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PCI Compliance and Ecommerce Sites
Posted in Security, Web developmentOnline and other merchants are now required to comply with Visa / Mastercard Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards [PCI-DSS]. You can learn more about that online at the Visa and Mastercard sites or a host of other sites as well. Just type ‘PCI DSS compliance’ into Google.
Wikipedia has a useful overview: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_Card_Industry_Data_Security_Standard
and we have a brief description on our site as well: PCI Compliancy.
For online businesses that need to 1) adjust final order amounts after the original transaction or 2) perform subsequent charges or credits against the original card, storage of the card locally is no longer a realistic option without substantial outlays for hardware, software and programming [servers, firewalls, anti-virus programs and encryption coding].
This can be mitigated by employing a Credit Card Gateway that supports what is frequently called a ‘Tokenization’ solution that stores the credit card for you on their PCI compliant servers and allows you to perform later transactions against the stored card by way of a ‘token’ provided at the time of the original transaction.
We have researched several options for our ecommerce clients. Contact your sales representative for more information at 206-404-9000 or 1-888-234-6781.
posted by Rex 11:22 am August 20, 2009permalink | digg this | technorati
MITEF Dinner Forum in September: Social Media
Posted in Seattle Internet EventsThe topic of the September 16th MIT Enterprise Forum of the Northwest Dinner Forum is Social Media: Real Business Strategies for Success. Here’s the description:
How are some businesses harnessing the power of social media to differentiate and manifest their brand, scale their organization, and succeed where others fail? Our panel of experts share real-life examples that highlight successful social media strategies and executions. They’ll answer questions from the audience, and provide a glimpse into the future of how social media will dramatically change how we do business and lead our lives. Our panelists include:
• Murtaza Hussain – Co-founder and President of Peanut Labs
• Eric Picard – Advertising Technology Advisor to the Advertising Platform Engineering team at Microsoft
• Ben Straley – Co-founder and CEO of Meteor Solutions
• Jim Watson – Senior Vice President, Managing Director of Razorfish Northwest
• Mike Weaver – VP of New Business Development and Mobile Discipline Lead for MRM Worldwide – Seattle
The event will be moderated by Ethan Yarbrough, Co-founder and President of Allyis Inc. Learn more and register on the MITEF Web site.
posted by Amy R 2:41 pm August 19, 2009permalink | digg this | technorati
September PSAMA Luncheon: Twitterphoria
Posted in Seattle Internet EventsSave Wednesday, September 9 for the September Puget Sound American Marketing Association (PSAMA) Luncheon. The topic is Twitterphoria: Adding Twitter Power to Your Marketing Mix Today. Join Jennifer Gehrt, Co-Founder of Communiqué PR, to learn about current trends in social media.
Here’s part of the description: You’ll discover how you can integrate Twitter with your marketing plans to achieve your most pressing business objectives and you’ll walk away with ready-to-execute tactics to promote your company’s product/service on Twitter and other key social media platforms. Learn more and register at the PSAMA site.
And remember that you can follow Adhost on Twitter and twitter.com/adhost.
posted by Amy R 11:52 ampermalink | digg this | technorati
Plaza East Power Maintenance
Posted in Company NewsStart of Work: 10:00 PM PDT, August 22nd 2009
End of Work: 8:00 AM PDT, August 23rd 2009
Impact to Customers: None Anticipated
Description
————
Fisher Plaza will be performing maintenance on the power risers that feed Adhost’s East Data Center. During the maintenance window, power will be transferred to the generators while utility power is restored to the North and South Risers in Plaza East. We do not anticipate any interruption in power delivery to the data center during the maintenance event. Adhost’s Plaza West facility is not affected by this maintenance.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Adhost Support at (206) 404-9500 or support_at_adhost.com.
