As we celebrate Earth Day, many businesses, organizations and individuals will take additional time to reflect on their impact on our environment and the contributions we can all make to a sustainable future. Organizations like EarthDay.org help spearhead awareness and direct-action options we can all consider in our own lives to be ‘greener’.

The term “Green”, “Being Green” or “Going Green” all have multiple variations and meanings, but in general, we all accept that it means to help sustain the environment in some fashion. Many years ago, the Earth Day movement started more with a focus about recycling. Today, it has evolved into an awareness of sustainability by reducing overall carbon footprints through less consumption (and output of non-renewable resources to produce the goods and/or power we consume).

One of the largest non-green impacting areas we see is electronic devices like our mobile devices, computers, and servers. While desktop computers at least have power saving modes that often can reduce their usage, they still consume (and impact the environment) roughly the same as 4,500 miles driven per year of a typical US car. Servers are the worst offenders of the bunch, running 24/7, consuming large amounts of energy to keep your email, files, apps, and websites running all the time even when we are asleep.

Those high energy consuming servers, and in some cases office desktop PC’s, can all be moved to the cloud through cloud-based servers and colocation.  It may not seem obvious, but moving your servers and desktop PCs into the cloud can make a huge impact. While data centers can consume massive amounts of energy to keep those cloud-based servers running 24 hours a day (especially the massive industrial air conditioning and redundant power systems in place to support these facilities), the fact is that data centers can be scaled up to effectively utilize the best-in-class options to be efficient and sourced from green energy, to substantially reduce, or in fact eliminate their entire carbon footprint. If you colocate or host your servers in such a data center, you effectively reduce your impact on our environment significantly.

TurnKey Internet’s Green Data Center was built to have an effective carbon footprint of zero  – sourcing all its power from a massive on-site solar array and hydro-electric power provided by New York State’s Recharge NY program, on top of the most cutting-edge power efficiency and data center cooling technology.  TurnKey Internet’s state-of-the-art data center won the New York State Environmental Excellence award and The U.S. Federal Government’s Environmental Protection Agency awarded the facility the 2nd only New York Energy Star Certified Data Center designation.

So from our stand point, green is about minimizing or having zero impact on the environment – and more so, we are helping businesses take their office servers, computers, and other IT infrastructure into the cloud to minimize their carbon footprints too. This Earth Day, take a look around your home or office – and see what small changes you can do to help improve your impact on the world.

LATHAM, NEW YORK (December 13th, 2016) – Leading Datacenter and Cloud Hosting Solutions provider TurnKey Internet, Inc. announced today the completion of the expansion to its flagship Datacenter in New York’s Tech Valley Region. The expansion increases total capacity of the New York datacenter by 50% as well as adding additional network capacity, high speed computing servers, and redundant environmental systems to meet the growing demand for its Colocation and Cloud-based solutions.

Less than six months after announcing the opening of their new California datacenter, TurnKey Internet’s latest expansion to its flagship New York Datacenter continues to strengthen the company’s enterprise-class cloud-based infrastructure, which currently provides solutions to clients in over 150 countries. The expansion not only increases total capacity, but also includes upgrades to the datacenter’s cooling systems, FM200 fire suppression and detection systems, as well as additional network redundancy and capacity.

Constructed in 2012, TurnKey Internet’s New York Datacenter leverages state-of-the-art green technologies, such as Cold-Containment Pods, smart-aisle cooling technology, and high voltage efficient power delivery systems. The facility maintains a zero carbon emission foot print by sourcing hydroelectric power through Governor Cuomo’s ‘ReCharge NY’ Program and using its advanced on-site solar power array. The facility is among the most energy-efficient datacenters world-wide. In 2013, the facility was the 2nd in New York to be designated as an ENERGY STAR® certified data center by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In 2013 the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation awarded TurnKey Internet an Environmental Excellence Award for the cutting-edge green design and operation of the 100% non-fossil fuel consuming sustainable datacenter.

“The expansion of our New York Datacenter matches our vision of providing our customers access to best in class enterprise-grade IT resources on a ‘turnkey’ platform,” said Adam Wills, CEO of TurnKey Internet, Inc. He continued “Demand only is increasing for colocation and hybrid cloud solutions. The expansion of our datacenter and infrastructure allows us to continue to deliver the best Cloud Services with increased redundancy and more value to our existing and future clients.”

