business that uses computing to manage their operations should have an off-site back-up of their most important data and records. This is not a very expensive strategy, it is something that can be entirely automated, and it does not even need to be accessed until you actually need to use it. There are automated back-up systems available from most data-centers, which back-up your data as frequently as you desire. The incremental changes made in the time-frame chosen are then sent across the internet through an encrypted protocol, and stored in a managed backup system at the data center. Usually, the client is provided with a secure web interface to access those files as needed. These back-ups can also be used to restore individual data files that may have become deleted or damaged at any time, and downloaded back to the computers in your office.

The next step up from simply backing-up your data for protection from a disaster would be hosting some, to all, of your regular computing infrastructure in a data center (cloud computing). If you hosted your main office server in a data center and accessed your files over the Internet from the PCs in your office, you could survive a disaster from a computing standpoint. All of your important data could then be accessed from a temporary, remote location, or even by having your employees work from home until the office is re-established. Many companies are now hosting their entire computing infrastructure in a data center; everything from virtual PCs to their application servers. These can then be accessed through just about any device that is connected to the internet, such as a PC, Mac, tablet, and many types of smartphones.

Communicating with your customer base during and after any disaster is vital in many cases. When your email and telephone systems are cut off, and you and your customers can no longer communicate, this could be extremely damaging to your business. By hosting your email server at a data center, you have access to your email system through almost any device connected to the internet.

One of the data center services that is really gaining popularity lately is VOIP-based hosted phone systems. In a VOIP-based system, The PBX system normally nailed to the wall in an office is replaced by a PBX server in a data center. Management and administration of the system is then done though a web interface. All phone communication is channeled through voice over Internet protocol (VOIP).  The advantage of this in a disaster is that your phone system is always intact. You can access your administration portal over the Internet and change any settings that may be necessary, such as adding additional extensions for remote users. Staff members can work from remote locations or at home, by accessing the phone system with a softphone on their PC or by having their calls transferred from their extensions to their cell phones.

I have suggested that data center services, TurnKey Internet included, are great solutions to the issues surrounding disaster recovery. The key reason is that they have multiple redundancies in place to provide 100% up-time guarantees. At TurnKey Internet, we have multiple fiber providers supplying our Internet and bandwidth through diverse physical paths into our facility. We have complicated switch gear in place to maintain your connections, in case one or some of the fiber connections coming into the building are disrupted. Additionally, our power supply is backed-up with both a robust battery back-up supply to all servers and equipment, as well as an on-site diesel generator that can power our facility long-term if necessary.  For these reasons and more, anyone considering disaster recovery planning should consider the options available from reputable data centers like ours at TurnKey Internet, to insure that their business is not damaged long-term by a catastrophic event that had not been planned for.

At TurnKey Internet, there is only one thing we like to do more than make new friends, and that one thing is tell everyone about it. That being said, we are so excited to announce that docSTAR, a document management software company and subsidiary of Astria Solutions Group, LLC., is moving into our Latham, NY data center!

docSTAR is located in Schenectady, NY, so we’re basically neighbors. This is one of the most noteworthy aspects of docSTAR’s move into the TurnKey  cloud. There has been quite a stir around here in regards to teaming-up with a fellow Capital Region small business, and we welcome them wholeheartedly to our facility. We like to think of it as a little ray of sunshine on the heels of Hurricane Sandy!

Greg Laird, docSTAR’s VP of Product Development commented, “The cloud powers our software and our business. Our growth required a bigger, faster, stronger cloud in order to continue to provide the highest level of service. The TurnKey data center exceeds all of our requirements, so our customers can continue to grow.”

We’re more than happy to help! To read the full press release, you can check it out here.

Howdy-do, TurnKey Lovers?

A couple of weeks ago, my co-worker, Joe Schoonbeck, came up with a brilliant idea for a post. He suggested we write up a quick “How-To” on some of the essentials you need to begin a hosting business. What a simple, yet profound idea. If I had a dime every time we received questions about how to set up hosting, I would be able to buy a triple with cheese and a large fry from Wendy’s. Enough of this talk about food; let’s get down to business.

Now, this list of ideas is by no means set in stone. These are just a few steps that I believe will give you a good foundation to build your business upon.

 
Step 1 – Decide and Buy

This may seem like a no-brainer, but it is important to determine which type of reseller account suits your needs. Unlike spandex, one size does not fit all. You see, at TurnKey Internet, we sell different types of reseller accounts: alpha, master, and WHM (web host manager).

Each reseller account has its pros and cons, but we’ll leave that for another article. For this entry into the TurnKey diary, let’s just keep it very high-level. Alpha accounts can resell Master accounts and WHM accounts, while Master accounts can only resell WHM accounts. Then, the poor, old WHM accounts can only resell cPanel accounts. This allows you to resell multiple accounts on your website.

