The Planet is famous to provide enterprise class IT infrastructure combined with comprehensive managed hosting services. As a IT hosting partner to its customers, it assigns a dedicated team of certified engineers 24 x 7 x 365 who take accountability for managing the IT infrastructure based on their proactive Anticipation Advantage methodology. They become an extension of the customer team so that the customer can focus on their own business without worrying about the infrastructure maintenance.
Comprehensive Managed Hosting Service and Management
The Planet provides its customers a Northstar Managed Hosting solution that includes a comprehensive list of specialized managed hosting products and services, for applications and functions that complement or bolster the IT staff and resources of the customer. From securing the IT platform, to optimizing server performance, setting up backup and storage for disaster recovery, or designing complex database clustering, Northstar Managed Hosting of The Planet offers its customer the expertise and experience to deliver a solution that fits their specific needs.
Database Services with Expert Database Administrators
The customers of Managed Services of The Planet work directly with an experienced DBA to optimize their Microsoft SQL database environment. The Planet understands that a well-structured, highly available and high-performance database is crucial to any multi-tiered application. This is why they collaborate with the customer to design the best database solution for its needs, incorporating their Anticipation Advantage methodology to ensure the business success. With Northstar Managed Hosting, The Planet becomes an extension of the IT team of the customer. In building the team of the customer, a senior database administrator is a key member of the dedicated staff of experts. Rather than simply engaging with reactive support, the application architects from the client’s team work directly with an experienced DBA to jointly support the growth of the hosted application. From the ground up, The Planet design its database services to include essential functions that optimize a Microsoft SQL Server or MySQL Server environment.
A Northstar Managed Hosting senior database administrator at The Planet reviews the existing database implementation of the customer and how it interacts with the other applications. They discuss performance expectations and normal operating procedures to create the right database strategy for the current and future business goals of the customer. The senior DBA from the team of the customer is responsible for leveraging best practices and years of experience to architect the optimal database infrastructure for the customer business, incorporating technologies ranging from a single instance database server to complex database clustering. The team of The Planet then develops a custom monitoring and response plan that includes threshold alerting on memory usage, CPU utilization, disk I/O performance and database capacity. In addition, any changes to the database environment will follow documented change control procedures for quick reference and user accountability. All Northstar Managed Hosting databases come with detailed performance reports that are available on-demand through the customer portal. The technical account manager of the customer and senior DBA also review this information with the customer on a monthly basis to accurately measure performance and trends.
Security Services
Built from the ground up, experts in the team of The Planet apply best practices and products to secure the systems of the customers and help demonstrate compliance. A secure IT platform creates a solid foundation for a more stable and dependable environment. The Anticipation Advantage Methodology ensures that security is fundamental to every aspect of how they manage their infrastructure. They apply security best practices from the ground up, and perform due diligence to maintain and update those practices as the threat landscape changes. Their team of certified engineers keeps security at the forefront of the operation of the customer so that the customer can focus on the business transactions without worries of security of data. Keeping the business of the customer secure is a top priority for The Planet Team. The assigned Northstar Managed Hosting staff of certified experts reviews the current threat landscape and collaborates on the optimal security strategy to keep the IT environment secure while still enabling the business to perform at its peak.
The team of the customer then builds the hardened security systems using industry best practices referencing organizations such as The Center for Internet Security (CIS) and Microsoft. To minimize risks, the Northstar Managed Hosting team follows a rigorous schedule of activities to keep the environment secure, including a well defined change control process that identifies any security updates applied to the hosted infrastructure of the customer. Finally, to keep the security posture up to date, the team of experts in the Planet regularly reviews and discusses the reports specific to the security status of the hosted infrastructure of the customer every month. Any updates to the security profile are applied to the original security plan for the customer business.
Monitoring Services
The Planet understands that Proactive monitoring by expert professionals helps anticipate and prevent problems, ensuring the systems run at peak performance. Here the term “Monitoring” means more than reactively responding to “system down” alerts. A solid monitoring foundation delivers the necessary reports and analysis to anticipate when to expect an issue, be it the scalability or the system instability. By applying the Anticipation Advantage Methodology, The Planet team takes proactive steps to stay on top of the minor symptoms before they have a chance to become larger problems.
At The Planet Northstar Managed Hosting, they take monitoring as a primary function of proactively managing the infrastructure systems. They use best practice recommendations based on industry expertise to help guide them on key attributes to monitor. This information is then integrated into a run-book specific to the client business.
They develop the monitoring strategy by first building an escalation procedure that calls on the Northstar Managed Hosting team as the first line of defense for alert events. They identify relationships of monitored system, define components to monitor, and develop proper monitoring thresholds. They also identify custom logs to monitor and then develop customized remediation plans.
Once the monitoring system of the client is in place, The Planet team stays on top of the generated events, follows the escalation procedures and runs books specific to the designed plan. They keep the client informed throughout the alert and remediation process. They also proactively assess monitored data to intelligently predict and prevent system bottlenecks. They continuously measure the effectiveness of their monitoring systems and provide scalability foresight based on monitoring trends they help the client identify.
The Monitoring Methodology at The Planet is described in brief as follows:
1.Step 1 – Access: This step covers the following action items:
Identify components and key attributes to monitor.
Develop run-book processes customized to the client business.
Integrate Monitoring in to the overall managed hosting plan
2.Step 2 – Design: This step covers the following action items:
Identify the relationships of the monitored systems
Define the set of components to be monitored with defined purpose of monitoring
Define the methods of monitoring the components. Detailed step by step methodology for the monitoring each component should be defined.
Identify the custom logs to monitor
Develop the custom remediation plans
3.Step 3 – Maintain: This step covers the following action items:
Perform the critical service monitoring
Complete the system availability monitoring
Monitor full range of system performance indicators
Monitor key event log (KEL) alerts and customer log files
4.Step 4 – Measure: This step covers the following action items:
Aggregate the bandwidth reports
Analyze the reports of the performance trends
Apply Scalability foresight to anticipate the growth needs
Backup Services
The experts in the team of The Planet develop customized business continuity plans with backup services designed to handle any disaster recovery or compliance scenario. The planet never takes a reliable and efficient business continuity plan for the IT infrastructure of the customer as an afterthought. With Northstar Managed Hosting, the Planet tailors a plan that incorporates not just a backup solution for every customer, but also an array of high-availability options that are fully managed by the assigned team of certified engineers. The Planet also ensures, from the initial consultation with the customer, that the specially designed business continuity plan of the customer can handle any disaster recovery or compliance needs the business may demand. They also perform monthly consultations to review their business continuity strategy and plan for any future changes.
