WESCO Net

Tri-Rivers Invests in Business Continuity & DR

Tony Muka — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:42:34 +0000

WESCO net, a provider of full-service network technology solutions, recently announced that Montgomery, AL-based Tri-Rivers Federal Credit Union has invested in Complete Care network management services. The Complete Care program provided by WESCO Net is a comprehensive solution that features continuous 24 x 7 uptime monitoring, daily backup system monitoring and reporting, continuous server monitoring, and much more. According to WESCO Net, important benefits of this program for Tri-Rivers are enhanced business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities. “Tri-Rivers is located in the middle of hurricane alley, so business continuity and disaster recovery are an on-going concern,” said Matt Sawtell of WESCO Net. “With data safeguards like constant backup protection and cloud-based application delivery, the credit union can protect all data assets while meeting their recovery time and point objectives – a competitive advantage in their marketplace,” For more information about the Complete Care program, access http://www.wesconet.com/ Download Press Release

Quest CU Implements Complete Care Solutions

Tony Muka — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:40:57 +0000

WESCO Net, a provider of full-service network technology solutions, recently announced that Quest Credit Union of Kenton, OH, has implemented Complete Care, its all-inclusive managed services platform. According to the technology solution provider, the turnkey solutions offered by this package help to equip a growing credit union with productivity and compliance tools necessary to compete in the marketplace. “WESCO Net’s managed network solutions for credit unions covers the entire IT spectrum with a great balance of value, technical expertise and a focus on regulatory compliance,” said WESCO Net representative, Matt Sawtell. “The credit union was able to implement internally hosted email, file sharing, real-time managed gateway security and an intranet site in a migration that took only days to fully implement.” For more information about the Complete Care program, access http://www.wesconet.com Download Press Release

Amalgamated Cuts Costs with Complete Care Package

Tony Muka — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:32:20 +0000

WESCO Net, a provider of full-service network technology services, has recently announced that Amalgamated Credit Union of Saginaw, MI, has chosen WESCO Net’s Complete Care network management package to meet growing internal and external compliance and security needs. Deploying this comprehensive package of service offerings has enabled Amalgamated to realize cost savings and enhanced reporting capabilities. “Amalgamated was burdened with high technology management costs, but at the same time required enhanced reporting to meet compliance needs and enforce internal and external security policies,” commented Matt Sawtell of WESCO Net. “With Complete Care, they’ve been able to cut IT management costs to a fraction of what they were paying previously and gain the benefit of the robust reporting package featuring hundreds of different reports, available daily, weekly, and on-demand, that are all geared toward non-technical management staff.” For more information about the Complete Care program, access http://www.wesconet.com/ Download Press Release

AAA FCU Partners with WESCO Net

Tony Muka — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:24:50 +0000

WESCO Net, a provider of full-service network technology solutions, recently announced that AAA Federal Credit Union has invested in a Complete Care network management package, provided by WESCO Net. WESCO Net’s Complete Care program layers ISO 17799 compliant managed services portfolio with personalized and targeted planning solutions. Of the feature benefits realized by enrollment in this program, 24 x 7 uptime monitoring and asset reporting were very attractive for AAA FCU of South Bend, IN. “With the enhanced asset management functionality, we can help AAA FCU make informed decisions about hardware viability,” said Matt Sawtell, Systems Manager at WESCO Net. “This in turn helps technology investment achieve the highest Return on Investment possible,” he continued. For more information about the Complete Care program, access http://www.wesconet.com/ Download Press Release

WESCO Net Touts Successful Online Banking DR

thanson — Thu, 27 May 2010 19:54:54 +0000

WESCO Net, a Grand Rapids, MI based leader in network integration, security, and managed technology solutions, and CU*Answers, a 40 yr-old data processing CUSO, have successfully tested a new disaster recovery implementation for their online banking solution, It’s Me 247. For the test, a back-end IBM System-i mid-range computer system was recovered at an IBM Business Recovery and Continuity Services Center while web traffic for the online banking site was served out of WESCO Net’s newly launched Muskegon data center.“This is a significant test for CU*Answers and WESCO Net because it certifies our ability to serve core Internet online banking capabilities to credit union members in the event of a catastrophic disaster that knocks our other data centers offline,” says Dave Wordhouse, VP Network Technologies. “The solution actually blurs the lines between disaster recovery and business continuity for It’s Me 247 as the environment hosted at the Muskegon data center is able to connect to back-end IBM System-i hosts installed at other CU*Answers and WESCO Net data centers on-demand.” Dave Wordhouse continues, “We’ve actually modeled the disaster recovery online banking network after our production network so that regardless of where the member access It’s Me 247, the member should enjoy the same overall performance.” According to Wordhouse, the standby It’s Me 247 site could be activated anytime in less than 10 minutes to handle a failure of the production site. The cutover would be nearly transparent to members. CU*Answers and WESCO Net have long championed highly available applications and its core application, CU*BASE, has been protected by highly available infrastructure since 2002. Investments will continue to be made to extend highly available capabilities across the CU*Answers suite of core applications. Download Press Release