For more information about TurnKey Internet’s latest expansion or to speak with a Cloud Hosting Solutions expert, visit https://turnkeyinternet.net/

About Turnkey Internet

Founded in 1999, TurnKey Internet, Inc. is a full-service Cloud Hosting Solutions provider with Datacenters in New York and California specializing in Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to clients in more than 150 countries. Services offered in both East Coast and West Coast, USA – include Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Dedicated & Bare Metal Servers, Backup & Disaster Recovery, Online Storage, Web Hosting, Managed Hosting, Hybrid Solutions and Enterprise Colocation. Headquartered in New York’s Tech Valley Region, TurnKey Internet’s Flagship company owned Datacenter offers SSAE 16 Type II certification powered exclusively by on-site Solar and Hydroelectric sources to provide a 100% renewable energy footprint. In 2013 the facility was designated as the 39th ENERGY STAR® Certified Datacenter in the United States. For more information, please call (518) 618-0999 or visit www.turnkeyinternet.net/media.

In the late 80s /early 90s times where starting to change, this wonderful technology era we live in now was just beginning. Businesses now, need to be online in order to stay competitive and grow with this new age.

Like most business a Server Room was built, in a spare room or space in your office or home and today now resembles a pile of mis-colored wires that you could spend days trying to untangle. You purchased equipment that easily fit into your budget, and your team was able to configure the networking without any troubles. This setup was the same in all business across the board. In the beginning of this era, you could get away with this. There was no thought of cooling systems or ventilation. No notion of backup power systems, or any real working order was to be found in your Server Room.

Once again, the era of technology has changed. Businesses need their operations to run with super speeds, be secure, maintained, monitored, and most of all be redundant. The terms Server Room and Data Center could once be used interchangeably, no longer can they now.

A Server Room can be any room, in any building that houses servers. Whereas a Data Center, is a whole building designed to support and provide a secure, power protected, environmentally controlled space, used for accommodating servers, networking, and computer equipment.

Some of the key points to a Data Center, a Server Room does not have.

Security and Monitoring:

Most Server Rooms do not have a high volume of security. Besides the buildings overall security, there may be a lock on the Server Room door.

Data Centers pride themselves in the security features they offer. All entrances and exits are secured with a key coded entry system, as well as alarms. Not just alarms for entry. Alarms for temperature control, air pressure, fire / water control, ect. All Data Centers have network cameras, accessible to their staff and security team in a needed event. The cores / racks the servers are housed in are all locked. Only opened when your team needs to visit or by the Data Center staff, if needed.

Connectivity:

What good is your server if you have a fixed bandwidth rate? Most Server Rooms are capped off by their ISP as they are using a residential internet service.

Data Centers do not use any type of residential internet service and most times are able to set the bandwidth limits as they are needed by the server.

Redundancy:

If there is a power failure at your business, do you have a backup power plan? Most Server Rooms run from the same power source, as the full office. Making your sites and servers go down if there is ever a power failure.

Data Centers have a plan for any type of failure. When it comes to power failures, most Data Centers have battery backups, automatically triggered if the main power supply is not responding. When the system sees the backup batteries are being utilized, another backup power source is engaged, the generator.   At this point the battery backups turn off and all power is controlled by the generator until normal power is restored.

Affordability:

With a Server Room, you are accumulating all the costs that go along with it.  You may have had to cut advertising short or possibly even lay off good employees as the costs to maintain and house your equipment have risen. At a Data Center all those costs are tied into your package and at a much, much lower cost.

Environment:

Datacenters control the cooling and humidity – to a precise and perfect level to keep your equipment running as long as possible.  Storing equipment in non-conditioned environmental space like your server room or office closet will shorten the life of your equipment significantly (meaning it will cost you real money to replace broken equipment sooner).  Electronics are sensitive to things like electrical and static shock, which occur due to improper humidity (moisture) and you can even find corrosion on the electronics in some poor environmental conditions.  Its crucial if you have valuable equipment to store it in a properly humidified and cooled location like a datacenter.