During the initial consultation with the customer, they work to construct the optimum business continuity plan and to design a robust infrastructure that supports the backup strategy. They specifically segregate backup activity onto a separate network to isolate traffic and identify backup impact activities. The comprehensive backup and recovery plan of the customer defines backup retention periods and identification of backup exclusions specific to the business. They then recommend backup encryption options and application-specific backup strategies.
The Northstar Managed Hosting team of The Planet regularly performs rigorous backup verification procedures to ensure that the data is available when it is required. They verify data integrity for each backup session, provide optional test-recovery strategies and schedule backups during off-peak hours. They supply regular aggregate backup usage reports, display successful backup sessions, identify critical trends, and alert the customer to impending limits so that they can plan for additional capacity.
Comprehensive Storage Services
From local on-disk storage to customized Storage Area Network (SAN) options, The Planet helps develop the right capacity plan to match the business growth of the customer. Their storage solutions provide the customers with peace of mind. Because a certified team of experts acts as an extension of the team, the customer should never have to worry about storage management in the hosting environment. The primary focus of the storage engineer is to recommend and manage the best storage solution for the business. From on-disk storage to customized storage area network (SAN) options or leveraging storage cloud, they collaborate with the customer from the initial consultation to develop the right capacity growth plan that will elegantly evolve with the business. The plan is evaluated during monthly reviews to prepare for any required changes.
At The Planet, with the Northstar Managed Hosting, the team works with the customer to not only provide ample storage for their current needs but also apply their scalability foresight to anticipate the future storage needs. The Planet collaborates with the customer to design a high performance and highly available storage infrastructure by defining the current storage needs and giving them options that include High-Availability storage, iSCSI vs. Fiber Channel Network, or SATA vs. Fiber Channel Disk Drives.
Once the storage systems are in place, they ensure that the environment does not experience performance bottlenecks caused by insufficient capacity. They help anticipate spikes in storage needs and manage growth by preparing migration scenarios for larger storage systems. They monitor the storage utilization and produce Aggregate Storage Usage reports, review performance metrics such as disk I/O to ensure that the storage system is never the bottleneck, and monitor snapshots and data replication to make sure the data is always available.
Customer Portal
With The Planet, the customer can get essential, on-demand information about its hosted environment through their unique, interactive management dashboard interface. Northstar Managed Hosting at The Planet not only delivers top talent as an extension of the IT team but also provides advanced tools to enhance the success of the business of the client. Through the Northstar Customer Portal, the customers receive all essential, on-demand information about their hosting environment. When it comes to keeping the business informed, the Northstar Customer Portal serves as the “interactive dashboard” for the managed hosting services. Another good thing is that the Anticipation Advantage is displayed in the Customer Portal. Northstar Managed Hosting Customer Portal of The Planet is only one element in of how they deliver their unique Anticipation Advantage™ to the managed hosting experience of the customer.
Methodologies & Processes
The Planet with Northstar takes managed hosting to the next level of professionalism by adopting a proactive methodology, going beyond the typical reactive support mentality of other managed hosting providers. That means in-depth business and technology planning sessions; systems architecture of the customer designed to fit the needs; proactive management and protection of IT systems of the customer for maximum performance; and regular reports and reviews of system health to discover new ways to improve and leverage IT.
Assess Methodology & Process
Every managed hosting client starts with an in-depth business and technology planning session that establishes the relationship with The Planet based on a thorough understanding of the customer’s business and technology goals. The Planet examines the current and future business expectations of the customer and how they will impact the technology needs. The result is an IT implementation plan that aligns with the business requirements of the customer and includes alternate scenarios should circumstances change.
Key Deliverables of Access Process Include the following:
Priorities alignment
Business goals assessment
Load balancing methods: RR (round robin), least connections, weighted RR, and response time
Technical requirements assessment
Design Methodology & Process
Based on the business and technology goals of the customer, the team at The Planet develops a comprehensive design of the systems architecture for the customer that will satisfy the specific needs today and tomorrow. They build the infrastructure for the customer from the ground up putting together the optimal solution from their world class data centers, network and team of IT experts. At the same time, they develop the processes that define how they will work together as an extension of the IT team of the client.
Key Deliverables of Design Process Include the following:
Implementation Plan
Data Protection & Recovery Plan
Support & Escalation Plan
Maintain Methodology & Process
The dedicated team of certified and seasoned IT experts at The Planet provides industry specific experience with Internet based businesses to proactively advise and manage the account of the client. That way, the client can focus on its own business knowing that its IT systems will follow best practices and perform as promised. Protection of the IT assets of the client is secure by design.
Key Deliverables of Maintain Process Include the following:
Published Maintenance Calendar
Operational Maintenance Plan
Change Control Reports
Measure Methodology & Process
At Northstar Managed Hosting of The Planet, the measurement is built into their IT best practices so that they have the necessary benchmark data to properly report the status of IT systems along with critical trends that contribute to anticipating and preparing for future changes. They schedule regular reports as well as quarterly “white-board” meetings to review results and explore ways to improve operating procedures and technology performance.
Key Deliverables of Measure Process Include the following:
Performance & Scalability Review
Security & Compliance Review
Customer Satisfaction Review
Hardware & Platforms
The Planet understands that the mission-critical systems of the customers require enterprise class infrastructure. All Northstar Managed Hosting solutions at The Planet are customized specifically for the client business. They leverage industry leading hardware with a broad portfolio of technologies to meet the needs of the customer. The customer is allowed and enabled to offload routine complex and time consuming administration to the certified technical experts and can freely focus on the strategic aspects of its own business.
The entire infrastructure of the customer is backed by a Service Level Agreement that includes the following:
100% power and network availability
1-hour hardware replacement
15-minute critical live-person response time
Northstar Managed Hosting also has the expertise to proactively manage the platform of the customer, whether it is based on Microsoft, Red Hat Enterprise Linux or a blend of the two environments with the ability to configure the environment in a virtualized VMware Infrastructure configuration. The client always has assigned engineers who know exactly how to tune the client environment and make scalability recommendations that fit the customized business growth strategy of the customer.
