The outsourcing of non-core, yet business-critical services has
been much debated over the years. However, it has been accepted that it is
sensible for an enterprise to outsource its hosting needs. Here's a look at
one of the Level-3 data center of a telecom operator, which would help
understand how an organization can carry out commerce and offer quality managed
services with clear 'Service Level Agreements.' To offer managed IT
infrastructure outsourcing services, Reliance has setup world-class Internet
Data Centers (IDC) across major cities in India. Reliance IDC is a managed
service platform for delivering managed hosting, security, storage, disaster
recovery, ASP and professional support services to various enterprise customer
segments.
Infrastructure Support
Located in seismically stable zones in Reliance's own premises with
multiple layers of physical and electronic security (including biometric access
and 24x7 CCTV recording), the data centers are secure areas. High redundancy on
power supply chain from source level grids to power distribution units, DG sets,
UPS sets and batteries ensure power uptimes. Fire detection system (including
early warning system) and fire suppressions system (based on eco friendly FM200
gas) work in automated coherence. Precision air-conditioning systems standardize
temperature and humidity levels and filter out any harmful gases and dust
particles. All the facility infrastructure is monitored and controlled centrally
through a building management system (BMS).
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The IDC facilities measure more than 200,000 sq ft of hosting
space. Two IDCs-35,000 sq ft (IDC1) and 100,000 sq ft (IDC2)-are functioning
in Mumbai and two others-20,000 sq ft (IDC1) and 50,000 sq ft (IDC2)-in
Bangalore. Reliance is further setting up data centers in four other major
cities in India-Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, and Kolkata-thus taking the
hosting space over 500,000 sq ft in the next one year.
The services at the Mumbai IDC range from offering collocation
space to fully managed hosting of servers on rent/lease model. A range of
managed value-added services are offered including remote IT administration,
managed security, backup, streaming, mailing, database administration,
application administration, load balancing, storage services and disaster
recovery/BCP solutions. Sunil Gupta, head of marketing & business operations
for data center services at Reliance Infocomm, says that the IDC is not a
standalone service provider but a complete managed service for the enterprises
and their data needs.
The data centers are connected to 132 countries across four
continents spanning the US, the UK, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific through
Flag Telecom backbone and other undersea cable systems like Se-Me-Wea-3 and i2i
and also have public/private peering relationship with Tier 1 ISPs and content
providers at more than 15 Internet Exchange points across the globe.
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The data centers are further connected to Reliance's
countrywide optic fiber-based IP network with terabytes of capacity having
points of presence at more than 1,100 cities. The IDC claims that the potential
users across the world can access the content hosted at Reliance Data Centers
with minimal number of hops, minimal latency, and lesser packet losses. So with
higher speeds. Further, the data centers in Mumbai and Bangalore are also
interconnected through redundant fiber ring, with bandwidth capacity of STM-4
for data replication purposes for providing DR services. The IDC currently hosts
2,500-plus servers and 600-plus terabytes of storage capacity.
What's on Offer?
A look at the services offered by IDCs.
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Managed hosting services: The services include managed
co-location services, managed dedicated hosting, managed Internet access
services, hosted Internet access, and direct Internet access. -
Managed co-location services: For offering co-location
services, it offers disaster resistant physical infrastructure, like
uninterruptible and back-up power, raised flooring, redundant Internet
connections with 24-hour monitoring, and fire suppression and environmental
controls. -
Managed dedicated hosting services: This service provides
customers with an exclusive use of the server resources on a leased model.
This service also comes bundled with value added services like OS hardening,
patch management and vulnerability assessment. This helps customers save
high capital expenditure and obsolescence risks. -
Managed Internet access services: Under this service, it
provides network connectivity facilitating high-speed, redundant Internet
connections for its customers. Network management tools carry out proactive
monitoring of Internet backbone ensuring optimal performance. The services
are built on an easy scalable architecture that allows augmentation of
bandwidth as and when required. -
Managed security services: A security approach to
proactively identify and secure customers' hosted setup against potential
threats of hacking, viruses, worms, etc. The services offered include
managed firewall services, managed intrusion detection services, host-based
anti-virus, secure VPN access, and vulnerability assessment services. -
Remote professional services: Remote Professional Services
(R-Pros) provide monitoring and management of customers IT infrastructure,
network, security, and other resources, at their own or at third-party
premises, on 24x7 basis. This is intended for customers who prefer to retain
ownership of infrastructure, located at their own premise, while passing all
or part of the monitoring and management responsibility to the service
provider. These services include data-center management services, database
management services, and security management services. -
Messaging services: Messaging services is an emerging
alternative for business to build and operate their enterprise messaging
setup, instead of deploying in-house hardware, software and resources. The
services include shared messaging services, dedicated messaging services,
mail relay, and mail queue. This service offer messaging on a complete
outsourced platform. Others who wish to operate their own site messaging
servers, but would like to protect the same with zero downtime, anti-virus,
and anti-spam can utilize the services. -
ASP services: An application service provider (ASP) offers
networked-based applications on a rental or per-usage basis. ASP combines
software, hardware, infrastructure and networking technologies including
deployment, monitoring and management of the same to deliver the net-hosted
applications as a "service" in lieu of customer ownership and
management of these applications. -
Rich media communication services: It is a group of services
that uses the Internet or Intranet for instant delivery of audio, video, and
other multimedia. The services offered are on demand streaming, live
streaming, web collaboration, content management, and content delivery
network.
IDC Customers
A number of enterprises from varied industry segments host their mission
critical applications at the facility. Among others: BSE, Central Depository
Services, Bank of Baroda, Euronet Worldwide Services, and OBC in the BFSI space;
HLL, Mahindra & Mahindra, Godrej Industries, Pfizer, and IPCL in
manufacturing and FMCG; Mumbai Police, BHEL, C-DAC, MSEB, and Karnataka Udyog
Mitra among the government and PSU verticals. It also has customers from other
verticals in IT & telecom, services industry, and media & entertainment.
Reliance IDC is looking at catering to the global market.