Green (going Green):

Some modern datacenters, like TurnKey Internet’s Green Datacenter , offer one additional benefit ontop of everything above.  Your IT equipment and servers consume less energy in terms of cooling and power draw in a modern green-focused datacenter – and in TurnKey Internet’s datacenter your equipment consumes energy provided by only by the Sun (on-site solar array) and Water (Hydro power) providing zero carbon foot prints for your IT infrastructure versus having it at your office.

Our offices do not look anything like they did 20 years ago. Our businesses are not what they were 20 years ago. Most companies have employees living all around the world, remoting in for work. Your administrative staff is no longer dependent on white out, typewriters, and filing cabinets. You attend conferences and meetings by using a phone, tablet, or even your watch. The majority of your business is conducted over email and most of your sales are placed through your website. In order to keep up with these growing times, we now need to ditch the Server Room and head to the Data Center.

LATHAM, NEW YORK (December 11, 2013) – Sustainable IT solutions provider TurnKey Internet, Inc. announced that it has been awarded the 2013 Environmental Excellence Award by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for TurnKey’s work on transforming a vacant, former post office building into one of the nation’s leading high-tech, sustainable data centers.

The award from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation recognized TurnKey’s innovative facility design and outstanding commitment to environmental sustainability, social responsibility and economic viability.  Turnkey’s  innovative green data center sets a benchmark for the data center industry through use of ultra-efficient cooling, unified power systems and renewable energy sources that create a carbon neutral facility.

TurnKey’s sustainable data center includes a roof-top solar array, backed by hydro-electric renewable power sources and cutting-edge cooling technologies that minimize energy consumption.   TurnKey’s green data center is one of only two ENERGY STAR® certified data centers in New York and one of just 39 in the United States.

In recognition of their commitment to the environment, TurnKey Internet has seen several prestigious titles and certifications this year including the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officially naming its Latham, New York facility an ENERGY STAR^® certified data center.  In April, the company announced their implementation of the New York State Governor’s ReCharge New York hydroelectric power system. This, combined with the solar power the facility generates on site, allowed them to achieve a zero carbon footprint. Additionally, they announced their SSAE 16 Type 2 security certification earlier in the year.

“We are honored by New York State’s recognition of our facility and our ongoing commitment to sustainability,” said Adam Wills, president and CEO of TurnKey Internet. “Data centers are massive power consumers, and the industry as a whole is expected to be larger polluters than the airline industry by 2020. TurnKey has created a zero carbon foot print facility and a working blue print for ultra-efficient data centers that we hope will be adopted by other facilities across the globe to help create a sustainable environment.

 About Turnkey Internet

Founded in 1999, TurnKey Internet, Inc. is a full-service green data center and leading provider of sustainable web hosting and IT solutions. From its SSAE 16 Type 2 and ENERGY STAR^® certified facility in Latham, NY—New York’s Tech Valley Region—TurnKey offers web hosting, communication services, web-based IT systems, software as a service (SaaS), enterprise colocation services, and computing as a service to clients in more than 150 countries. For more information, please call (518) 618-0999 or visit www.turnkeyinternet.net/media.

Big news, everyone! Starting Monday, February 25th, 2013–also known as next Monday–we will be holding a contest on our social sites!

After the panic that both Hurricane Sandy and Winter Storm Nemo brought about, it has become clear to us that far too many people are uninformed about the importance of being prepared. Back up your data, guys! Prepare for disaster! It’s so, so imperative in running a business successfully, and ensuring its continuity. You wouldn’t drive a car without insurance, would you? Maybe you would, how would I know? But if you do, cut it out.

With that being said, we decided to take action. Introducing: The Disaster Recovery Trivia Challenge!

HOW TO PLAY:

–   Every Monday morning, stop by our Facebook and/or Twitter page(s). There, among the piles of awesomeness, you’ll find a fact about disaster recovery, or businesses’ lack thereof.

–   Read the fact, and decide if you think it’s “True” or “False”.

–   Once you’ve made up your mind, tell us what you think! You can submit your guess on Facebook in the comment section of the fact post, or tweet it to us on Twitter. Luckily, both “True” AND “False” are 140 characters or less—for all you little blue birdies out there. Phew!