Premier Hosting for Microsoft Based Applications
The Planet enables its customer to leverage the power of the Windows Server Platform and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 through their certified engineers. Microsoft’s Windows Server platform dominates the corporate IT market, with comprehensive capabilities that make it an ideal choice for developing innovative applications. With every new release, the functionality becomes more robust and also more complex. Many small and medium sized businesses and their heavily burdened IT organizations struggle to adopt the new features that enable them to fully benefit from Microsoft’s enhancements and to maintain the competitive edge that the enhancements provide.
The Planet with Northstar steps in and provides the platform expertise and the dedicated Microsoft certified engineers to augment the IT organization of the customer. Not only do the client has a partner who becomes accountable for the daily maintenance of the underlying Microsoft platform but also gains the technical resources and expertise from certified seasoned professionals who stay well-versed on the latest Microsoft features. This team also makes recommendations that add value and benefit the hosted configuration of the customer. Following are the key services and options available to the customers for premier hosting for Windows based applications:
S. No.
Service Option
Brief Description
1
Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V – Fully Managed
Many hosting service providers claim to support Windows Server 2008. The different is that Northstar is the only provider for the fully managed hosting configuration that certifies all of its proactive systems to work optimally with Windows Server 2008. Its engineers help the customers to leverage the capabilities of the platform, taking it even one step further by fully supporting Microsoft’s Hyper-V virtualization technology on Windows Server 2008.
2
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 – Fully Managed
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 introduces powerful new features that enable the database platform of the customer to be more secure, more efficient and more scalable. Northstar is the only hosting partner that assigns a dedicated database administrator to the customer account. With this expertise, the customers are able to leverage its IT infrastructure and gain recommendations about the capabilities of this new version for their specific business.
3
Unmatched Microsoft Windows Management
As a Microsoft Gold-Certified Partner, Northstar provides the customer with greater insight on platform-specific support incidents and package updates that they manage and pass directly to the customer:
Dedicated senior Microsoft Certified Engineers (MCSE) are assigned to every account
Comprehensive proactive OS management includes hardening procedures, performance monitoring, security patching, managed backups and scalability reviews
Dedicated Microsoft engineers enable the client business to leverage advanced platform features including centralized authentication using Active Directory, Microsoft clustering options, shared storage over high-performance SANs or Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization capabilities
4
Advanced Microsoft SQL Management with Every Account
Working with the customer and its team, The Planet establishes an on going and intimate knowledge of how the hosted application interacts with the associated database to ensure optimal performance, security and scalability:
A dedicated certified Microsoft SQL senior database administrator (MCDBA) is assigned to every account
Exclusive Microsoft SQL advanced expertise includes database mirroring and multi-node clustering that are available to every account
DBAs are responsible for reviewing the performance and scalability of the Microsoft database platform to help future-proof the IT infrastructure of the customer
5
Proactive Anticipation Advantage Methodology
The exclusive best-practices based methodology of The Planet ensures consistent service delivery and provides the highest levels of service:
Enterprise-class service delivery incorporates the four phase process that includes initial assessments, consultative design, proactive maintenance, and comprehensive reporting and review
Customized detailed service plans are designed to meet the objectives of customers and integrate to meet their precise business requirements
Anticipation Advantage methodology gives the confidence to back every configuration with a 100% SLA, one hour hardware replacement and fifteen minute response times.
Premier Hosting for LAMP Powered by Linux and J2EE Applications
There is a reason the majority of Web applications on the Internet are powered by Linux and run on the Linux Apache MySQL PHP (LAMP) stack or Java Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE). By combining the flexibility of open source software with a massive community of developers and tools, LAMP and J2EE provide businesses with a vast array of options to build many of the most innovative and cutting-edge applications.
One of the most critical and often overlooked success factors of any Web business is the evolution from the development stage to a production environment, where on going management and optimization are required to ensure high performance and high availability. Northstar Managed Hosting becomes an extension of the IT team of the customer, whose sole purpose is to ensure that the Web application is able to perform and scale as the client business grows. Partnering with Northstar allows the clients to focus on developing and differentiating their application and not on the daily maintenance of their IT infrastructure.
Following are the key services and options available to the customers for premier hosting for LAMP and J2EE applications:
S. No.
Service Option
Brief Description
1
Unmatched Red Hat Enterprise Linux Management
As one of only two Red Hat Premier Hosting Partners, The Planet with Northstar provides its clients with greater insight to platform specific support incidents and package updates that they manage and pass directly to the clients:
Dedicated senior Red Hat Certified Engineers (RHCE) are assigned to every account
Comprehensive proactive OS management includes hardening procedures, performance monitoring, security patching, managed backups and scalability reviews
Dedicated Linux engineers enable the client business to leverage advanced Linux platform features including centralized authentication over LDAP and Cluster Suite failover, shared storage over high-performance SAN or Apache Web server hardware load balancing
2
Advanced MySQL Management with Every Account
The teams of The Planet establish an on-going and intimate knowledge of how the client applications interacts with the database to ensure optimal performance, security and scalability:
A dedicated certified MySQL senior database administrator (DBA) is assigned to every account
Access to specialized certified MySQL 5.1 Cluster database architects for complex configurations
DBAs are responsible for reviewing the performance and future scalability of the database platform
Red Hat Linux Logical Volume Management snapshots are used to perform online and reliable database backups with almost no performance impact
3
Proactive Anticipation Advantage Methodology
The exclusive best-practices based methodology of The Planet ensures consistent service delivery and provides the highest levels of service:
Enterprise-class service delivery incorporates the four phase process that includes initial assessments, consultative design, proactive maintenance, and comprehensive reporting and review
Customized detailed service plans are designed to meet the objectives of customers and integrate to meet their precise business requirements
Anticipation Advantage methodology gives the confidence to back every configuration with a 100% SLA, one hour hardware replacement and fifteen minute response times.
VMWare Platform: An Enterprise-Class Virtualization for the SMB
Virtualization is a key strategic IT initiative for many enterprises and progressive small and medium sized businesses (SMB). With robust virtualization platforms such as VMware, companies are better equipped to create high-performance and redundant IT configurations to run their business. As companies begin to adopt virtualization platforms, there are challenges with hiring and grooming the specialized IT staff required to manage the virtualized environment. They must be trained on the latest versions of these complex and rapidly evolving platforms to strategically improve business performance.
Northstar Managed Hosting is the strategic partner for its customers for VMware Infrastructure platforms. A certified virtualization engineer assigned to the customer account helps them to architect a virtualized environment specifically optimized for their business. The Planet manages the virtualized platform for the customers as their business grows to ensure that they gain maximum value from their hosted environment.