Regards,
Michael Smith
–
Michael K. Smith – CISSP, GISP
Chief Technical Officer – Adhost Internet LLC mksmith@adhost.com
w: +1 (206) 404-9500 f: +1 (206) 404-9050
PGP: B49A DDF5 8611 27F3 08B9 84BB E61E 38C0 (Key ID: 0×9A96777D)
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Adhost East Data Center Update from Adhost CEO
Posted in Company NewsDear Adhost Clients:
I am writing to you to update you on the status of the power infrastructure supporting the Adhost East Data Center located in Fisher Plaza East. Adhost is committed to providing a fault-tolerant, highly available environment to support our data center operations. We are working closely with Fisher Plaza, other tenants and vendor engineers and electricians to get our data center operations back onto that footing as fast as possible. This letter is meant to provide a synopsis of both the actions taken to date as well as a synopsis of short and long-term steps that Adhost and Fisher Plaza are taking to achieve our commitment.
As many of you know, on July 2nd, 2009 there was a significant event in the main electrical switchgear room located in the parking garage. While we are still awaiting final forensic analysis of this event, at this point we know that two 5000 amp bus ducts were severely damaged and that enough heat was generated to activate the pre-action sprinkler system in this room. Of course, the introduction of water into a live electrical switchgear room had predictable results – namely that all of the gear in that room became inoperable. Unfortunately this room was where the automatic election is made between utility and generator power. The loss of this room resulted in a loss of power to the Adhost East Data Center for approximately 27 hours.
The Adhost West Data Center was unaffected during this event and remains in its standard operating configuration of utility power backed by N+1 generator plant.
For approximately one month following the event, our East Data Center was powered by generators as its primary source. We announced several maintenance windows to upgrade the reliability of that generator power including moving from the single-riser/single generator configuration that we initially brought the building back up on to an N+1 generator plant that allowed for continuous operation and accommodated a regular maintenance schedule for the individual generators.
On August 1st and 2nd, we announced and successfully completed another maintenance window to switch-over to a temporary configuration that features utility power as the primary electrical source backed by the N+1 generator plant for emergency backup.
Meanwhile, we are working to develop a long-term permanent solution that will take this event into consideration and which will allow Adhost to operate continuously through a similar loss. This solution entails the following components:
- Diversifying the Adhost East critical equipment loads across the two switchgear rooms that service (or will service) Fisher Plaza East.
- Working with Fisher Plaza to ensure that catastrophic loss of one room will not inhibit our ability to operate.
- Working with the various regulatory agencies to put into place non-water-based fire suppression systems in all critical electrical areas.
These solutions take time to engineer and they also take time to source and install the appropriate equipment. Right now we are working to have the permanent solution in place by the end of October. As we get progress down this path, we will have better timelines which we will make available to our customers.
One other lesson that we have learned and which we are addressing is to implement a better emergency communications plan (ECP). Our previous ECP was shown as inadequate during this event and we already have implemented parts of this plan. Highlights of the plan include:
- An off-site (completely outside of the Adhost network and facility) maintenance mailing list server which is automatically synchronized with our main maintenance mailing list. We will also be introducing three primary lists over the coming months:
- East Data Center Operations
- West Data Center Operations
- Shared Hosting Operations
Once in place, we will announce to all lists events that impact the entire infrastructure such as power, cooling, network, DNS, and email. We will also announce major events that primarily impact one of these subgroups to all three lists with follow-up details being posted to the affected lists.
- Adhost is committed to using Twitter as a quick, off-site communications tool to announce not only information on major events, but also other Adhost news. You can follow our tweets at http://www.twitter.com/adhost
- An off-site Web server which will act in several capacities:
- Allow customers to get status messages on our major services.
- Provide a chat-style interface for customers with status questions and support needs.
- An off-site phone number that will give status updates to callers.
- Moving our phone systems to a more fault-tolerant system that will allow us to communicate via phone with customers during significant events.
Once again, we apologize for the extent of this event. We want to assure you that we are integrating the lessons that we learned from this event into our on-going operations and policies and procedures.
We appreciate your business, patience and understanding as we work to improve our services. If you have any questions or suggestions, please email support@adhost.com.