Casting your guess (when and IF—that’s a big “if”, see?—you “like” us on Facebook or “follow” us on Twitter…or both, if you just really like hanging out with us) automatically earns you an entry to win— DRUM-ROLL, PLEASE…

Oooooohhh…

Aaaaaaahhh…

 *

Wooooowww…

—A free shirt! As a proud owner of one of these babies and a lover of all items acquired through winning giveaways, I can confidently tell you that you shouldn’t sit this one out.

At the end of every week, also known as Friday, we will not only be revealing the answer, but choosing a winner at random. Did you see I said “every week”? That means that with every new fact that we present, comes another opportunity for you to win. So, if you play and aren’t selected, bet your bottom dollar that the sun will come out next week.

We have 10 disaster recovery facts to talk to you about, so that means there are 10 chances to win. That also means that there will be 10 winners of TurnKey finery when all is said and done. However, we want to have a grand-prize winner, because, well… why not? At the end of this 10-week period, when we’re done making it rain T-shirts on you all, we will draw one grand-prize winner from the pool of weekly winners. That one, final, lucky winner will receive $100! Don’t spend it all in one place! Unless you’re spending it at TurnKey Internet, that is.

So what do you think? Will you play along? At the very least, check in on Fridays for some valuable information that just might end up saving you.

* Recognize this image, anyone? This T-shirt is the answer to this week’s  “Guess that photo” puzzle! For those of you who haven’t heard yet, “Guess that Photo” is another game we play on our social sites! Tune in every week for a new picture, and see if you can guess what it is.

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 >

“Let’s Make a Deal!” was a terrific run, wouldn’t you agree? We had a ton of fun deal-making and prize-awarding, through the original promotion and then again with its revival. However, like all good things, “Let’s Make a Deal!” must, too, come to an end. If you find yourself in tears, we understand. Take a moment. We’ll wait…

We would like to extend a final, congratulatory shout-out to our winners of “The Deal of a Lifetime” (Jesse C., Steven S., Danny F., Hendra S., and Adam B.), and an enormous “Thank you!” to everyone who entered. This will not be the last TurnKey Internet giveaway of its kind—mark my words!

With that being said, we have something brand new to share with you! Come on; would you really expect anything less from us? At this point, we hope you know as well as we do that we would be bored to tears without some kind of event going on.

Without further ado, we would like to introduce… The Truckload Sale!

An 18-wheeler just arrived at the TurnKey Internet data center, bursting at the seams with a medley of 8 GB, 16 GB, and 32 GB Intel E3 dedicated servers. To celebrate the arrival of this glorious mountain of technology, we are packing in the savings and marking every single one of them 40% off! All you have to do is enter the coupon E3TRUCK at check-out. That’s it! We’re all about making things easier.

E3’s are what’s hot right now, and they are being snatched up left and right. Don’t miss your chance to get in on this discount, because—trust us!—it won’t last long! Check out the Truckload Sale > 

Also… Yes, there is an “also”. Have you noticed there’s almost always an “also”? The E3 sale isn’t the only new thing starting up at TurnKey Internet this week. Since the truck arrived carrying only servers, we realized that we needed to show our other products and services some love as well. Naturally, we decided to offer savings on… well, everything. We just feel like a new year is started best when there’s a deal involved, you know? Especially when it’s a TurnKey deal, because those are our very favorite kinds of deals. So, see for yourself! Whether you’re looking for a reseller package or a virtual private server or anything in between, with this sale (and the coupon code TK2013), we know you’ll be able to kick off 2013 correctly.

So, are you as excited as we are? We hope so! But save some room for more, and keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter pages. We may or may not have another contest all cooked up and coming your way in the VERY near future.

Pssttt… I’ll have it be known that by “may or may not” I mean “definitely do without question”, but that’s between you and me…

Join us in welcoming Alan Rosenberg, Strategic Account Manager, to the TurnKey team!

 
“I came to the grand opening of TurnKey a few months ago and remember being very impressed with the direction Adam was going. His operation is remarkable. I possess my own sustainability concerns, so I was glad to see the green initiatives that TurnKey is taking. I have known Adam since his days at Global when I sold them beepers—I hope that does not give away my age.

“Besides Adam, I knew Tim and David before joining TurnKey. I knew of their work, and knew Adam has a good staff. I was thrilled to see that they were looking for an outside sales person, and again when I was hired to focus on growing the Channel Partner Program and handle Enterprise accounts.