WESCO Net Provides Remote Solutions for CUs

Tony Muka — Tue, 11 May 2010 13:25:24 +0000

WESCO Net, a Grand Rapids, MI based leader in network integration, security, and managed technology solutions, now has a full suite of products and services for enabling the enterprise remote workforce. A recent survey released by Interactive Intelligence and performed by independent research firm Vanson Bourne revealed that 50% of enterprises encourage “flexible and remote working” in order to recognize higher productivity, attract and retain well qualified employees, reduce office costs, and offer more responsive customer services. WESCO Net’s new line of Remote Workforce products and services combines leading edge, secure technology to extend the credit union’s network footprint beyond the physical walls of the branch to literally anywhere. WESCO Net’s solutions leverage ubiquitous and readily available services like WiFi, broadband, and 3G/4G cellular services layered with fully integrated contact center applications plus secure web-based services delivered via a cloud and/or on-premise equipment at the branch to allow member service reps, loan officers, and executives complete and secure access to all their member servicing tools. “These services have the potential to rewrite existing member service models,” explains Dave Wordhouse, VP Network Technologies. “Traditional models involve self service via web and voice response channels and brick and mortar via the branch. With Remote Workforce, we’re now providing the tools to let credit unions service their members anywhere the member may be. These are the tools that will let credit union executives start exploring new service models and opportunities leveraged for growth.” WESCO Net’s Remote Workforce solutions are custom tailored to meet the requirements and budget of the credit union and work is currently underway to optionally deliver every component of Remote Workforce via WESCO Net’s cloud computing infrastructure. Download Press Release

WESCO Net Earns Dell Enterprise Architecture Cert

Tony Muka — Tue, 11 May 2010 13:12:14 +0000

WESCO Net, a Grand Rapids, MI based leader in network integration, security, and managed services solutions is now a fully certified Dell Enterprise Architect Partner, the highest certification level currently available. This certification allows WESCO Net to engineer and implement enterprise grade technical solutions leveraging a full suite of Dell and Dell partner technologies including Server, Storage (including SANs), VMWare, Microsoft Hyper-V, and disaster recovery and business continuity solutions. Certified Enterprise Architect Partners maintain at least four individuals certified in a variety of Dell products and solutions in both sales/design and technical support disciplines and must maintain at minimum annual sales commitment. Matt Sawtell, Manager WESCO Net Systems explains, “This certification is valuable because we have invested up front in the technical training for our staff so we can design the best solution with the best value at the lowest cost to our clients. We have full access to any Dell solution we may need including the full line of PowerEdge servers, PowerConnect switches, PowerVault storage, plus EqualLogic SANs, EMC, Data Domain, etc.” Download Press Release

WESCO Net Launching New Data Center

Tony Muka — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:30:53 +0000

WESCO Net, a Grand Rapids, MI-based leader in network integration, managed hosting, and web hosting services is opening a new data center in Muskegon, MI to expand capacity and introduce new high availability and business continuity services to its customers. The new facility has been designed using modular technology which allows WESCO Net to bring on additional capacity as needed to meet demands. For instance, additional power continuance and room cooling components can be bolted on as facility usage increases. The facility also makes extensive use of green technology to reduce power consumption. Ducted equipment cabinets recycle the hot exhaust air from equipment into the building’s central HVAC system, Energy Smart power supplies are used wherever possible, and on-demand computing capacity ensures that when equipment is not needed it is powered down or brought into a sleep state. “This center will allow us to offer geographically distinct high availability and business continuity services to our customers at an aggressive price point,” says Dave Wordhouse, VP of Network Technologies. “We live in an always-on world where applications are simply supposed to be on all the time. It’s become a pretty simple task for business managers to calculate the cost of downtime down to the minute. This facility will be able to accommodate highly available and backup systems to help ensure our customer’s applications are always on.” The new facility will be rolled into WESCO Net’s SAS 70 Level II facility certification program. It is scheduled to officially open in May of this year. This will be WESCO Net’s third data center joining others in Kentwood, MI and Grand Rapids, MI. Download Press Release

WESCO Net Deploying Green Technology into Datacenters

Tony Muka — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:48:18 +0000

WESCO Net, a West Michigan-based leader in managed hosting services, is deploying new energy-efficient infrastructure into its new Muskegon, Michigan datacenter and retrofitting its primary datacenter in Kentwood, MI. The moves come amid steps WESCO Net is taking to lower costs through energy conservation and reduced emissions. “We’re deploying new equipment cabinet technology at our Muskegon site that will significantly reduce air handler loads and power consumption,” explains Dave Wordhouse, VP Network Technologies. “The new cabinets feature a ducted airflow design with a passive integrated exhaust evacuation system that routes hot air from the computer equipment into the building’s return air system where it can be reused to heat other parts of the structure,” Wordhouse continued. “The status quo in data centers is to place large chillers in the computer room to cool the exhaust air, where it is routed back to the equipment and chilled again. This is so inefficient. With this new design, the hot exhaust air is not allowed to return to the computer room, instead we recycle it.” Mr. Wordhouse went on to explain the new cabinets were sourced through Chatsworth and only cost fractionally more than standard non-ducted equipment cabinet technology. At its Kentwood, MI site, WESCO Net also recently installed new redundant chillers for its computer room that feature economizer technology to use outside air for cooling duties when the air temperature falls to a preset level. The new technology reduces power consumption dramatically during colder months compared with operating the compressors in the air handling systems. Precision computer software controls the systems and provides monitoring and alerting capabilities. Mr. Wordhouse continued, “The new systems are far more efficient, having multiple compressor stages that can be brought online by the computer as conditions in the computer room warrant. With our old systems they were either on or off; now the computer can gradually bring on additional capacity to maintain environmental presets as necessary. Because we can operate most of the time with fewer stages running, we’re seeing greater efficiencies.” Download Press Release

Web Security: Are You Part Of The Problem?

Tony Muka — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:02:48 +0000

“Website security is an interesting topic and should be high on the radar of anyone who has a Web presence under their control. Ineffective Web security leads to all of the things that make us hate the Web: spam, viruses, identity theft, to name a few.” Read on at smashingmagazine.com