Will Riffle
President and CEO
Adhost Internet
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Adhost CEO Participates in DatacenterDynamics Seattle 2009
Posted in Company News, IndustryAdhost CEO Will Riffle will be participating in a panel discussion at the DatacenterDynamics Seattle 2009 Conference on Thursday, August 6. The topic for the panel discussion is “Case Study: Data Center Disaster Response and Recovery – An Engineering and Operational Review of the July 2009 Fisher Plaza Fire.” The moderator for the panel will be Ed Doyne, Director of Technology Services – Fisher Plaza – Egis Real Estate.
posted by Amy R 12:55 pmpermalink | digg this | technorati
Fisher Plaza East Power Maintenance – August 01, 2009
Posted in Company NewsDate: 08/01/2009
Start Time: 10:00 PM PDT
End Time: 6:00 AM PDT on 08/02/2009
Customer Impact: None Anticipated
Description:
This maintenance window is Phase 2 of 3 in the process of restoring normal power to Fisher Plaza East, delivered from Seattle City Light and backed up by generators within the facility. During this phase, Fisher engineers will install a temporary connection to Seattle City Light. This means Adhost’s East data center will be receiving power from the City with redundant backup generators outside of the building until Phase 3 is completed and permanent power is restored to the facility.
During this event, there will be periods during which Adhost’s East data center cooling infrastructure is running in a degraded mode. Specifically, Adhost has 4 separate Computer Room Air Conditioning (CRAC) units in our East facility. Two have power fed from one riser and two are fed from a different riser. During the maintenance window, power will be interrupted several times to each of the risers that feed the CRAC units for approximately 30 minutes each.
The Method of Procedure for this event requires that a cool down period be observed between each of the riser outages. So, Adhost’s East facility will be pre-cooled to 65 degrees before the event and then re-cooled to 65 degrees between each riser outage. This ensures that the data center temperature will remain well within tolerances throughout the maintenance window.
We do not anticipate any loss of service during the window. However, if you would like to be here during the event, please arrive at Fisher Plaza no later than 9:00 PM on 08/01. During the maintenance window access to the building will be restricted, so anyone arriving after 9:00 PM may not be granted access into the facility until the end of the maintenance window.
Adhost’s Plaza West facility will not be affected by this event, as it has been unaffected throughout the recent power issues localized to the Fisher Plaza East building.
Thank you for your patience and understanding during this event. If you have any questions or concerns please contact our Technical Support Department at (206) 404-9500 or support@adhost.com.
Regards,
Michael Smith
–
Michael K. Smith – CISSP, GISP
Chief Technical Officer – Adhost Internet LLC mksmith@adhost.com
w: +1 (206) 404-9500 f: +1 (206) 404-9050
PGP: B49A DDF5 8611 27F3 08B9 84BB E61E 38C0 (Key ID: 0×9A96777D)
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Adhost responds to Techflash Blog
Posted in Company NewsHello Todd:
I wanted to give you an official response to your blog post. I’m only in a position to speak about the maintenance announcement you quoted as it pertains to Adhost customers. Every Fisher Plaza East tenant will have a bit of a different take on the event depending upon the configuration of the equipment in their own space. One thing that I can say is that the fundamental cooling systems for Plaza East will not be affected during the window.
Adhost will have two brief periods where we have reduced cooling capacity in our Plaza East data center. We have 4 separate Computer Room Air Conditioning (CRAC) units in our facility. Two have power fed from one riser and two are fed from a different riser. During the maintenance window, power will be interrupted to each of the risers that feed the CRAC units for approximately 30 minutes each.
Before each riser outage, the data center will be cooled to 65 degrees. In the past, we have seen the temperature in the data center raise less than 5 degrees during this type of events. As such, we are confident the temperature in the data center will remain well within tolerances during the event.
The rundown of the event is:
1) Cool data center to 65 degrees.
2) Perform maintenance on Lights and Power Riser – 2 CRAC units off line.
3) Re-cool data center to 65 degrees.
4) Perform maintenance on Mechanical Riser – 2 CRAC units off line.
5) Re-cool data center to 65 degrees.
6) Perform maintenance on Technical Riser – no Adhost equipment affected.