Following are the key services and options available to the customers for VMWare hosting:
S. No.
Service Option
Brief Description
1
Advanced VMware Infrastructure Capabilities
Northstar Managed Hosting provides the client business with access to all the advanced features of the VMware Virtualization platform:
VMware High Availability – Gain inherent high-availability features for mission-critical applications with VMware’s ability to create server clusters using high availability shared storage
VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) – By configuring 2 or more servers as part of a server farm, the Northstar engineer tunes this feature to dynamically run VMs on the dedicated servers that allocate the resources to the client applications on demands
VMotion – the Northstar engineer leverages this powerful capability to move VMs during maintenance periods without incurring any downtime for the demanding applications
2
Essential VMware Management Expertise
With Northstar Managed Hosting, the customers are assigned a certified VMware engineer to help them take advantage of all the powerful capabilities of the VMware virtualization platform:
Dedicated senior VMware Certified Professionals (VCP) architect and manage the virtualization platform
Comprehensive proactive VM management includes hardening procedures, performance monitoring, security patching, managed backups and scalability reviews
Dedicated VCP engineers use advanced platform features including VMware High Availability, VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), and VMware VMotion to build a highly available high-performance computing platform
3
Proactive Anticipation Advantage Methodology
The exclusive best-practices based methodology of The Planet ensures consistent service delivery and provides the highest levels of service:
Enterprise-class service delivery incorporates the four phase process that includes initial assessments, consultative design, proactive maintenance, and comprehensive reporting and review
Customized detailed service plans are designed to meet the objectives of customers and integrate to meet their precise business requirements
Anticipation Advantage methodology gives the confidence to back every configuration with a 100% SLA, one hour hardware replacement and fifteen minute response times.
Apart from the VMWare hosting solutions, The Planet also offers other virtualization solutions for its customers as discussed below in this text.
Microsoft Hyper-V
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 software with Hyper-V runs multiple instances of the OS on one server as a virtual machine, or runs other Windows and Linux operating systems virtually on Windows server. The benefit: more efficient use of the hardware, meaning a better return on the hosting investment.
Parallels Virtuozzo
Parallels Virtuozzo Containers are one of the world’s leading OS virtualization solutions. Virtuozzo uses a template system to deploy and configure individual Virtual Private Servers (VPS). These templates spawn a single OS or application on the drive and in memory, which minimizes resource utilization and maximizes VPS density on each server.
Citrix XenServer Express Edition
Citrix XenServer Express Edition is a virtualization platform that enables the user to quickly get started with Xen virtualization. The Xen hypervisor is based on paravirtualization technology, and it is one of the fastest and most secure virtualization server software products in the industry. XenServer Express is an open source server software product that offers all of the base performance, tools and easy-to-use features of the Enterprise Edition. It runs on the broadest range of standard server hardware and supports dual-socket servers with up to 04 GB of RAM that can hosts up to four virtual machines. Server Compatibility
S. No.
Server Type
32-bit XenServer
64-bit XenServer
1
Conroe (3000-series)
NOT Compatible
NOT Compatible
2
Kentsfield (3200-series)
NOT Compatible
NOT Compatible
3
Yorkfield (3300-series)
NOT Compatible
NOT Compatible
4
Woodcrest (5100-series)
NOT Compatible
NOT Compatible
5
Clovertown (5300-series)
Yes, Compatible
Yes, Compatible
6
Harpertown (5400-series)
Yes, Compatible
Yes, Compatible
7
Nehalem (5500-series)
Yes, Compatible
Yes, Compatible
VMWare ESXi
VMWare ESXi is an independent operating-system and features in a production-class hypervisor that makes virtualization easy to deploy. It is built on the legacy of VMWare ESX and offers the same functionality and performance, with an enhanced 32 MB disk footprint. It supports multiple operating systems, which allows production applications to run at near-native performance. It is the most mature hypervisor product available.
Server Compatibility
S. No.
Server Type
32-bit VMWare ESX/i
64-bit VMWare ESX/i
1
Conroe (3000-series)
NOT Compatible
NOT Compatible
2
Kentsfield (3200-series)
NOT Compatible
NOT Compatible
3
Yorkfield (3300-series)
NOT Compatible
NOT Compatible
4
Woodcrest (5100-series)
NOT Compatible
NOT Compatible
5
Clovertown (5300-series)
Yes, Compatible
Yes, Compatible
6
Harpertown (5400-series)
Yes, Compatible
Yes, Compatible
7
Nehalem (5500-series)
Yes, Compatible
Yes, Compatible
Staffing & Expertise
At Northstar Managed Hosting of The Planet, there are no “cookie cutter” solutions. Rather, the customers are assigned a team of seasoned professionals who conduct an upfront, in-depth analysis and investigation of their business to determine their specific needs, and the solutions that work best for them. The Northstar Managed Hosting team at The Planet includes a technical account manager, senior database administrator, systems engineer and network security specialist which are backed by other specialists, who know the name of the customer and are personally accountable for the success of the systems.
The Northstar Core Support Team at The Planet consists of the following:
S. No.
Team member Designation
Team Member Key Responsibility Area
1
Technical Account Manager
The Technical Account Manager in the team is the front line for the client business relationship with Northstar Managed Hosting and will know the intricate details of the client business needs better than anyone. Having a dedicated person assigned to the account gives the client the advantage of personal service, mixed with the power of individual responsibility.
The Technical Account Manager will have:
Enterprise account management experience
The perfect blend of technical knowledge and customer-focused support
An in-depth understanding of the business objectives that define the client business
Effective communication skills to deliver strategic information
2
Senior Systems Engineer
The Senior Systems Engineer is a highly specialized individual who can guide the client to capitalize on the performance and efficiency of the systems. With platform-specific knowledge and the ability to leverage industry best practices, the Senior Systems Engineer can blend security, performance and architecture to create the optimal environment for the client needs.
The Senior Systems Engineer will have:
A minimum seven years of system administration and architecture design
MCSA, MCSE, MCTS, MCITP Microsoft certifications
RHCE Red Hat Linux certification
Expert-level understanding of application environments:
Configuration and troubleshooting of system applications
Virtualization
Clustering and high-availability environments
Backup and disaster recovery best practices
3
Senior Database Administrator
The Senior Database Administrator gives the clients invaluable insight into the world of databases. They are industry experts with the knowledge to optimize the performance, growth, monitoring and backup of the client databases. Working with the DBA, this person becomes a primary resource for maximizing the effectiveness of the databases.
