Essential Data Services
What are the features of TELUS Canada Data Centre?
  • Building Design:
    • The front entrance is raised above ground level and protected by a boulder hedge row.
    • Steel pylons (bollards) separate parking areas from building walls.
    • All external walls are reinforced with structural steel bracing.
    • The glass, walls and security station are bullet-resistant.
  • Video Surveillance:
    • Multiple fixed and remotely controlled cameras are strategically placed inside and outside enabling on-site security staff to monitor all activity.
    • The videotaping from all cameras is digitally recorded and stored.
  • Access Control:
    • Photo ID Cards are required to gain access to all areas, including Boardrooms and Administration areas.
    • All staff and co-location customers must display their photo ID cards at all times.
    • Biometric Scanners are used in conjunction with ID card readers to guarantee enhanced authenticated access to the Co-location fields.
  • Detectors:
    • State-of-the-art detectors are able to sense as little as 3-PPM particles in the air. This ensures that only affected areas are sprinkled with water (if and when appropriate), helping to keep the rest of the facility dry.
  • Conditioned AC Power:
    • Designed with state-of-the-art electrical power systems for climate control.
    • All power to the Mission Critical servers / fields is conditioned and backed up by a reserve power source.
    • The Co-Location, equipped with a Battery Backup UPS system, ensures smooth transitions to generator power in the event of a power failure.
    • Redundant A and B power feeds are provided to all servers.
  • Power Source:
    • The facility receives its power from the Finch Hydro Power station.
    • The Finch Hydro Power station is fed from 2 unique Hydro stations, terminating on 4 transformers.
    • Diesel energy is provided as an additional backup should Toronto Hydro experience an unlikely brownout or blackout.
  • Ethernet
    • All Internetworking hardware is paired for additional redundancy, allowing dual redundant Ethernet feeds to the servers for maximum reliability.
  • Network hardware
    • The primary Internetworking vendor is Cisco.
    • Fibre enters the building at two unique points, (fibre closets) and is terminated on a Nortel 3500 switch providing 99.999% up-time, (in the OCN room).
  • HVAC:
    • A state-of-the-art Liebert Deluxe System 3 HVAC system has been implemented, with each unit having a capacity of 30 tons.
    • A redundant N+1 design has been part of the design criteria. This best of breed system ensures that the temperature in all operational fields is maintained at 64F -75F with a relative humidity of 30%-55%.
    • Building automation systems are monitored on and off-site.
What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud Computing is the model through which, software applications and services are delivered over the Internet. Many experts believe that Cloud Computing is the next stage of the internet evolution. Based on the notion that organizations no longer need to buy expensive IT infrastructure, and licenses to run a business, applications are delivered as a service, or a utility. The user pays on a monthly basis, or on a per user basis, instead of incurring the up-front capital costs to purchase traditional IT assets.

Essential Data Services Inc. is an expert in Cloud Computing, offering the following services: Online Remote Backup, Application Sharing, MS Exchange Hosting, and SharePoint Services.

There are many benefits of Cloud Computing:

  • Lower cost - Organizations can save money by eliminating the need to purchase and support computer hardware and software.
  • Scalability - Companies can increase or decrease the number of users using the cloud.
  • Mobility - Employees can work from anywhere as long as there is an internet connection.
  • Free up Resources - IT resources are freed up and can focus on other projects.
How secure is my data?

Your data will be securely stored on a co-located server at the TELUS data centre, where physical and electronic security is professionally managed on a 24 x 7 basis.

The security, redundancy and failover features of our solutions include:

