Sep 26, 2012
TEAM Technologies changing name to Vital Support Systems
Recent TDS HMS acquisition creates opportunity for local data center to expand services and capitalize on cloud product offering. Read our press release here.
Sep 7, 2012
Survey Says: Most Americans Confused by Cloud Computing
Best guesses: something related to weather, pillows, toilet paper… One in five admits pretending to know what it is, how it works. Here’s your chance to not be one of them.
cellular-news
Jun 21, 2012
Focus On Energy
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| In the photo: At our TEAM Data Center building in Fitchburg. Standing L to R: John Drury, Madison Gas and Electric; Ross Bennett, Focus on Energy; Hank Koch, Jeff Barutt, and Eric Patterson, TEAM employees who worked on the project. |
By Deanne Boegli, National Public Relations Manager, TDS Telecommunications Corp.
On Monday, June 04, 2012 Madison Gas & Electric Co. and Focus on Energy, Wisconsin's statewide program for energy efficiency and renewable energy, presented TEAM Companies, a TDS® company, with a check for $114,972 after installing a high efficiency chiller, integrated water side economizer, high efficiency UPS system, and efficient air distribution system at its new data center in Fitchburg, Wisconsin. By completing this project, TEAM saves more than 2,347,491 kilowatt-hours of electricity—enough energy to power 235 Wisconsin homes for a year. The data center will also benefit from a $187,784 savings on its energy bills annually.
The data center’s cooling plant includes a high efficiency 550-ton chiller with a Variable Frequency Drive to improve partial load performance. The system uses an integrated waterside economizer to reduce the run hours and electrical load on the chiller by taking advantage of low ambient outside air temperatures for “free cooling.” The electrical system includes high efficiency Uninterruptible Power System (UPS) units with an Energy Saver System (ESS). The UPS units operate at a higher efficiency than standard UPS units and the ESS mode allows the UPS units to achieve a very high efficiency by eliminating conversion losses. The design of the air distribution system is such that the total static pressure requirement is lower and the horsepower requirements are reduced relative to the original design.
“While the data industry as a whole is just now becoming green, we’ve chosen to be green from the beginning. We know the number one consideration when building a data center is power and cooling. Working with the industry’s leading suppliers, our team is able to offer centers that utilize every opportunity to conserve data center power and improve cooling efficiencies,” comments Hank Koch, director of Infrastructure Service, TEAM Companies.
Not only do these upgrades save energy and money, but they’re also environmentally friendly. The annual environmental benefits are equivalent to eliminating more than 1619 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from being released into the atmosphere.
“In the highly competitive and energy intensive data center industry, controlling costs is a top priority. Cutting edge, energy efficient equipment, coupled with innovative HVAC design will provide better systems control and help TEAM realize immediate and future energy savings,” said Robert Maney, Senior Account Manager at Madison Gas & Electric Co.
About TEAM and TDS Hosting and Managed Services
TEAM is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. [NYSE: TDS]. TEAM also works closely with its sister companies, VISI and OneNeck® IT Services, to support the IT needs of Midwest businesses as part of TDS Hosted & Managed Services (TDS HMS) operation. TEAM was acquired by TDS in Dec. 2010.
TEAM operates three data centers in Madison, Wis., Cedar Falls and Des Moines, Iowa. VISI operates two data centers located in Eden Prairie and St. Paul, Minnesota. OneNeck®, headquartered in Arizona, is a global leader for hosted application management, ERP system support, and infrastructure services. They have three data center locations in the U.S. and joined TDS in June 2011. Together, TEAM, VISI and OneNeck form TDS HMS.
Jun 19, 2012
Getting Ahead in Your IT Department
“The only way for you to get a seat at the proverbial table is to give up your proverbial mop” – Jeff Barutt circa 2012
Are you sick of being the janitor in your IT Department? If you are changing filters, responding to air conditioning or power outages and sweeping floors in your data rooms then something’s not right.