The Senior Database Administrator will have:
A minimum 5 years of database administration
MCDBA or MCITP: Microsoft Database Administrator certifications
CMDBA or CMCDBA: MySQL Database Administrator certifications
Expert-level understanding of:
High-availability configurations for databases
Disaster recovery solutions for databases
Optimal database architectures based on environment needs
Securing database environments for regulatory and privacy concerns
4
Senior Network Security Engineer
The Senior Network Security Engineer is the resource for all network related things. They work with the client to provide a solid base on which to build the network environment, with a specific mindset focused on the client business strategy. They take the time to consider how best practices and industry standards can be applied to maximize the network security needs.
The Senior Network Security Engineer will have:
A minimum 5 years of network security engineering and administration
CCNA, CCNP, CISSP certifications
A strong understanding of PCI requirements and vulnerability assessments
Expert-level understanding of:
Cisco switches and firewalls
Local and global load balancing
Cross-platform and vendor-specific IP routing and switching protocols
DNS
5
Other key members of the team
In addition to the proactive management The Planet provides as an extension of the client IT team, its named and dedicated Northstar Core Support Team also has access to a team of certified specialists to optimize the hosted environment. Under the guidance of the Core Support Team, this group of subject matter experts serves as the perfect complement of specialized expertise to deliver on the Anticipation Advantage. This extended team includes the following experts:
Network Operations Specialist
Storage and Backup Engineer
Systems Monitoring Specialist
Data Center Operations Engineer
Change Control Manager
Billing Specialist
Why Managed Hosting from ThePlanet.com?
The Planet has a decade long track record of providing high quality hosted services to over 20,000 customers, ranging from single dedicated servers to complex solutions and colocation. To achieve this scale, they have invested heavily in their infrastructure and processes, becoming the most operationally efficient hosting company in the world.
Combining this operational foundation with a personal support team of dedicated engineers, The Planet’s Managed Hosting solutions offer exceptional value that include the highest quality managed solutions at the most cost-effective prices in the market.
Northstar Managed Hosting at The Planet delivers proactive managed hosting by including and executing in each of the following areas at the best prices in the industry:
S. No.
Best Practice Area
Brief Description
1
Proactive and Consistent Processes Customized for the Client Business
At The Planet, applying the unique Anticipation Advantage methodology begins with an upfront collaboration and an in depth analysis of the client business to determine specific needs. Based on the analysis, the team is then able to design, implement, manage and measure the solutions that work best for the client business.
2
Dedicated Hosting Experts Who Know You by Name
The team of expert professionals specifically assigned to the client includes many members of the client team itself. They include the Account Manager, DBA, Network Security Specialist and Systems Engineer of the client and also huge support from the system administrator.
3
Comprehensive Managed Hosting Services
Northstar Managed Hosting at The Planet offers a comprehensive selection of specialized products and services, accompanied by the unmatched database management abilities. At the disposal of the client, it will have critical services that focus on security, monitoring, backup and storage.
4
Industry Leading Service Level Agreement
Northstar Managed Hosting services are backed by the industry-leading SLA that ensures 100 percent network and data center power uptime, one hour hardware replacement and a fifteen minute response time from the dedicated account team.
Managed Hosting
Managed Hosting Solutions
The Planet is famous to provide enterprise class IT infrastructure combined with comprehensive managed hosting services. As a IT hosting partner to its customers, it assigns a dedicated team of certified engineers 24 x 7 x 365 who take accountability for managing the IT infrastructure based on their proactive Anticipation Advantage methodology. They become an extension of the customer team so that the customer can focus on their own business without worrying about the infrastructure maintenance.
Comprehensive Managed Hosting Service and Management
The Planet provides its customers a Northstar Managed Hosting solution that includes a comprehensive list of specialized managed hosting products and services, for applications and functions that complement or bolster the IT staff and resources of the customer. From securing the IT platform, to optimizing server performance, setting up backup and storage for disaster recovery, or designing complex database clustering, Northstar Managed Hosting of The Planet offers its customer the expertise and experience to deliver a solution that fits their specific needs.
Database Services with Expert Database Administrators
The customers of Managed Services of The Planet work directly with an experienced DBA to optimize their Microsoft SQL database environment. The Planet understands that a well-structured, highly available and high-performance database is crucial to any multi-tiered application. This is why they collaborate with the customer to design the best database solution for its needs, incorporating their Anticipation Advantage methodology to ensure the business success. With Northstar Managed Hosting, The Planet becomes an extension of the IT team of the customer. In building the team of the customer, a senior database administrator is a key member of the dedicated staff of experts. Rather than simply engaging with reactive support, the application architects from the client’s team work directly with an experienced DBA to jointly support the growth of the hosted application. From the ground up, The Planet design its database services to include essential functions that optimize a Microsoft SQL Server or MySQL Server environment.
A Northstar Managed Hosting senior database administrator at The Planet reviews the existing database implementation of the customer and how it interacts with the other applications. They discuss performance expectations and normal operating procedures to create the right database strategy for the current and future business goals of the customer. The senior DBA from the team of the customer is responsible for leveraging best practices and years of experience to architect the optimal database infrastructure for the customer business, incorporating technologies ranging from a single instance database server to complex database clustering. The team of The Planet then develops a custom monitoring and response plan that includes threshold alerting on memory usage, CPU utilization, disk I/O performance and database capacity. In addition, any changes to the database environment will follow documented change control procedures for quick reference and user accountability. All Northstar Managed Hosting databases come with detailed performance reports that are available on-demand through the customer portal. The technical account manager of the customer and senior DBA also review this information with the customer on a monthly basis to accurately measure performance and trends.
Security Services
Built from the ground up, experts in the team of The Planet apply best practices and products to secure the systems of the customers and help demonstrate compliance. A secure IT platform creates a solid foundation for a more stable and dependable environment. The Anticipation Advantage Methodology ensures that security is fundamental to every aspect of how they manage their infrastructure. They apply security best practices from the ground up, and perform due diligence to maintain and update those practices as the threat landscape changes. Their team of certified engineers keeps security at the forefront of the operation of the customer so that the customer can focus on the business transactions without worries of security of data. Keeping the business of the customer secure is a top priority for The Planet Team. The assigned Northstar Managed Hosting staff of certified experts reviews the current threat landscape and collaborates on the optimal security strategy to keep the IT environment secure while still enabling the business to perform at its peak.