It should be noted that Plaza East and Plaza West are completely discrete buildings with completely discrete cooling and electrical plants serving them. Because of this, our Plaza West data center was not affected by any of the events of the last month, and will also not be affected by this coming maintenance window.
Thank you for the opportunity to respond. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to let me know.
Kind Regards,
Michael K. Smith
–
Michael K. Smith – CISSP, GISP
Chief Technical Officer – Adhost Internet LLC mksmith@adhost.com
w: +1 (206) 404-9500 f: +1 (206) 404-9050
PGP: B49A DDF5 8611 27F3 08B9 84BB E61E 38C0 (Key ID: 0×9A96777D)
permalink | digg this | technorati
Adhost Seattle Data Centers Pass SAS 70 Type II Audit
Posted in Company News, Security
We are pleased to announce Adhost successfully passed a SAS 70 Type II audit for the time period July 16, 2008 – July 15, 2009. During a week-long on-site visit in June, an independent service auditor examined the policies, procedures and business processes in place at Adhost over the one-year time period. The following controls related to the colocation services provided in our Seattle data centers were audited:
- Control Environment: discipline and structure are a key component of the organization and influence the control consciousness of its personnel.
- Physical Security: business premises and information systems are protected from unauthorized access, damage and interference.
- Environmental security: critical information technology infrastructure is protected from certain environmental threats.
- Availability: colocation facility is available and accessible to its customers
- Operations: Operations department identifies and resolves problems affecting the colocation facility or customers in a timely manner.
The examination was performed in accordance with standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Existing Adhost clients, as well as potential clients, can request a copy of the SAS70 audit report by emailing sales@adhost.com.
To learn more about SAS 70 and the details of the audit, visit our SAS 70 page.
posted by Michael K. Smith 12:12 pm July 23, 2009permalink | digg this | technorati
Plaza East Power Maintenance Rescheduled
Posted in UncategorizedHello:
The work scheduled originally for July 20th has been rescheduled as listed below. The original maintenance message is attached and still applies to this event.
Date: 07/26/2009
Start Time: 12:01 AM PDT
End Time: 4:45 AM PDT
Customer Impact: None Anticipated
Description:
Fisher Engineers will be performing maintenance on the power systems supporting the Adhost East Data Center. This maintenance is addressing an issue we are having with the redundant generator set powering the Fisher East building. During this window, the three central electrical risers will, one at a time, be powered off and re-engergized a short time later.
We do not anticipate that there will be any interruption to the electrical service to the Adhost East Data Center during this window.
Adhost and its vendors have reviewed the potential impact to our operations of this procedure. The electrical systems that service the Adhost East Data Center technical loads will be able to transfer from one riser to the other in an uninterrupted fashion. Because our mechanical systems (AC) are tied into the risers differently, we will have reduced cooling capacity for two intervals during the window, up to 30 minutes each. We anticipate that there may be brief periods where temperatures in the data center may increase, but we do not expect to reach temperature levels that will impact server performance. We will be fully staffed during this window to monitor all environmental systems and respond to any issues that may arise.
If you would like to be on site during the maintenance window, please arrive at the Adhost facility no later than 11:30 PM on Sunday, July 19th. During the maintenance window access to the building will be restricted, so anyone arriving after 11:30 may not be granted access into the facility until the end of the maintenance window.
Adhost has been working with Fisher Engineering to develop a plan for restoring redundant, city-fed power to Plaza East. If you would like to see an outline of the plan, please visit http://www.adhost.com/blog.
Thank you for your patience and understanding during this event. If you have any questions or concerns please contact our Technical Support Department at (206) 404-9500 or support@adhost.com.
Regards,
Michael Smith
–
Michael K. Smith – CISSP, GISP
Chief Technical Officer – Adhost Internet LLC mksmith@adhost.com
w: +1 (206) 404-9500 f: +1 (206) 404-9050
PGP: B49A DDF5 8611 27F3 08B9 84BB E61E 38C0 (Key ID: 0×9A96777D)
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