Why be concerned about servers?
- Do you have an application that runs on a server located in
your department?
- Do you have confidential student or staff data on your
server?
- Do you worry about the security of your data? Your
server?
- Has your server ever been hacked into?
- Have you ever lost access to your server because of a power
outage?
- Do you have a funding strategy for replacing your server when
it fails or becomes obsolete?
- Have you ever wondered if there were a better way to manage
your server?
How can ECI help?
ECI is providing a fee-based server hosting program that will
allow you to:
- Take advantage of ECI expertise. ECI has experienced server
administrators who will monitor, maintain, and administer the
server for you.
- Take the uncertainty out of the purchasing process. Let ECI
purchase and install the server. Select either Red Hat Enterprise
Linux server or Microsoft Windows 2003 server.
- Take advantage of the built-in four-year replacement cycle
for server hardware.
- Significantly improve security. ECI's server administrators
will keep the server current with security updates and configure
it to limit unauthorized access.
- Leave the worrying to ECI. ECI is responsible for
installation and configuration of operating system, system
monitoring software, and backup client software. ECI is also
responsible for replacing hardware components should a failure
occur.
- Take advantage of ECI's secure server room. The server will
be physically located in the ECI data center, which is an
environmentally controlled space. Only authorized staff from the
Division of Information Technology are permitted in this
room.
- Take advantage of the ECI uninterruptible power supply (UPS).
Your server will be connected to the ECI UPS with motor-generator
backup. This will allow the server to remain operational during a
power outage.
- Each server includes enough disk storage to accommodate the
operating system, monitoring software, backup software, and the
customer's application software. Additional storage space for
data is available at an additional fee.
- Let ECI take on the responsibility for backing up your
server. Your data will be backed up daily. When requested, ECI
will restore the data as soon as possible but no more than one
working day from the time the request is made.
- ECI will provide fast network connectivity (100 Mb/s switched
Ethernet) for the server.
What is your department's responsibility?
- Support the application hosted on the server by handling
technical and end-user support for your application.
- Identify someone in your department who will "run" the
application, provide application support, and serve as technical
liaison to ECI. The ECI systems administrator will work with your
named application support person to get your software installed
and running according to the vendor's recommendations.
- Contract with your application vendor for software updates
(as appropriate). ECI will install all software updates as part
of this service. Updates usually include:
- Planned enhancements
- Fixes for security vulnerabilities
- Functional issues discovered after the software is
released
- Support for newer operating system versions
More information:
Pricing starts at $8,080/year. For more information on server
hosting, contact Jon Bronken at Jon.Bronken@ndsu.edu or
231-9711.
Service Level Agreement
Before entering into a server hosting arrangement, ECI will
establish a formal SLA with your department. See the SLA
document.