The team of the customer then builds the hardened security systems using industry best practices referencing organizations such as The Center for Internet Security (CIS) and Microsoft. To minimize risks, the Northstar Managed Hosting team follows a rigorous schedule of activities to keep the environment secure, including a well defined change control process that identifies any security updates applied to the hosted infrastructure of the customer. Finally, to keep the security posture up to date, the team of experts in the Planet regularly reviews and discusses the reports specific to the security status of the hosted infrastructure of the customer every month. Any updates to the security profile are applied to the original security plan for the customer business.
Monitoring Services
The Planet understands that Proactive monitoring by expert professionals helps anticipate and prevent problems, ensuring the systems run at peak performance. Here the term “Monitoring” means more than reactively responding to “system down” alerts. A solid monitoring foundation delivers the necessary reports and analysis to anticipate when to expect an issue, be it the scalability or the system instability. By applying the Anticipation Advantage Methodology, The Planet team takes proactive steps to stay on top of the minor symptoms before they have a chance to become larger problems.
At The Planet Northstar Managed Hosting, they take monitoring as a primary function of proactively managing the infrastructure systems. They use best practice recommendations based on industry expertise to help guide them on key attributes to monitor. This information is then integrated into a run-book specific to the client business.
They develop the monitoring strategy by first building an escalation procedure that calls on the Northstar Managed Hosting team as the first line of defense for alert events. They identify relationships of monitored system, define components to monitor, and develop proper monitoring thresholds. They also identify custom logs to monitor and then develop customized remediation plans.
Once the monitoring system of the client is in place, The Planet team stays on top of the generated events, follows the escalation procedures and runs books specific to the designed plan. They keep the client informed throughout the alert and remediation process. They also proactively assess monitored data to intelligently predict and prevent system bottlenecks. They continuously measure the effectiveness of their monitoring systems and provide scalability foresight based on monitoring trends they help the client identify.
The Monitoring Methodology at The Planet is described in brief as follows:
1.Step 1 – Access: This step covers the following action items:
Identify components and key attributes to monitor.
Develop run-book processes customized to the client business.
Integrate Monitoring in to the overall managed hosting plan
2.Step 2 – Design: This step covers the following action items:
Identify the relationships of the monitored systems
Define the set of components to be monitored with defined purpose of monitoring
Define the methods of monitoring the components. Detailed step by step methodology for the monitoring each component should be defined.
Identify the custom logs to monitor
Develop the custom remediation plans
3.Step 3 – Maintain: This step covers the following action items:
Perform the critical service monitoring
Complete the system availability monitoring
Monitor full range of system performance indicators
Monitor key event log (KEL) alerts and customer log files
4.Step 4 – Measure: This step covers the following action items:
Aggregate the bandwidth reports
Analyze the reports of the performance trends
Apply Scalability foresight to anticipate the growth needs
Backup Services
The experts in the team of The Planet develop customized business continuity plans with backup services designed to handle any disaster recovery or compliance scenario. The planet never takes a reliable and efficient business continuity plan for the IT infrastructure of the customer as an afterthought. With Northstar Managed Hosting, the Planet tailors a plan that incorporates not just a backup solution for every customer, but also an array of high-availability options that are fully managed by the assigned team of certified engineers. The Planet also ensures, from the initial consultation with the customer, that the specially designed business continuity plan of the customer can handle any disaster recovery or compliance needs the business may demand. They also perform monthly consultations to review their business continuity strategy and plan for any future changes.
During the initial consultation with the customer, they work to construct the optimum business continuity plan and to design a robust infrastructure that supports the backup strategy. They specifically segregate backup activity onto a separate network to isolate traffic and identify backup impact activities. The comprehensive backup and recovery plan of the customer defines backup retention periods and identification of backup exclusions specific to the business. They then recommend backup encryption options and application-specific backup strategies.
The Northstar Managed Hosting team of The Planet regularly performs rigorous backup verification procedures to ensure that the data is available when it is required. They verify data integrity for each backup session, provide optional test-recovery strategies and schedule backups during off-peak hours. They supply regular aggregate backup usage reports, display successful backup sessions, identify critical trends, and alert the customer to impending limits so that they can plan for additional capacity.
Comprehensive Storage Services
From local on-disk storage to customized Storage Area Network (SAN) options, The Planet helps develop the right capacity plan to match the business growth of the customer. Their storage solutions provide the customers with peace of mind. Because a certified team of experts acts as an extension of the team, the customer should never have to worry about storage management in the hosting environment. The primary focus of the storage engineer is to recommend and manage the best storage solution for the business. From on-disk storage to customized storage area network (SAN) options or leveraging storage cloud, they collaborate with the customer from the initial consultation to develop the right capacity growth plan that will elegantly evolve with the business. The plan is evaluated during monthly reviews to prepare for any required changes.
At The Planet, with the Northstar Managed Hosting, the team works with the customer to not only provide ample storage for their current needs but also apply their scalability foresight to anticipate the future storage needs. The Planet collaborates with the customer to design a high performance and highly available storage infrastructure by defining the current storage needs and giving them options that include High-Availability storage, iSCSI vs. Fiber Channel Network, or SATA vs. Fiber Channel Disk Drives.
Once the storage systems are in place, they ensure that the environment does not experience performance bottlenecks caused by insufficient capacity. They help anticipate spikes in storage needs and manage growth by preparing migration scenarios for larger storage systems. They monitor the storage utilization and produce Aggregate Storage Usage reports, review performance metrics such as disk I/O to ensure that the storage system is never the bottleneck, and monitor snapshots and data replication to make sure the data is always available.
Customer Portal
With The Planet, the customer can get essential, on-demand information about its hosted environment through their unique, interactive management dashboard interface. Northstar Managed Hosting at The Planet not only delivers top talent as an extension of the IT team but also provides advanced tools to enhance the success of the business of the client. Through the Northstar Customer Portal, the customers receive all essential, on-demand information about their hosting environment. When it comes to keeping the business informed, the Northstar Customer Portal serves as the “interactive dashboard” for the managed hosting services. Another good thing is that the Anticipation Advantage is displayed in the Customer Portal. Northstar Managed Hosting Customer Portal of The Planet is only one element in of how they deliver their unique Anticipation Advantage™ to the managed hosting experience of the customer.
Methodologies & Processes
The Planet with Northstar takes managed hosting to the next level of professionalism by adopting a proactive methodology, going beyond the typical reactive support mentality of other managed hosting providers. That means in-depth business and technology planning sessions; systems architecture of the customer designed to fit the needs; proactive management and protection of IT systems of the customer for maximum performance; and regular reports and reviews of system health to discover new ways to improve and leverage IT.