You didn’t go to school and train all those hours in IT so you could be a glorified janitor, did you? I’m sure you’d rather be spending your time being part of the strategic growth projects within your business – work that helps the company grow, so you too can be more successful.
Being an IT professional there comes a time when you have to let go of some of the work to open yourself to the next level. The way I see it, the only way for you to get a seat at the proverbial table is to give up your proverbial mop. So, stop fixing and just keeping up and get ahead for once.
I’ve seen it happen. This is how you do it…
- Decide to partner with a data center co-location or managed service provider.
- Make sure you have a good Business Analyst to help you develop a set of recommendations for you to take to your boss or your boss’s boss with a clear strategic direction.
- Select an experienced Project Manager from your partner to help you migrate. Your ability to move these recommendations through the organization and successfully complete a migration will speak volumes about your ability to lead in the IT department on those other strategic projects you are dying to get your hands on. Get some help and make your business and yourself successful.
Steps 2 and 3 should be included in the total package from the company you select to partner with. If they don’t offer these experts to help you and your business be a success then find a company who will.
Now, this process takes time, but selecting the right company to migrate and care for your data is your first priority. A key element in your search should be the support team that will work with you. Make sure that they have a Business Analyst and Project Manager you can depend on. You want to be at the wheel driving -- who do you want to take with you on this road trip?
(Next post – road trip! The process of migration and how to do it right.)
About TEAM and TDS Hosting and Managed Services
TEAM is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. [NYSE: TDS]. TEAM also works closely with its sister companies, VISI and OneNeck® IT Services, to support the IT needs of Midwest businesses as part of TDS Hosted & Managed Services (TDS HMS) operation. TEAM was acquired by TDS in Dec. 2010.
TEAM operates three data centers in Madison, Wis., Cedar Falls and Des Moines, Iowa. VISI operates two data centers located in Eden Prairie and St. Paul, Minnesota. OneNeck®, headquartered in Arizona, is a global leader for hosted application management, ERP system support, and infrastructure services. They have three data center locations in the U.S. and joined TDS in June 2011. Together, TEAM, VISI and OneNeck form TDS HMS.
Are you sick of being the janitor in your IT Department? If you are changing filters, responding to air conditioning or power outages and sweeping floors in your data rooms then something’s not right.
You didn’t go to school and train all those hours in IT so you could be a glorified janitor, did you? I’m sure you’d rather be spending your time being part of the strategic growth projects within your business – work that helps the company grow, so you too can be more successful.
Being an IT professional there comes a time when you have to let go of some of the work to open yourself to the next level. The way I see it, the only way for you to get a seat at the proverbial table is to give up your proverbial mop. So, stop fixing and just keeping up and get ahead for once.
I’ve seen it happen. This is how you do it…
- Decide to partner with a data center co-location or managed service provider.
- Make sure you have a good Business Analyst to help you develop a set of recommendations for you to take to your boss or your boss’s boss with a clear strategic direction.
- Select an experienced Project Manager from your partner to help you migrate. Your ability to move these recommendations through the organization and successfully complete a migration will speak volumes about your ability to lead in the IT department on those other strategic projects you are dying to get your hands on. Get some help and make your business and yourself successful.
Steps 2 and 3 should be included in the total package from the company you select to partner with. If they don’t offer these experts to help you and your business be a success then find a company who will.
Now, this process takes time, but selecting the right company to migrate and care for your data is your first priority. A key element in your search should be the support team that will work with you. Make sure that they have a Business Analyst and Project Manager you can depend on. You want to be at the wheel driving -- who do you want to take with you on this road trip?
(Next post – road trip! The process of migration and how to do it right.)
About TEAM and TDS Hosting and Managed Services
TEAM is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. [NYSE: TDS]. TEAM also works closely with its sister companies, VISI and OneNeck® IT Services, to support the IT needs of Midwest businesses as part of TDS Hosted & Managed Services (TDS HMS) operation. TEAM was acquired by TDS in Dec. 2010.
