Q. What, exactly, is Web Hosting? A. Web hosting is a service which lets you park your web sites or whole servers at a data center with exceptional quality and quantity of bandwidth, reliability and security. Q. Why do I need the Globaltap Advantage web hosting service? A. You need the Globaltap Advantage web hosting to provide your customers or audience with the best possible web browsing experience: fast and reliable.(, just like a phone dial tone. I think it advisable that Globaltap is in no way associated with a dial tone. That smacks of old 56k modem connections.) Q. What do you mean by 'Co-located' Servers? A. A server which belongs to you can be placed in the data center and connected to the Globaltap Advantage network. We provide rack space in a highly-secured environment, exceptionally reliable power (many large UPS units and four huge diesel generators which kick in automatically if the main power goes off), high-quality and abundant bandwidth. By 'high quality' we mean connected right to the Internet backbone in several key points so your server is only a handful of fast links away from almost anyone in the world. If anything goes wrong with your server, Globaltap's remote reboot capability and superior tech help is instantly ready to render assistance. At the same time, however, since you own and manage your own equipment, you have unlimited freedom to chose what to run and how it runs on the server. Q. What's the economic saving to my business if I go with the Globaltap Advantage? Wouldn't it be cheaper for me to have my own servers to do my own hosting? Give me some figures. A. It is never cheaper to do your own hosting. Why? Because it takes a lot of money to get the quality and quantity of bandwidth you get with us. It would be very expensive to duplicate the level of system management and level of reliability that's economically, and readily available from Globaltap. For example, if you wanted to buy a Dell PowerEdge 2850 Advanced server (which is an average server we run), you will pay $10,600. On top of that, you will need reliable backed-up, clean and smooth-regulated power provided by a UPS. A UPS for this system will run you another $1300. Globaltap, on the other hand, goes much further to ensure our clients reliable, ever-constant power. We also have four large diesel generators, which cost nearly $70,000 each. To have an Internet connection remotely comparable to what's available with the Globaltap Advantage, you will need to buy an ATM link from your local telephone company. They start at $3500 per month for a few megabits (10 Mb or so) and quickly go all the way into hundreds of thousands of dollars per month for several hundred megabits of connectivity. Then, you will need a systems administrator to manage all this. If go really cheap, you can get one for as low as $40,000 per year. To the opposite, you hire a highly-qualified administrator where you pay $12,000 upfront sign-on incentive, and then a salary of $7,000 per month. Or (and this is a big 'Or' for your business) you can get a dedicated server from Globaltap for under $100 per month. Our top-of-the line dedicated server, the Dell XXX-XXXXXX is much better then the PowerEdge 2850 described above, costs $1600 per month, which is more then four times cheaper then purchasing your own. Q. What brand of hardware (servers, routers, etc.,) do you have? A. We use Dell, Cisco and AmNet hardware. Q. Do you offer e-mail services? If so, why should I use Globaltap instead of one of the other services offered like Google's 'gmail' or the Yahoo or MSN e-mail? A. We do not offer pure e-mail-only services. We do offer unlimited e-mail accounts with any hosting plan. So, if you need many e-mail accounts, you can get your own domain name and have as many e-mail accounts as you want. The advantage over Google, Yahoo or MSN e-mail services is that you will control all the e-mail accounts yourself; you will be able to add and remove accounts as you please. Also, unlike publicly-traded companies, we have no reason, whatsoever, to release your e-mails to anyone. Q. I've heard about security issues involving e-mail, things like spam, virus attacks, 'spoofing', 'phishing', spyware attachments and hacking. What defenses does the Globaltap Advantage have in place? A. We have state-of-the-art filtering software which protects our customers from almost all spam, worms and viruses. We also employ the highest quality firewalls available today to protect our customers and ourselves from being hacked. We keep our operating system software current with all security updates. In addition, we do regular and frequent security audits to make sure we have the best protection possible from hackers. Q. How will the Globaltap Advantage make things flow more smoothly in our daily office operations? A. We provide very reliable hosting services, so your e-mail will always be available, and when you tell your customers or co-workers to go to your web site for information, it will always be