How to Keep Your Data Center Happy for the Holidays

CIO - In the brick-and-mortar world, this holiday season is shaping up to be a wash: More people are shopping, but they are spending less.

The online picture is different, however. Greater numbers of people are going online to shop and spending more. Data collection from retail sites showed that sales were up nearly 14 percent on the Monday following Thanksgiving, known as Cyber Monday, compared to a year ago, according to Web information firm Coremetrics. The amount spent per sale rose 38 percent, the firm says.

The trend highlights the importance of keeping the data centers powering e-commerce sites and online traffic running smoothly, says Dan Blum, principal analyst for the Burton Group.

"Availability is crucial," he says. "Without availability, you are going to lose traffic; you are going to lose business."

[ For timely data center news and expert advice on data center strategy, see CIO.com's Data Center Drilldown section. ]

Trying to revamp data-center operations during December is a sure way to get snowed under, as simple problems avalanche into operational issues. However, there are some fundamental lessons that companies who deal with the crush of customers have learned that companies can consider in the coming year.

Do Spring Cleaning in October December is too late to worry about holiday spikes in traffic, says Blum. Companies need to start analyzing their operations for greater efficiency -- what he calls "spring cleaning," in early fall.

"It's a good time to look at your current content distribution networks and load balancing," he says. "It's too late to roll in new technology, but maybe you can plan for it next year."

In addition to deploying new technology before the end of fall, companies also need to look at staffing issues to make sure that the right people are always on staff or on call to handle problems if they arise. The staffing plan should also be worked out before the end of fall, he says.

"You have to ask, 'What is your minimum staffing level to, not only keep the plane flying, but keep it flying safely,'" Blum says.

Play Defense The holiday rush heightens at least two online threats for corporate data centers.

Companies that rely on the traffic for revenue, such as e-commerce providers, need to be prepared for opportunistic denial-of-service attacks. Cyber criminals have learned to hit companies with a flood of data during their highest revenue periods, attempting to extort money from the businesses in exchange for stopping the attacks. In the last year, 29 percent of companies have reported denial-of-service attacks, up from 21 percent the prior year, according to a survey of firms released this week by the Computer Security Institute.