Assess Methodology & Process
Every managed hosting client starts with an in-depth business and technology planning session that establishes the relationship with The Planet based on a thorough understanding of the customer’s business and technology goals. The Planet examines the current and future business expectations of the customer and how they will impact the technology needs. The result is an IT implementation plan that aligns with the business requirements of the customer and includes alternate scenarios should circumstances change.
Key Deliverables of Access Process Include the following:
Priorities alignment
Business goals assessment
Load balancing methods: RR (round robin), least connections, weighted RR, and response time
Technical requirements assessment
Design Methodology & Process
Based on the business and technology goals of the customer, the team at The Planet develops a comprehensive design of the systems architecture for the customer that will satisfy the specific needs today and tomorrow. They build the infrastructure for the customer from the ground up putting together the optimal solution from their world class data centers, network and team of IT experts. At the same time, they develop the processes that define how they will work together as an extension of the IT team of the client.
Key Deliverables of Design Process Include the following:
Implementation Plan
Data Protection & Recovery Plan
Support & Escalation Plan
Maintain Methodology & Process
The dedicated team of certified and seasoned IT experts at The Planet provides industry specific experience with Internet based businesses to proactively advise and manage the account of the client. That way, the client can focus on its own business knowing that its IT systems will follow best practices and perform as promised. Protection of the IT assets of the client is secure by design.
Key Deliverables of Maintain Process Include the following:
Published Maintenance Calendar
Operational Maintenance Plan
Change Control Reports
Measure Methodology & Process
At Northstar Managed Hosting of The Planet, the measurement is built into their IT best practices so that they have the necessary benchmark data to properly report the status of IT systems along with critical trends that contribute to anticipating and preparing for future changes. They schedule regular reports as well as quarterly “white-board” meetings to review results and explore ways to improve operating procedures and technology performance.
Key Deliverables of Measure Process Include the following:
Performance & Scalability Review
Security & Compliance Review
Customer Satisfaction Review
Hardware & Platforms
The Planet understands that the mission-critical systems of the customers require enterprise class infrastructure. All Northstar Managed Hosting solutions at The Planet are customized specifically for the client business. They leverage industry leading hardware with a broad portfolio of technologies to meet the needs of the customer. The customer is allowed and enabled to offload routine complex and time consuming administration to the certified technical experts and can freely focus on the strategic aspects of its own business.
The entire infrastructure of the customer is backed by a Service Level Agreement that includes the following:
100% power and network availability
1-hour hardware replacement
15-minute critical live-person response time
Northstar Managed Hosting also has the expertise to proactively manage the platform of the customer, whether it is based on Microsoft, Red Hat Enterprise Linux or a blend of the two environments with the ability to configure the environment in a virtualized VMware Infrastructure configuration. The client always has assigned engineers who know exactly how to tune the client environment and make scalability recommendations that fit the customized business growth strategy of the customer.
Premier Hosting for Microsoft Based Applications
The Planet enables its customer to leverage the power of the Windows Server Platform and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 through their certified engineers. Microsoft’s Windows Server platform dominates the corporate IT market, with comprehensive capabilities that make it an ideal choice for developing innovative applications. With every new release, the functionality becomes more robust and also more complex. Many small and medium sized businesses and their heavily burdened IT organizations struggle to adopt the new features that enable them to fully benefit from Microsoft’s enhancements and to maintain the competitive edge that the enhancements provide.
The Planet with Northstar steps in and provides the platform expertise and the dedicated Microsoft certified engineers to augment the IT organization of the customer. Not only do the client has a partner who becomes accountable for the daily maintenance of the underlying Microsoft platform but also gains the technical resources and expertise from certified seasoned professionals who stay well-versed on the latest Microsoft features. This team also makes recommendations that add value and benefit the hosted configuration of the customer. Following are the key services and options available to the customers for premier hosting for Windows based applications:
Dedicated senior Microsoft Certified Engineers (MCSE) are assigned to every account
Comprehensive proactive OS management includes hardening procedures, performance monitoring, security patching, managed backups and scalability reviews
Dedicated Microsoft engineers enable the client business to leverage advanced platform features including centralized authentication using Active Directory, Microsoft clustering options, shared storage over high-performance SANs or Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization capabilities
A dedicated certified Microsoft SQL senior database administrator (MCDBA) is assigned to every account
Exclusive Microsoft SQL advanced expertise includes database mirroring and multi-node clustering that are available to every account
DBAs are responsible for reviewing the performance and scalability of the Microsoft database platform to help future-proof the IT infrastructure of the customer
Enterprise-class service delivery incorporates the four phase process that includes initial assessments, consultative design, proactive maintenance, and comprehensive reporting and review
Customized detailed service plans are designed to meet the objectives of customers and integrate to meet their precise business requirements
Anticipation Advantage methodology gives the confidence to back every configuration with a 100% SLA, one hour hardware replacement and fifteen minute response times.
Premier Hosting for LAMP Powered by Linux and J2EE Applications
There is a reason the majority of Web applications on the Internet are powered by Linux and run on the Linux Apache MySQL PHP (LAMP) stack or Java Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE). By combining the flexibility of open source software with a massive community of developers and tools, LAMP and J2EE provide businesses with a vast array of options to build many of the most innovative and cutting-edge applications.
One of the most critical and often overlooked success factors of any Web business is the evolution from the development stage to a production environment, where on going management and optimization are required to ensure high performance and high availability. Northstar Managed Hosting becomes an extension of the IT team of the customer, whose sole purpose is to ensure that the Web application is able to perform and scale as the client business grows. Partnering with Northstar allows the clients to focus on developing and differentiating their application and not on the daily maintenance of their IT infrastructure.
Following are the key services and options available to the customers for premier hosting for LAMP and J2EE applications:
Dedicated senior Red Hat Certified Engineers (RHCE) are assigned to every account
Comprehensive proactive OS management includes hardening procedures, performance monitoring, security patching, managed backups and scalability reviews
Dedicated Linux engineers enable the client business to leverage advanced Linux platform features including centralized authentication over LDAP and Cluster Suite failover, shared storage over high-performance SAN or Apache Web server hardware load balancing
A dedicated certified MySQL senior database administrator (DBA) is assigned to every account
Access to specialized certified MySQL 5.1 Cluster database architects for complex configurations
DBAs are responsible for reviewing the performance and future scalability of the database platform
Red Hat Linux Logical Volume Management snapshots are used to perform online and reliable database backups with almost no performance impact
Enterprise-class service delivery incorporates the four phase process that includes initial assessments, consultative design, proactive maintenance, and comprehensive reporting and review
Customized detailed service plans are designed to meet the objectives of customers and integrate to meet their precise business requirements
Anticipation Advantage methodology gives the confidence to back every configuration with a 100% SLA, one hour hardware replacement and fifteen minute response times.
