LogicalSolutions.net has successfully completed its SAS 70 Type II Audit

LogicalSolutions.net is proud to announce that is has successfully completed its 2009 SAS 70 audit period and will be receiving our SAS 70 Type II audit report by mid February. Over the last year LogicalSolutions.net has made considerable investments in developing the infrastructure, policies, and procedures to ensure that our Data Center is one of the most redundant, secure, and energy efficient data centers on the east coast.
 
An independent service auditor examined the policies, procedures, and business processes in place at LogicalSolutions.net from July 1, 2009 to December 31, 2009. During this audit period the auditors spent a considerable amount of time at our facility learning about our procedures, interviewing management, observing operations and inspecting the datacenter. The SAS 70 audit is an extremely rigorous process. To thrive through this process, LogicalSolutions.net executive leadership made a significant commitment to establish a clear purpose to the team to help keep them motivated throughout the process. Through this process we have significantly grown as a company and look forward to the benefits gained from the continued use of both the internal and external audit procedures that we have put in place. LogicalSolutions.net management believes that a SAS 70 Type II certification is an important step in our continued growth in the Data Center space and remains committed to maintaining our SAS 70 Type II certification in the upcoming years.
 
What is SAS 70?
 
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) developed a set of guidelines for evaluating service organizations. These guidelines are called the “Statement of Auditing Standards Number 70 (SAS 70)”. An independent service auditor provides a detailed assessment of the service organizations’ control objectives and activities. The auditor also prepares an audit report which is called a “SAS 70” report. A SAS 70 report demonstrates that the service organization has implemented effective control objects and activities that are both beneficial to itself and its clients. The SAS 70 report can also aid the service organizations’ clients in completing their own financial audits. In the hosting and co-location industries, the SAS 70 report is important for companies who rely on outsourced hosting and co-location services. The SAS 70 report allows hosting and co-location companies to complete one report for all of their clients to use. LogicalSolutions.net’s description of controls has also been prepared to enable LogicalSolutions.net customers to gain an understanding of LogicalSolutions.net’s control activities for purposes of assisting management in their assessment of internal controls over financial reporting in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s (PCAOB) Auditing Standard No. 5 (AS 5).

Why is SAS 70 Type II important to our clients?

There are two levels of a SAS 70 audit. Type I just states that policies and procedures do exist, although there is no audit to ensure that the organization adheres to these procedures. When selecting a Data Center, it is important to make sure that their SAS 70 certification is Type II which ensures that they adhere to their procedures.
 
Achieving a SAS 70 Type II certification benefits LogicalSolutions.net as well as their co-location and managed services clients. Many of our clients are institutional organizations and publicly traded companies who must comply with security requirements such as “Sarbanex-Oxley”. Those clients can use the audit report for their specific security requirements. If you are interested in obtaining your own SAS 70 Type II certification, call us to discuss the benefits of hosting your servers in our Data Center and the assistance we can offer your organization in becoming SAS 70 certified.

What is SAS70 Type II?

What is SAS 70?

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) developed a set of guidelines for evaluating service organizations. These guidelines are called the “Statement of Auditing Standards Number 70 (SAS 70)”. An independent service auditor provides a detailed assessment of the service organizations’ control objectives and activities. The auditor also prepares an audit report which is called a “SAS 70” report. A SAS 70 report demonstrates that the service organization has implemented effective control objects and activities that are both beneficial to itself and its clients. The SAS 70 report can also aid the service organizations’ clients in completing their own financial audits. In the hosting and co-location industries, the SAS 70 report is important for companies who rely on outsourced hosting and co-location services. The SAS 70 report allows hosting and co-location companies to complete one report for all of their clients to use. LogicalSolutions.net’s description of controls has also been prepared to enable LogicalSolutions.net customers to gain an understanding of LogicalSolutions.net’s control activities for purposes of assisting management in their assessment of internal controls over financial reporting in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s (PCAOB) Auditing Standard No. 5 (AS 5). Why is SAS 70 Type II important to our clients? 

There are two levels of a SAS 70 audit.  Type I just states that policies and procedures do exist, although there is no audit to ensure that the organization adheres to these procedures.  When selecting a Data Center, it is important to make sure that their SAS 70 certification is Type II which ensures that they adhere to their procedures.   

Achieving a SAS 70 Type II certification benefits LogicalSolutions.net as well as their co-location and managed services clients. Many of our clients are institutional organizations and publicly traded companies who must comply with security requirements such as “Sarbanex-Oxley”. Those clients can use the audit report for their specific security requirements. If you are interested in obtaining your own SAS 70 Type II certification, call us to discuss the benefits of hosting your servers in our Data Center and the assistance we can offer your organization in becoming SAS 70 certified.

Which Datacenter Is Right For Me? This Handy Checklist May Help:

I have been in the data center services industry for about 10 years now and I never get tired of the question…..”which data center is right for me?”.  Well, as many of you know, the answer can be an endless list of marketing blah.  But the real answer is, “what do you need from a data center?”  If your data is mission critical to your business, then the facility you should be looking for needs to be absolutely bullet-proof.  What I mean is you need to make certain that not only is the data center 100% secure and reliable, but also that you are confident the provider you have chosen has taken the necessary steps to provide true Enterprise Class data center services.  As a guide, here are some questions that you need to ask each provider when choosing a data center:  
• Do you own the building the data center is in? (I’ve seen landlords get in the way of operating efficiently)
• How long have you been in business ?(a long  and positive track record means everything)
• Do you have multiple bandwidth providers? (the more diverse providers, the more redundant)
• Do you have multiple generators? (remember, redundancy is the key)
• What type of fire suppression is installed? (remember, “dry pipe/pre-action” means  water…yikes)
• Do you have 24/7 monitoring? (someone always needs to be proactively monitoring for issues)
• Do you have 24/7 support? (Murphy’s law….make sure someone is there to assist at any time)
• What are your plans for growth? (if they are not planning for their future, do they care about yours?)
• Are you SAS70 Certified? (shouldn’t your provider put forth the extra effort/expense to insure operational excellence?)
• Do you allow 24/7 access to the data center? (it’s your stuff, you should be able to get to it when you want)
• How do you charge for power? (metered power is catching on…..pay only for what you use)
• Do you monitor PUE? (if you’re concerned with energy efficiency, shouldn’t your provider be too?)