Once you decide which account is best for you, purchase it.

Step 2 – Create

I had an intense, internal debate about step 2. Initially, I was thinking about skipping right to Step 3 (configuring your DNS), but it didn’t make sense to me to get into that if you have no site to share with the world.

You can take multiple steps in setting up your website, so I will be brief. You can use TurnKey’s website builder that is included in our reseller packages. Or, maybe you have a developer who creates fantastic websites in his/her sleep. The choices are limitless on this step.

Step 3 – Setup (Part I: Your DNS)

For the sake of this article, I’m going to assume you do not know what DNS is. I’m going to instead share how I teach what DNS (domain name system) is to our newbie engineers. You see, I compare DNS to a post office system. You have your streets and your addresses, which allow people to find your place of residence. That’s what DNS is, in a nut shell.

You have your website, and in order for others to see your masterpiece, you must first tell them where it is. You do this with your DNS. You have your DNS record, which contains your website’s IP address and your nameservers. Your IP address is essentially like the number on your mailbox. Your nameserver(s) would be the street(s) on which your house resides. You have to setup your DNS in order for others to visit your site.

Step 4 – Configure

Now that you have your site online and users purchasing hosting from you, they will inevitably need support. This could be with anything, from support for setting up your clients’ websites, to adding space to their account.

You will need some point of communication that you can use to speak with your clients. Our TurnKey reseller accounts each come with free helpdesk software included, which you can white label in your company’s name. This allows you to have a way for your customers to easily and efficiently submit tickets.

Step 5 – Setup (Part II: Extras)

When I say “setup extras”, these are items that can add increased functionality to your hosting company. While this step can be rather large, we will just stick to a few of the basics.

If you’re selling anything on your site, you will need to install an SSL certificate. This basically encrypts your users’ connections when they submit orders to your company. I would say this is just as important as your website. If you don’t happen to have an SSL certificate lying around, you can request a FREE SSL with your TurnKey reseller account. If you’re going to be accepting orders, you may need a billing system that can help keep those orders in line. Enter—one of our most popular free extras—a free WHMCS license.

 
Now, there are no exact steps, but these can give you a good foundation for beginning your hosting account career.

Until next time, Turnkey Lovers!

Howdy-do, Turnkey Lovers?

You know, I haven’t spoken with you guys and ladies in quite some time. It’s been too long, and I just wanted to write a post for you. Today, one of my favorite musicians’ latest album came out, and it got me thinking — thinking about what some people consider to be the American Dream.

I’m sure you’re familiar with the story; some lady or gent claws their way from the bottom to the top. It could be figuratively or literally. It could be coming to this country and opening up a chain of gas stations, or coming to this country and opening a chain of hosting companies. While all of that is fine and dandy, I wanted to share with you, Turnkey Internet lovers, my hosting dream.

Now, this dream is mine and mine alone, but I’ve also gathered a bit of information just from dealing with multiple clients on a daily basis. You see, I believe the hosting dream is very similar to the American Dream. I say this, as I work with hundreds of clients who have this idea that they can start a hosting company.

They purchase a Turnkey reseller account, and set up their site to begin. They may then have a developer, or use one of our website development tools, to build and design their site. Dedicated IPs are purchased, and assigned to domain names that have been recently bought through Turnkey’s domain registration. The customer then sets up the reverse DNS (dynamic naming service) to only be in their domain, after which WHMCS or a similar billing product is purchased or provisioned so that orders can be processed.

Next comes the fun part — marketing this new online business. Maybe you create a hosting account on a credible hosting forum to begin making a name for yourself. You may even create social media accounts on sites such as Twitter or Facebook to develop a following. Sure enough, the day comes that you receive that first customer. The beginning of a long journey has arrived.

Support issues will be raised, and need to be addressed quickly and completely to the customers’ satisfaction. Repeat. Repeat, repeat. You repeat until your customer base grows. Your name is mentioned in forums and in social — and possibly your local (newspaper, television, etc.) — media.

You see, that’s my hosting dream. That anyone can deliver a satisfying product to their customers with the correct tools, ambition, proper networking, support, etc. That anyone can provide top-notch support and superior customer service. That, with all of this, you and your budding hosting company can flourish.

That’s my dream and desire for every customer that approaches Turnkey Internet. My hosting dream is for our company to help your company succeed and thrive.

I just thought I should share that with you, as everyone has to have a dream, right? How could we achieve anything in this life if we never have a dream?

From my hosting dream, to your own.

Until next time, Turnkey lovers!

