Internet Delivery Stack

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A Framework for High Availability Data Center Applications

The Internet is playing an ever increasing critical position in business. Whether it is used to market your company; take or process sales; track customers; deliver e-mail, audio, video, data or other media; serve customers; or deliver your entire product, the Internet is assuming a more important role each day in business.

An Internet-based service is expected to be secure (can't be hacked, data is secure), reliable (doesn't go down, and fails-over without impacting the user) and scalable (if 10,000 users are added, the solution survives).

So, what does it take to assure a success on the Internet? It takes many complex systems working together. The "Internet" is a complex web of software, hardware, service, and infrastructure that must all work together in a highly fluid environment to provide your customers with excellent service 24x7.

To deliver each of the three requirements (secure, reliable, scalable) at all levels of the system can be prohibitively expensive even for the largest of ventures. That is why Online Tech has built a data center framework describing each layer of an Internet-enabled application. We call this data center framework the "Internet Delivery Stack" and it allows management to make intelligent trade-offs in their data center decisions to meet their specific application and business requirements.

The Internet Delivery Stack – A Data Center Framework

At Online Tech, we have a unique framework we call the Internet Delivery Stack™ (IDS) to identify all the elements necessary to deliver a successful experience to your end-users. We use this framework to identify roles and responsibilities and to scope projects. There are nine layers of components to the IDS. Each layer requires designing, implementing, tuning, management, and monitoring to assure a high degree of security, reliability and scalability in that layer.

Building A Secure, Reliable And Scalable Data Center Stack

The security, reliability and scalability of the end-user experience will be limited by the security, reliability and scalability of the weakest layer in the stack. So, it's important to understand each layer of the stack. While there are many technologies and services that can increase security, reliability and scalability ultimately much will be determined by the architecture of the entire solution.

It's the sum of the security, reliability, and scalability for each layer of the stack that ultimately determine your ability to deliver an experience of service to your end-user.

Assessing the Risk in your Data Center Stack

There is an interesting risk characteristic of the stack. As you go up the stack the layers contain higher and higher degrees of risk and lower degrees of commoditization. [See graphic below). For example, there are 100’s of people in most 10 square mile areas who can help with electrical problems. There are fewer, but still plenty, that can help with Internet connectivity and most simple networks. Even at the hardware and OS layers there are generally dozens of people who can help when outages occur. In fact, in our experience we can keep a Microsoft® Windows 2003/2008 or Linux® server running almost indefinitely with 100% uptime if there is no application or database running on it. The real risk is in the application code and database layers. Generally, there are very few people who know those layers (often 3 to 5 will be the only real experts on the source code or database design).

Outsourced Data Center Framework 2

Delivering against a Data Center Framework

In winning your end-users’ acceptance (trust)—and protecting your company—your business requires a hardened Service Level Agreement (SLA). We back our SLA with the documented processes and procedures outlined in our SAS 70 audit. Online Tech has become Michigan's first data center company to complete SAS 70 audits for three data centers.

Importance of SAS 70 For a Consistent, Reliable Experience - The SAS 70 audit process includes an in-depth audit examination of the effectiveness of a service organization’s internal controls. A SAS 70 audit is very important to public companies in the US that are required to comply with the terms of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002, and HIPPA regulations.

The SAS 70 audit and documentation has a recurring formal review process. Plans and documentation are one piece of keeping a business running smoothly, but measuring those plans against actual results creates an environment for happy customers, and a solid business. This component allows management to make intelligent decisions given your specific application, risks they are willing to take, and the requirements of the business. Without a documented and continuously updated SAS 70 plan, there is no reliable form (proof) of preparedness and no foundation for supporting the SLA.

More Detail on the Internet Delivery Stack as a Data Center Framework

Internet applications require many pieces to work properly to deliver a successful experience to the end-user. The Internet Delivery Stack is a useful framework for planning and tracking the myriad of components necessary to deliver successful Internet applications.

In the attached white paper we describe each layer of the data center stack, the tradeoffs available at each layer of your data center, and the options you can consider as you develop your data center strategy.