“TurnKey has the solutions for your IT needs. Please stop in for a tour, or visit our web site www.turnkeyinternet.net. I can be reached at 518-618-0999 ext 109 or arosenberg@turnkeyinternet.net.

“I am looking forward to contributing to the TurnKey blog. Keep an eye out every month for ‘Alan’s Cloud Tip of the Month,’ and other articles.”

 
Read more about Alan…

Howdy Do, TurnKey Lovers?

It’s your favorite technician, back with another delightful treat. Haha, okay, maybe I should tone down the favoritism. I could be your favorite technician, or it could be any of our other wonderful techs. For the sake of this article, let’s just assume that I’m your number 1 guy.

Another year has come and gone, and what a year it was. That’s what I want to speak to you about today. If you don’t mind, let’s do a bit of reflection for a moment. Let’s take a step into the TurnKey time machine to look at this past year. (No, you can’t buy mine. Get your own.)

2012 has been one hell of a year, and I will give you the TurnKey Top Plays. Think of it like SportsCenter’s Top Plays, but with TurnKey. All of you sport fans should appreciate the top plays. I mean, why else do you watch SportsCenter at 3 in the morning? Okay, okay, I digress. Jeremy, stay on topic. Ah, yes, our Top Plays of the past year…

Let’s begin the countdown at number 5:

5. Welcomed new staff into the TurnKey family

Yes, this makes the Top Plays. We’ve added a few new members to our TurnKey family. I’m sure you’re already familiar with one, Emily Wegener. She’s the lovely lady who edits all of these posts; making us writers/technicians look better at this blogging thing than we are. Another new member of our TurnKey family—even though he doesn’t always stay because of something called “college”—Is Jared Rutnik. Jared helps Emily keep our TurnKey name out there in this delightful world of the Internet. Last but not least, we welcomed another technician, Chris Day.

4. Launched new products across our product lines

While we did launch several new products this year, I would say one of the most fun—yet frustrating—products has to be CloudFlare and Attracta. These services are now included with every sign up for one of our reseller or SEO accounts. It helps our customers not only attain higher page rankings, but it also gives redundancy with CloudFlare, should you need it.

3. Complete overhaul of our Reseller system

Okay, you might be saying, “Why is this in the top 3?” Well, have you ever used ZamFoo? It can be a pain, if you’ve never had the pleasure. While yes, it did provide additional functionality to our resellers, it became very clear that an in-house or custom-built reseller platform would be the way to go. Our new reseller system is a lot easier for end users to navigate, and also provides additional functionality that isn’t included in ZamFoo. For example, changing a site’s IP via ZamFoo can be a confusing process for a reseller. He or she would have to upgrade the account, assign the IP, and then downgrade the account. Our new reseller platform streamlines that process so you can just use the IP manager to change IP’s.

2. Survived Hurricane Sandy

Now, you may be wondering why this made the list, as our data center is in Upstate New York and not down by the coast. Well, many local businesses in our area had severe wind and rain impact. There was flooding all around, and some of our clients were deeply affected by the storm. Providing top-notch support across the board in billing, customer service, and technical support helped to keep some customers’ minds at ease about their hosting. While this might seem trivial, it made a tremendous difference to many of our clients. We were contacted numerous times, to confirm that our data center would survive the storm. Special accommodations were made for users who needed assistance with their billing or support during this difficult time. I’m proud to say that the TurnKey family pulled together and that we all did our best to help by any means we could, even if it was just letting customers pay their bill later so that they could focus on other things.

1. Moved into our new datacenter.

This is easily number one for me. Moving into a new data center while building it can make things a bit hectic. Users’ servers go off-line to be moved, and servers get transported from the old data center to the new one. If you had been here to witness the sheer amount of work that went into the project, you would have been amazed. Well, I know I was. The way the staff pulled together to migrate servers while dealing with the support issues being raised was nothing short of phenomenal. Sure, there were bumps along the way, but we all pitched in, as a team should, and got the job done. It made me proud to be a member of this TurnKey family.

Well there you go, TurnKey lovers. While it may not be a Top 10 list like SportsCenter, it doesn’t diminish the importance of each point.

Until next time…

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.