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.

“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.

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.

Governance Matters in the Data Center

Humans in the Data Center make processes matter. ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) provides a solid governance framework for IT service management.

Looking at either scientific studies, or pouring through stories of data center outages, you will frequently find that the root cause of an outage can be linked to a process that wasn’t followed, or a lack of appropriate processes documented for infrastructure being worked on.

"The most effective, agile data centers run with highly available equipment, matched with people, process and technology for a three-pronged success strategy, orchestrated by ITIL."

In a mission critical environment, such as the data center, the majority of attention is placed on the infrastructure that runs the facility -- ensuring that it is redundant, monitored, managed and operational around the clock. While this certainly warrants the lion’s share of attention, the critical mission of the people whose job it is to operate the facility, and the processes they follow, often doesn’t receive the amount of attention it deserves. People make mistakes; after all, they are just human. However, it would be a bigger mistake to ignore the risks of humans in the data center and not manage processes to reduce those risks.

Disaster Preparedness for Data Centers

By John Rath, TEAM Cedar Falls Data Center Facility Manager

When referencing a data center, it is almost always preceded by the words 'Mission Critical'. While it is practically assumed any more that a data center is mission critical, it demonstrates the importance placed on the data housed within by the stakeholders, and the critical mission the data center fulfills by protecting IT and preparing for any and all events that could impact the facility.

Ensuring mission critical uptime has a price tag. In order to put the price of uptime in context, the cost of downtime must be understood and appreciated. Downtime can be viewed from the perspectives of employee productivity loss, regulatory or compliance impact, reputation damage, and loss of revenue. With a rising number of business revenue models depending on IT in the data center being available all the time, the cost of downtime surges by the minute.

Disaster Resilience
Risk mitigation for data center site selection comes in the form of reducing exposure to the risk of natural disasters. From a macro view TEAM's Midwest data centers already have an advantage by not being subjected to a number of risks such as major earthquakes and hurricanes. No area of the world is impervious to natural disasters though, and so the data center must be built to protect against what it’s susceptible to. For TEAM this is primarily tornadoes, as a result, facilities are built to stringent standards guaranteeing protection against wind speeds in excess of 200 mph. Risk mitigation is further achieved at TEAM by facilities which are built far away from flood zones, away from major traffic arteries and airports, and away from proximity to hazardous materials manufacturing and storage.

Preparedness
Studies investigating the cost of downtime regularly list the number one cause as people and process issues. TEAM's disaster resilience inside the data center fortress is achieved through qualified staff who are prepared for anything, along with processes that are documented, tested and audited. TEAM regularly achieves passing reports for audits completed on its people, processes and technologies. A passion for excellence in internal processes is evident through quality programs and implementation of ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) guidelines. Matched by a passionate workforce who reliably protect and operate each facility, TEAM is well prepared to power mission critical data centers.

Business seeking greater agility for their IT look to colocation and managed services as a way to mitigate risk and improve reliability.

Protecting against natural disasters through world-class facilities and superior services is just one aspect of how TEAM delivers mission critical data centers.

About John Rath
John serves as the Facility Manager for the TEAM Cedar Falls Data Center and can also be found blogging about data center news and trends at his own site, http://datacenterlinks.blogspot.com.

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.

Out with SAS 70 and in with SSAE 16

Many organizations choose to be audited in order to demonstrate their commitment to providing quality offerings and services. For organizations providing services, the Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 70 was the most prevalent audit performed, but that has changed.

Out with the Old
As of June 15, 2011, service organizations could no longer be audited utilizing the SAS 70 guidebook which has been used for over twenty years. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) has completed a new framework to replace the aging and often misused SAS 70 guidebook, the Service Organization Control (SOC) reports.

In with the New
This refresh of guidebooks has created three separate reporting structures, the SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3. The SOC 1 report is performed in accordance with Statements on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE) 16, Reporting on Controls at a Service Organization while SOC 2 and SOC 3 utilize the Trust Service Principles in accordance with the AT Section 101-Attest Engagements standard.

What is SSAE 16?
Statements on Standards for Attestation Engagements 16 essentially performs what the SAS 70 was originally designed to do, communicate the organization’s and auditor’s attestation on assertions made by the organization through a structured report. The SOC 1/SSAE 16 description supersedes the SAS 70 making many improvements upon the original guidebook, including management attestation.