TEAM operates three data centers in Madison, Wis., Cedar Falls and Des Moines, Iowa. VISI operates two data centers located in Eden Prairie and St. Paul, Minnesota. OneNeck®, headquartered in Arizona, is a global leader for hosted application management, ERP system support, and infrastructure services. They have three data center locations in the U.S. and joined TDS in June 2011. Together, TEAM, VISI and OneNeck form TDS HMS.
Now, this process takes time, but selecting the right company to migrate and care for your data is your first priority. A key element in your search should be the support team that will work with you. Make sure that they have a Business Analyst and Project Manager you can depend on. You want to be at the wheel driving -- who do you want to take with you on this road trip?
(Next post – road trip! The process of migration and how to do it right.)
About TEAM and TDS Hosting and Managed Services
TEAM is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. [NYSE: TDS]. TEAM also works closely with its sister companies, VISI and OneNeck® IT Services, to support the IT needs of Midwest businesses as part of TDS Hosted & Managed Services (TDS HMS) operation. TEAM was acquired by TDS in Dec. 2010.
TEAM operates three data centers in Madison, Wis., Cedar Falls and Des Moines, Iowa. VISI operates two data centers located in Eden Prairie and St. Paul, Minnesota. OneNeck®, headquartered in Arizona, is a global leader for hosted application management, ERP system support, and infrastructure services. They have three data center locations in the U.S. and joined TDS in June 2011. Together, TEAM, VISI and OneNeck form TDS HMS.
May 28, 2012
TEAM Raises the Roof
For the third year in a row, TEAM’s women have lent a hand in helping to construct a house for the Habitat for Humanity’s Women Build. This year Kate Wicker, Sandy Fulks and Staci Jackson volunteered during Women Build week which was May 7th through May 11th. The main project during our day of construction was installing the roof trusses.
To learn more about the Habitat for Humanity, view more info on the Women Build 2012 Project that we have participated in, or find other volunteer opportunities for the Habitat for Humanity you can visit their Website at http://www.heartlandhfh.org/2012-women-build.html.
About TEAM and TDS Hosting and Managed Services
TEAM is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. [NYSE: TDS]. TEAM also works closely with its sister companies, VISI and OneNeck® IT Services, to support the IT needs of Midwest businesses as part of TDS Hosted & Managed Services (TDS HMS) operation. TEAM was acquired by TDS in Dec. 2010.
TEAM operates three data centers in Madison, Wis., Cedar Falls and Des Moines, Iowa. VISI operates two data centers located in Eden Prairie and St. Paul, Minnesota. OneNeck®, headquartered in Arizona, is a global leader for hosted application management, ERP system support, and infrastructure services. They have three data center locations in the U.S. and joined TDS in June 2011. Together, TEAM, VISI and OneNeck form TDS HMS.
To learn more about the Habitat for Humanity, view more info on the Women Build 2012 Project that we have participated in, or find other volunteer opportunities for the Habitat for Humanity you can visit their Website at http://www.heartlandhfh.org/2012-women-build.html.
“I have been involved in Habitat for Humanity’s Women Build for the past three years and I am looking forward to many more. Helping a family realize their dream of home ownership is so fulfilling. Eah year I get to try something new and be a part of an amazing group of women. This year hanging from the rafters with my colleague, Sandy Fulks, was especially fun and challenging; and, watching my colleague, Staci Jackson, operate a table saw was impressive. I can’t wait until next year!”
--Kate Wicker, Director of Marketing, TEAM, a TDS Company
“This year we were literally hanging from the rafters constructing a roof for Karis who is the recipient of this year’s Women’s Build home. Habitat for Humanity is such a wonderful program. I’m proud to leave my mark on each home we help build. It’s an amazing experience.”
--Sandy Fulks, Senior Accountant, TEAM, a TDS Company
“This year was especially fun for us since we got involved earlier in the construction of the home. It’s such a great experience to do something that you’ve never done before – like run the table saw and still come home with all of your fingers! The women did a great job getting all of the roof trusses up before lunch! Working alongside Karis and her friends and family that came out to help with the construction and support her was a great experience. It was fun to hear the stories about how excited she and her daughter are to get moved in. We wish them well and many happy years in their new home! Habitat for Humanity is a great program for these families and we are proud to support them and to lend a hand! We’ll be back next year!