Come visit TurnKey Internet at the smALBANY 2012 Business Expo in Albany, New York this Tuesday July 17th, 2012  – we are located at booth #208 and will be showing off some of the amazing new green technology behind our Latham, New York Datacenter which drives our Cloud Services.  Stop by and say hello!  The keynote speaker is from Google, and the show looks to be a great one for businesses!

We have a new treat for this trade show : our all new gumball machine turned M&M dispencer that will be setup at our booth, so stop in and grab a snack.  If you don’t have time to stop in at the show, and still want a quick snack – shoot on over to our facebook page and reply to the message on there and we will be happy to mail you your own M&M snack with some more information about our Green Datacenter and Cloud Hosted Services!

The show is free – and located at CNSE’s Albany NanoTech complex, at 255 Fuller Rd in Albany NY – for more information and free registration head on over to smAlbany.org.  We hope to see you there!

Maximizing Your Online Exposure!

If you are serious about generating a significant amount of business through online marketing you need to maximize your efforts by including as many platforms and channels as you can possibly manage and still pay attention to all of the other responsibilities your business requires. Lately the buzz has been all about social media marketing on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Linkedin and Youtube, along with dozens of other less recognized services. However there are so many other avenues that should be pursued as well that can interact and cross promote with your social media accounts as well. Depending on your budget as well as the time commitment you or someone in your company is able to make, here is a list of just a few options available to improve your online presence.

Budget Required Marketing Services

• Pay per click ad campaigns– several options available on the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing that allow you to setup up budgeted pay per click or impression ad campaigns to drive traffic to you site or a particular web page.
• Retargeting ad campaigns– retargeting is the process of showing ads to people who have already visited your website. This gives you both branding and direct marketing to those you know are interested in your products or services as they have already been on your site. Simply do a search for Retargeting Options and you will find plenty of firms to choose from.
• Online media outlets-depending if you market locally, nationally or worldwide you can place banner ads on popular online media sources that have display advertising offerings. Examples might be your local newspaper to the local promotion to the Wall Street Journal for National Promotion.
• Industry specific media outlets– depending on the industry your company is in you could probably choose from numerous online options that are related to your particular industry that attracts that type of customers you are trying to reach.  Simply think of the sites your clients would likely be visiting and determine which ones best fit your budget and audience.

Time Commitment Marketing Options

• Blogging– developing a blog site with popular software like WordPress is fairly simple and inexpensive. Turnkey provides an option to host deploy and host a  Wordpress site for as low as $4.95 a month. The key is continually updating the site with fresh relevant content about you and your company. Many online marketers employ several WordPress sites at once to develop links back to their main website to increase traffic and help generate search engine credibility.
• Geo-targeting your website– this works especially well if you are promoting to a smaller geographic area but can work regionally as well. Throughout your website and Blogs article continually mention the specific geographic areas you promote you business in. Use the industry related terms along with the Geo Tag in both the tile of your pages as well as in the content. For example: Atlanta Window Washing for a window washing company in Atlanta.
• Updating your website– simply put if your website does not continually get updated it must not be important to your business and thus it will likely not be attractive to any visitors as well. Updating your website with fresh relevant content is important to search engine credibility.
• Link Building– the more links coming back to your site the higher the search engines will rank your site. This has to be done with caution as links coming in from none relevant sites and topics will be viewed as a negative by the search engines.
• Posting to all of your social media– posting to all of your social media services on a regular basis keeps you top of mind with all of those you are linked to. That is the concept, socialize and bee seen!

The point of bringing all of this to your attention is that the more presence you have online the more rewards you will be presented. Having a well planned out online strategy is essential to be successful and make your spending and efforts worthwhile.

I wrote a blog a while back about giving great customer service.  I’d like to take a moment and touch on an even more important point and, that is. how to GET great customer service.  There’s an old saying that is as true today as it was the day the phrase was coined:  “you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar”.  When calling customer service for any company you do business with – and it doesn’t matter if it’s your hosting company, the power company, the phone company, the manager at your local grocery store or whatever – there are some things that need to be kept in mind by the person who is expecting/needing assistance.

First and foremost, know what it is you need help with and take a minute or two prior to calling, speaking or writing, to figure out the best, most concise way to get that point across.  I will keep most of my examples within the scope of internet/network/server customer service only because I’ve been involved with it for 14 years.  Here’s what normally happens on a phone call:

Customer:  I’ve been with your company for 15 years now why all of a sudden am I having issues?

(buzzer sound from half time at a basketball game goes off in CSR’s head – CSR = Customer Service Rep).  Customer never told the CSR his/her name, account id, or any other identifying information, so CSR has no way to look account up and get background information while customer continues to talk – thus slowing down the process.  Additionally, customer did not state specifically, or even vaguely in this instance, what the issue is.  And, just for the record, these conversations actually take place on a daily basis.

CSR: I’d like to help, may I have the last name on the account, email address on the account or domain name associated with the account so I may pull your records up? Customer: Smith

Ok, hopefully, you’re seeing where I’m going with this.  These types of conversations get nowhere and take 4 times longer to get to the root of the issue and resolve than they need to.  The customer continually demands to know precisely when the issue will be resolved (as you’re still looking the account up and haven’t even yet been told what the issue is).  This is *not* how to get good customer service.

The truth of the matter is, CSR’s exist to give all customers 100% of their attention and assistance whether the customer has been with the company for 15 years or 15 minutes.  Stating how long you’ve been with the company is totally irrelevant.  Most customers think it’s relevant because they do not understand the role of the CSR and, that is, to give ALL customers 100% attention and assistance in a polite and professional way.

You (the customer) want your issue resolved.  Be concise, be specific.  The more concise and specific you can be with the information that you provide to a CSR, the quicker your issue will get resolved.  This does not mean recounting a story that began 12 years ago and somehow morphed into an issue with the company you’re currently with.  Again, supply only relevant, current information.

While you may be frustrated, taking it out on the CSR is often counter productive.  For instance, the CSR’s are human beings, just like you – while trained to handle the toughest of situations, they too have feelings, emotions and while they are there to help you 100%, when you are rude, or short (which is what happens when you let the frustrations get the best of you) – you end up alienating the CSR.  Even with the best of training by the CSR, when they get verbally abused, or insulted, or talked down to – they subconsciously may not give the extra 10% (110% now!) to help you get this situation resolved as quickly as possible.

CSR’s exist for customers.  You pay them, perhaps indirectly through your purchase, memerbship and/or subscriptions – and they are thre for you.  The key is to knowing how to maximize that to navigate to the solution you both want, a happy client with any issue resolved quickly and professionaly.

So, to summarize, some of the best ways to get the absolute best from any CSR (regardless of whether it’s your grocery store, insurance company, mechanic, hosting company or the utility company) is to remember the following:

1. Be specific and concise – afterall you have better things to do and you want your issue addressed as quickly as possible.

2. Be nice – do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

3. Leave irrelevant information out of the conversation – it’s wonderful that everyone in your family, back to your great-great-grandfather has been with the company but, that has nothing to do with getting your issue resolved.

4. Have information readily available that identifies your specific account.

5. Just use good old fashioned common sense.

Former Latham New York U.S. Post Office
This building once stood as the U.S. Post Office serving as a communication hub for thousands of residents here in Colonie. Today it now stands as a modern hub from which millions of people communicate from across the globe.

TurnKey Internet purchases this vacant U.S. Government building in 2010 which had been previously used for 35+ years as the Post Office for Latham, New York. After invested millions in retrofitting the facility with high capacity redundant power, fiber optic and cooling systems to make it a state of the art of Datacenter – TurnKey Internet launched it as their new flagship GREEN Datacenter in 2012.  The official ribbon cutting was April 18th, 2012 – and here is the video of the entire event, as well as the transcript of the speech from our CEO, Adam Wills.

Thank you Mark, thank you for the kind words, appreciate it.  Thank you everyone for coming out here today.  I really want to thank the partners that helped make this happen.  Jim Conroy from NYBDC, Kevin Catalano from the Technology Accelerator Fund, Phil Engborg from M&T Bank – These guys helped see the vision to assist us in getting this project done.  Thank you guys, you stood up and helped get to the vision we had, and I really appreciate that.  National Grid and NYSERDA you were very helpful in funding some of the green technologies we were able to bring to the project that has helped set TurnKey aside from others in this industry.

This building at one time back in the 1970’s was the U.S. Post office.  It used to be the communications hub for about 8,000 residents here in Colonie, NY.  Today, it sits as the modern communications hub for millions of people across the globe.  Clients from 100 different countries access their data through this facility right now.  It’s the old vs the new, it’s the way people communicate today – its very different. 

Up above us on the roof is our own dedicated solar power plant.  We are producing clean renewable energy that is powering up to 75% of our facility right this very second.  We are focused on green technologies not because it’s just the ‘in thing’, but to be sustainable in this business for the next 20, 50, 100 years you have to look to these types of green clean efficient uses of technology. 

We have made significant multi-million dollar investments here in special green cold containment pods, smart aisle precision cooling, and many other things that you will have the chance to see when you go in for a tour.  All of these make this datacenter among the most green, the most efficient you will find not only in New York state but across the globe.

New York’s Tech Valley region has talked about being the leader in Green Business.  I really feel this facility, with the partners that helped make this happen; the Chambers, the funding partners, NYSERDA, National Grid; you have all shown the commitment to making Green businesses happen here in Tech Valley, and I think this facility is a monument to that.

Thank you all for coming today.