Our Approach
Similar to the SAS 70, the SOC 1/SSAE 16 report may be issued in two formats, Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 reports are a point-in-time assessment of controls in place to ensure the stated control objectives are adequate. Type 2 reports build upon Type 1 reports by requiring the collection of detailed evidence throughout a period of time which demonstrates that the control objectives defined are not only implemented, but being practiced throughout the audit period. TEAM has always elected to have the Type 2 audit performed.

The SOC1/SSAE 16 report now provides further insight into the people, processes, and technologies implemented to effectively achieve the control objectives outlined by management. TEAM’s control objectives include items related to:

• Administrative Duties—ensuring TEAM maintains a trustworthy workforce;
• Physical Security—ensuring TEAM facilities are protected by strong policies and practices;
• Change Management—ensuring effective policies for managing changes to infrastructure are followed;
• Availability Management—ensuring TEAM’s infrastructure is properly maintained and that the data center environment is protected and conditioned in line with industry best practices;
• Incident and Event Management— ensuring that tools are in place and TEAM personnel are properly trained to address potential business impacting events; and
• Request Management—ensuring that service requests flow through a proper lifecycle.

TEAM’s Success
Providing what we promise is very important to TEAM. This was demonstrated once again in 2011, achieving an unqualified, passing, SOC 1/SSAE 16 Type 2 report. To receive a copy of TEAM’s unqualified, 2011 SSAE 16 Type 2 report you are encouraged to contact TEAM’s Sales department at sales AT teamnet DOT net

-Posted by Aaron Kirkpatrick, TEAM

About McGladrey & Pullen, LLP
McGladrey & Pullen, LLP operates under the McGladrey brand as the fifth largest U.S. provider of assurance, tax and consulting services, with nearly 6,500 professionals and associates in more than 70 offices nationwide. McGladrey & Pullen is a licensed CPA firm, and is a member of RSM International, the sixth largest global network of independent accounting, tax and consulting firms.

Industry Reputation and Leadership
McGladrey & Pullen is a member of the Center for Audit Quality and the Private Company Practice Section of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. We are also registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

About TEAM/TDS Hosting and Managed Services
TEAM operates Tier III data centers in Madison, Wis., Des Moines and Cedar Falls, Iowa. All TEAM facilities are designed according to the highest industry standards, including Tier III, SAS70, and receive a “fail-safe” facility classification. TEAM’s suburban locations in Upper Midwest markets offer safety and security for any organization’s mission-critical IT systems and sensitive data. For the past three years, TEAM has been named one of the fastest growing companies by Inc. Magazine.

TEAM is owned by Fortune 500® Telephone and Data Systems Inc. and managed by subsidiary TDS Telecommunications Corp. in Madison, Wis.

VIDEO: Customer Experience - Cancer Treatment Centers of America

View on Mobile, HD Option Available Above

At TEAM we value the relationships that we build with our customers. We are especially proud to be partnered with Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) and to play a role in their mission to provide patients with the best available options for cancer treatment. Everyone at TEAM takes great pride in what we do and has a thorough understanding of how the work that we do affects our customer’s mission, values, and goals.

But don’t take our word for it; take a look at what Chad Eckes, Chris Cashell, and Eric Sato of CTCA have to say about the capabilities of our facilities and expertise and dedication of our employees.

To learn more about TEAM, our data centers or to take a tour of any our facilities, visit us at:
www.team-companies.com.

More Videos

Construction Time-Lapse
Modular Chiller Building Installation
TEAM on WisBusiness: The Show
Basis of Design
TEAM/TDS Data Centers Virtual Tour
Phase 2 Project Flyover

Community Involvement: Berbee Derby "Wild Turkeys"

Back Row (left to right): Andrea Roach, Josh Short, Mike Wicker, Kate Wicker, Dave Espie, Renae Jacobson;
Front Row: Lauren Espie

TEAM employees, Kate Wicker, Mike Wicker, and Josh Short gathered together this Thanksgiving but it wasn’t for turkey and mashed potatoes. They gathered in Fitchburg on Thanksgiving morning to run the eighth annual Berbee Derby. Andrea Roach, Dave Espie, Lauren Espie, and Renae Jacobson joined and the team, “Wild Turkeys” was formed. “There is no better way to kick of the holiday season then with good friends and a fun run” said team captain, Kate Wicker.

All proceeds from the run go to the Technology Education Foundation, started by Berbee to enrich the lives of students and give our next generation a leg-up on the power of technology.

For information on other community projects involving TEAM employees visit: http://www.team-companies.com/index.php/the-right-company/community-involvement/