--Staci Jackson, Executive Assistant, TEAM, a TDS Company
About TEAM and TDS Hosting and Managed Services
TEAM is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. [NYSE: TDS]. TEAM also works closely with its sister companies, VISI and OneNeck® IT Services, to support the IT needs of Midwest businesses as part of TDS Hosted & Managed Services (TDS HMS) operation. TEAM was acquired by TDS in Dec. 2010.
TEAM operates three data centers in Madison, Wis., Cedar Falls and Des Moines, Iowa. VISI operates two data centers located in Eden Prairie and St. Paul, Minnesota. OneNeck®, headquartered in Arizona, is a global leader for hosted application management, ERP system support, and infrastructure services. They have three data center locations in the U.S. and joined TDS in June 2011. Together, TEAM, VISI and OneNeck form TDS HMS.
May 21, 2012
Open Compute Project - One Year Later
By John Rath, TEAM Cedar Falls Data Center Facility Manager
A year ago the Open Compute Project (OCP) was founded, with a lofty goal: build efficient computing infrastructures at the lowest possible cost. The project began at Facebook, which then used the design standards developed to build its own data center. The OCP then released the technologies developed in the project as open hardware, with the goal of developing low-cost compute server and energy efficient data centers. Information at opencompute.org details everything from the server chassis to data center mechanical designs, with complete technical specifications and CAD drawings. Open Compute's mission is to openly share ideas, specifications and other intellectual property in order to maximize innovation and reduce operational complexity in the scalable computing space.
On May 2nd and 3rd over 500 people attended the 2012 Open Compute Summit, for keynotes, conversations, and learning. This year the group put another design on the table and introduced Open Rack, an open server rack specification. Open Rack adheres to a common 24 inch wide rack space, but the Open Rack equipment inside is 21 inches wide, instead of a common 19 inches. The rack can accommodate 19 inch equipment, however the wider equipment bay allows for implementations with three motherboards or five 3.5" disk drives side by side in a chassis. The notion inside Open Rack equipment is to disaggregate compute components like CPU, hard drives and network cards so as to replace components as needed, instead of an entire server - thus maximizing the product life cycle of each part.
The concept of open source designs for data center infrastructure and servers is fairly disruptive, to an industry that remains relatively challenged by such radical change. Much of the drive for design efficiencies throughout the data center ecosystem are fueled by hyper-scale requirements from companies like Facebook. To feed the demands of growing digital dependencies, companies like Facebook, Google and Microsoft have put concerted efforts towards building out warehouse scale data centers, and achieving extreme efficiencies in their computing capabilities. The incumbent vendors that have made custom-built servers in the past can, and have, easily adapted to the OCP server design. Commercial vendors like Dell and HP have joined the party also and announced new, clean-sheet server and storage designs that will be compatible with the Open Rack specification.
The Open Compute Project continues to gain significant momentum and industry attention as the open source, transparent vehicle for innovation in the data center. Open source and transparency in many other aspects of computing has seen wild success - the potential of OCP to foster innovation and apply principles used in hyperscale deployments to the enterprise is pretty exciting.
About TEAM and TDS Hosting and Managed Services
TEAM is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. [NYSE: TDS]. TEAM also works closely with its sister companies, VISI and OneNeck® IT Services, to support the IT needs of Midwest businesses as part of TDS Hosted & Managed Services (TDS HMS) operation. TEAM was acquired by TDS in Dec. 2010.
TEAM operates three data centers in Madison, Wis., Cedar Falls and Des Moines, Iowa. VISI operates two data centers located in Eden Prairie and St. Paul, Minnesota. OneNeck®, headquartered in Arizona, is a global leader for hosted application management, ERP system support, and infrastructure services. They have three data center locations in the U.S. and joined TDS in June 2011. Together, TEAM, VISI and OneNeck form TDS HMS.
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