  • Building Design - All external walls are reinforced with structural steel bracing. The glass, walls and security station are bullet resistant.
  • Video Surveillance - Multiple fixed and remotely controlled cameras inside and outside. On-site security monitors all activity 24/7.
  • Access Control - Biometric Scanners are used in conjunction with ID card readers to guarantee enhanced authenticated access to the Co-location.
  • Environment Detectors – State-of-the-art detectors detect as little as 3 PPM in the air. Ensures only affected areas are sprinkled with water (if needed), keeping facility 'dry.'
  • Conditioned AC Power - Equipped with Battery Backup UPS system, ensures smooth transitions to generator power in the event of a power failure.
  • HVAC - Liebert Deluxe System 3 HVAC system with a capacity of 30 tons ensuring temperature is maintained at 64°F -75°F with a relative humidity of 30%-55%.
  • Ethernet - All Internetworking hardware is paired for additional redundancy, allowing dual redundant Ethernet feeds to the servers for maximum reliability.
  • Network hardware - The primary Internetworking vendor is Cisco. Fibre enters the building at two unique points, (fibre closets) and is terminated on a Nortel 3500 switch providing 99.999% up-time, (in the OCN room).
  • Power Source – The facility receives its power from the Finch Hydro Power station which is fed from 2 unique Hydro stations, terminating on 4 transformers.
  • Firewall - eTrust Firewall enforces security policies throughout the enterprise and goes beyond boundary protection, extending internally to secure vital network segments.
  • Anti-Virus - by employing McAfee Endpoint Protection, your data is protected by an award-winning anti-virus solution.
How is privacy and encryption of my data handled?

Security and privacy are vital aspects of our backup procedure. The server on which your data resides in the TELUS facility is dedicated for use only by your company. Your data will only be accessible to authourized parties. This is facilitated through the use of IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, which requires that an authentication occur whenever a client wants to communicate with our servers. The authentication occurs on both sides; meaning that the server has to authenticate itself to the client and vice versa. All clients, therefore, have a user name and a password, which is encrypted and stored on Essential’s electronic vaults, as well as with the client.

Also, prior to be sent to the electronic vault, your data is encrypted and remains encrypted once it is stored in our vault, so that not even our own systems engineers are able to access it.

How is the server back up solution installed on my hardware?

Installation of our server backup solution is very simple. In the case of backups of 50GB or less, the installation can be done remotely, with the help of one of our system engineers who can walk through the easy set up steps over the telephone. For backups that are larger, one of our system engineers will arrive on site, perform the initial back up and then transport the saved information to the data facility where the data will be securely stored in the electronic vault.

How can I obtain a quote from Essential on your services?

Pricing on our solutions is dependent on a many factors. One our consultants would be happy to discuss your requirements with you to properly assess costs. Our consultants can be reached at: info@essentialdata.ca

What events do your Help Desk Services monitor?
  • Windows Critical Event Viewer messages
  • Windows log files monitored:
    • System
    • Application
    • Security
    • DNS
    • Power Shell
  • Servers are monitored at all times alerting our engineer immediately to failures of:
    • Exchange
    • SQL
    • Remote backup
    • Anti-virus
    • Any other required service
  • Disk, Memory and CPU Utilization Capacity – Preventing server downtime by:
    • Continuous monitoring to ensure that pre-set thresholds are not met
    • Early detection and trouble-shooting of errors
  • Internet connection status
    • By pinging your firewall continuously, our monitoring software can quickly identify internet outages so that one of our system engineers can immediately notify the customer to resolve the issue.
Will it take a long time to back up my data?

By utilizing IBM's TSM Progressive Incremental Strategy, once an initial backup has occurred, the usage of precious internet bandwidth and CPU resources is dramatically reduced during subsequent backups. This is done through the regular inspection of the files that are backed up each day. The TSM backup-archive client determines the most efficient approach for creating backups of any changed bytes, blocks or files. Only new files or folders that have been changed will be backed up, thereby reducing the need to do an entire backup each day and improving backup performance, overall.

What kind of technical support is available from Essential Data?

Our reputation and longevity in the industry is largely due to the excellent support received by our clients. With Essential Data Services, your data is safely stored and accessible on a 24 x 7 basis. Data can be restored in as little as two to four hours and Essential can deliver the recovered data on a disk to our client.

We provide a wide range of customized support services to complement your business continuity strategy, including:

  • Live telephone support during regular business hours.
  • Daily detailed email report of the previous day’s backup particulars.
  • Scheduled on-site services and immediate on-site assistance if required.
  • Provision of your full data restore on demand. We can deliver on-site loaded onto an external storage device within four hours if located within the GTA (24 hours world wide).
  • 24 hour telephone support is available for a supplementary fee.

For support, contact us at support@essentialdata.ca