available and will load quickly no matter where they are globally located. Q. For the more technically savvy, would you tell us what's the backbone and what's the server capability and storage capacity of the Globaltap Advantage? A. We are connected to several bandwidth provider backbones. Our bandwidth providers change over time, but to give you a sample, we presently have direct connection into the backbones of Level 3, BTN, Global Crossing, Hurricane Electric, and many more providers. Out total connectivity at the moment is 2 gigabits, but can be immediately increased to hundreds of gigabits. We currently have six multiprocessor servers to serve our Virtual customers, and on average, a hundred of dedicated and co-located servers. We have state-of-the-art data storage systems, which allow us to move data easily between servers, and ensures that we do not lose any data when an individual hard drives fail. Currently the capacity of our data storage systems is over eight terabytes, and have the room to grow into hundreds of terabytes. Q. What's involved in the way of training my staff and field employees. What's the Globaltap Advantage system learning curve for my business? A. You will not have to train your staff or field employees beyond what is currently needed to function normally, because the services we provide are fully compatible with all current industry standards. For example if your employees currently use Outlook or Thunderbird for their e-mail needs, they can continue using them. The only learning that will be needed is for the staff that manages the web site and e-mail accounts. They will need to familiarize themselves with the hosting control panel - the software that allows our customers to control all aspects of their web hosting and e-mail account management. It usually takes less then 15 minutes for new customers to start using the Globaltap Advantage control panel software effectively, because we use the best and most user-friendly control panel software available: cPanel. Q. When my data goes out of my office over to Globaltap, how can I be sure it will be safe? What kind of protections do you have in place besides antivirus and anti-spyware? A. For customers concerned with protection of their data from hackers we do offer two kinds of security-enhanced connections: SSL and VPN. SSL encrypts e-mail and web site data while in transit between Globaltap and the customer's computer. So, no matter who might be listening in between, only the customer will be able to read the e-mail and web pages. For broader protection beyond e-mail and web, we can set up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) between Globaltap and the customer's network. This type of encrypted network protects any kind of data flowing back and forth. Q. Tell me about data back-up and redundancy? Does Globaltap have more than one secure location for my data? A. Customer's data is the most important thing we are entrusted with, and we do not take it lightly. We have built a state-of-the-art data storage system with many layers of protection from data loss. All customers' data resides on at least two different storage systems, and is backed up regularly to a third one. Q. How big an operation is Globaltap.com? Where is it physically located? A. Unlike some huge and bureaucratically-choked companies, we at Globaltap are proud to be slim, efficient and responsive. We have several technical people who proficiently manage the operation around the clock. Our data center is located in Ashburn, VA, and our headquarters are in Baltimore, MD. Q. I understand that Globaltap.com draws its power and capacity from Equinix.com. Tell me about Equinix. A. We buy space and power in the Equinix data center, also called Internet Business Exchange (IBX). Equinix is the oldest and most respectable and reliable provider of data center space, and this is precisely why we went to Equinix in Virginia to place our servers. The data center, in which we buy space from Equinix, has been built with the best reliability and security in mind. All services provided to us by Equinix are the finest professional quality available. Power that feeds our servers is conditioned by several large capacity UPS units, and four standby generators capable of powering the Globaltap Advantage for months without any external power. The data center has six Liebert Air Conditioned environment-control units that maintain the equipment at its best operating temperature, and, simultaneously, eliminate all the dust that reduces server lifespan. The security of the data center is unparalleled. Besides protecting every door with biometric handscan equipment, Equinix places guards, 24/7, at the entrance to the data center. The guards check every visitor for authorization to access the data center, thus ensuring that no equipment or data gets stolen, or damaged. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the only business operation that remained functioning was the Equinix data center 10 miles east of the city. None of the Internet- based businesses located in that data center was affected, and all client web sites were available through the entire ordeal. Q. Are both Globaltap and Equinix up to date with the latest business software? A.Globaltap is up to date. Because Equinix is the proprietor of the data center, and has no need of 'business' software, Globaltap clients are in no way effected . The Globaltap Advantage provides all necessary software that best serves our clients. Q. Is Globaltap.com supervised or owned by someone who's actually experienced in business ownership? A. Both current Globaltap Advantage owners have operated successful businesses for many years prior to getting involved with Globaltap.com. Dennis Gerasimov was one of the founders of the large-scale data storage company called DFI in 2001, and brought the company from its conception - through venture capital funding - to the product stage. In 2003, Dennis opened another data storage company, Technomages, which developed and now sells mid-size RAID arrays to small businesses, government and educational institutions. Joseph Volodarsky founded AmNet Computers in 1993. Today, AmNet is the computer hardware of choice for many web hosting companies, including SkyNet, and the U.S. Army. Q. Is there going to be someone on the premises if I need to contact you in case of an emergency? What are your hours of operation? A. Our users who need physical access to their co-located machines at the data center can get a temporary pass from Equinix by calling us or opening a ticket with our online helpdesk. We also offer "Smart Hands" service in case our client cannot physically get to the data center, but needs to do something with his co-located server that can only be done in person. Our technical personnel are available 24/7/365 to handle emergencies. Our online help desk system, acting on the highest priority, pages all on-call personnel when a ticket is opened. Our normal hours of operation are Monday-Friday, 9am-7pm Eastern time. Q. If my business needs new or additional equipment, can you advise us as to what to buy? Can you install it? We regularly help our customers to select, purchase and install new and used equipment, and we have many satisfied customers who now ask us to handle all equipment issues for them. Q. My business has a large national sales force in the field and they use WiFi-capable laptops and BlackBerrys® to communicate with the home office. Is all this equipment going to work if we go with the Globaltap Advantage? A. Globaltap is fully compatible with all current industry standards. Even though we do not provide any services that directly involve WiFi or other wireless technologies, rest assured that all our web sites, e-mail and other services work 100 percent when accessed through wireless networks of all kinds. Q. You say you have "high quality" bandwidth. How can bandwidth be high or low quality? A. Strictly speaking, bandwidth is bandwidth - that is, the amount of information that can be pushed through a connection in a unit of time. However, we are talking about the connection to the Internet bandwidth always present and functioning when we refer to bandwidth. This connection has more to it than plain bandwidth, ie. speed. Of primary consideration is how close you are to the Internet backbone (also called router hops) and how fast each bit will get to the backbone from your server (also called latency). Globaltap connects to the Internet backbone through the largest capacity bandwidth provider switches, and we are only 1 to 3 hops away from all major Internet pipes in North Americ A. We are only 6 hops away from the major European pipes, and 8 hops to Australia and New Zealand. Latency, also frequently measured by ping times, is another major factor in gauging bandwidth quality, and our ping times within North America are under 10 milli-seconds, unless the end-user's slow connection, such as a dialup, is factored in. Q. I understand that I can host my web e-commerce store with you, but who will help me build my web store? Can you provide help with Interchange programming and configuration? What about OSCommerce? A. We have extensive experience with all major e-commerce packages, and we offer installation, configuration, customization and programming of Interchange, OSCommerce and several other e-commerce systems. Q. I have a server that I want to co-locate at your data center. Once it is in place, can you help me managing it or am I all on my own? A. The Globaltap Advantage gladly offers fully managed systems, which allows our clients to concentrate on their core business instead of managing their computers and systems. In addition, the Globaltap Advantage offers many intermediate plans that include different levels of MS Windows, Linux and *BSD system administration… and you can always get additional help from our seasoned systems professionals by placing a ticket with our online helpdesk. This is Globaltap Advantage service.