VMWare Platform: An Enterprise-Class Virtualization for the SMB
Virtualization is a key strategic IT initiative for many enterprises and progressive small and medium sized businesses (SMB). With robust virtualization platforms such as VMware, companies are better equipped to create high-performance and redundant IT configurations to run their business. As companies begin to adopt virtualization platforms, there are challenges with hiring and grooming the specialized IT staff required to manage the virtualized environment. They must be trained on the latest versions of these complex and rapidly evolving platforms to strategically improve business performance.
Northstar Managed Hosting is the strategic partner for its customers for VMware Infrastructure platforms. A certified virtualization engineer assigned to the customer account helps them to architect a virtualized environment specifically optimized for their business. The Planet manages the virtualized platform for the customers as their business grows to ensure that they gain maximum value from their hosted environment.
Following are the key services and options available to the customers for VMWare hosting:
VMware High Availability – Gain inherent high-availability features for mission-critical applications with VMware’s ability to create server clusters using high availability shared storage
VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) – By configuring 2 or more servers as part of a server farm, the Northstar engineer tunes this feature to dynamically run VMs on the dedicated servers that allocate the resources to the client applications on demands
VMotion – the Northstar engineer leverages this powerful capability to move VMs during maintenance periods without incurring any downtime for the demanding applications
Dedicated senior VMware Certified Professionals (VCP) architect and manage the virtualization platform
Comprehensive proactive VM management includes hardening procedures, performance monitoring, security patching, managed backups and scalability reviews
Dedicated VCP engineers use advanced platform features including VMware High Availability, VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), and VMware VMotion to build a highly available high-performance computing platform
Enterprise-class service delivery incorporates the four phase process that includes initial assessments, consultative design, proactive maintenance, and comprehensive reporting and review
Customized detailed service plans are designed to meet the objectives of customers and integrate to meet their precise business requirements
Anticipation Advantage methodology gives the confidence to back every configuration with a 100% SLA, one hour hardware replacement and fifteen minute response times.
Apart from the VMWare hosting solutions, The Planet also offers other virtualization solutions for its customers as discussed below in this text.
Microsoft Hyper-V
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 software with Hyper-V runs multiple instances of the OS on one server as a virtual machine, or runs other Windows and Linux operating systems virtually on Windows server. The benefit: more efficient use of the hardware, meaning a better return on the hosting investment.
Parallels Virtuozzo
Parallels Virtuozzo Containers are one of the world’s leading OS virtualization solutions. Virtuozzo uses a template system to deploy and configure individual Virtual Private Servers (VPS). These templates spawn a single OS or application on the drive and in memory, which minimizes resource utilization and maximizes VPS density on each server.
Citrix XenServer Express Edition
Citrix XenServer Express Edition is a virtualization platform that enables the user to quickly get started with Xen virtualization. The Xen hypervisor is based on paravirtualization technology, and it is one of the fastest and most secure virtualization server software products in the industry. XenServer Express is an open source server software product that offers all of the base performance, tools and easy-to-use features of the Enterprise Edition. It runs on the broadest range of standard server hardware and supports dual-socket servers with up to 04 GB of RAM that can hosts up to four virtual machines.
Server Compatibility
VMWare ESXi
VMWare ESXi is an independent operating-system and features in a production-class hypervisor that makes virtualization easy to deploy. It is built on the legacy of VMWare ESX and offers the same functionality and performance, with an enhanced 32 MB disk footprint. It supports multiple operating systems, which allows production applications to run at near-native performance. It is the most mature hypervisor product available.
Server Compatibility
Staffing & Expertise
At Northstar Managed Hosting of The Planet, there are no “cookie cutter” solutions. Rather, the customers are assigned a team of seasoned professionals who conduct an upfront, in-depth analysis and investigation of their business to determine their specific needs, and the solutions that work best for them. The Northstar Managed Hosting team at The Planet includes a technical account manager, senior database administrator, systems engineer and network security specialist which are backed by other specialists, who know the name of the customer and are personally accountable for the success of the systems.
The Northstar Core Support Team at The Planet consists of the following:
The Technical Account Manager will have:
Enterprise account management experience
The perfect blend of technical knowledge and customer-focused support
An in-depth understanding of the business objectives that define the client business
Effective communication skills to deliver strategic information
The Senior Systems Engineer will have:
A minimum seven years of system administration and architecture design
MCSA, MCSE, MCTS, MCITP Microsoft certifications
RHCE Red Hat Linux certification
Expert-level understanding of application environments:
Configuration and troubleshooting of system applications
Virtualization
Clustering and high-availability environments
Backup and disaster recovery best practices
The Senior Database Administrator will have:
A minimum 5 years of database administration
MCDBA or MCITP: Microsoft Database Administrator certifications
CMDBA or CMCDBA: MySQL Database Administrator certifications
Expert-level understanding of:
High-availability configurations for databases
Disaster recovery solutions for databases
Optimal database architectures based on environment needs
Securing database environments for regulatory and privacy concerns
The Senior Network Security Engineer will have:
A minimum 5 years of network security engineering and administration
CCNA, CCNP, CISSP certifications
A strong understanding of PCI requirements and vulnerability assessments
Expert-level understanding of:
Cisco switches and firewalls
Local and global load balancing
Cross-platform and vendor-specific IP routing and switching protocols
DNS
Network Operations Specialist
Storage and Backup Engineer
Systems Monitoring Specialist
Data Center Operations Engineer
Change Control Manager
Billing Specialist
Why Managed Hosting from ThePlanet.com?
The Planet has a decade long track record of providing high quality hosted services to over 20,000 customers, ranging from single dedicated servers to complex solutions and colocation. To achieve this scale, they have invested heavily in their infrastructure and processes, becoming the most operationally efficient hosting company in the world.
Combining this operational foundation with a personal support team of dedicated engineers, The Planet’s Managed Hosting solutions offer exceptional value that include the highest quality managed solutions at the most cost-effective prices in the market.
Northstar Managed Hosting at The Planet delivers proactive managed hosting by including and executing in each of the following areas at the best prices in the industry: