Is Your Data Secure?

Provided By Realty Times

With the arrival of the New Year, secure technology should be a priority in the real estate industry. More to the point, the need for servers and/or the convenience of collocating existing servers should be a principal goal of any commercial or residential real estate firm looking to secure its data, hardware, and online business. Without this opportunity, realty companies leave themselves vulnerable to compromising (or losing) their data - customer information, listing details, and maybe even payments - while spending a lot of time and money on keeping this material secure. Such a scenario makes little sense for a growing firm that dedicates itself to doing - with professionalism and care - the one thing all realty companies aspire to achieve: to unite buyers and sellers, execute transactions and establish the valuable brand recognition that accrues from this type of sustained success.

sense of security to their clients - a secure house in a secure neighborhood with a secure broker to help along the way. We are no different. We provide the secure house (or server in our case) and we host it in a secure neighborhood (or data center); and along the way we - the secure broker - are there to provide a helping hand. However, not all colocation companies are the same. Finding the right colocation company for these tasks - for providing servers, hosting existing ones and delivering quality support - depends on a certain degree of due diligence. In other words, not all colocation companies have the reputation, resources, expertise and technical support to assist real estate companies nationwide.

Consider these factors necessities, both for a colocation company and its clients, which hinge on another critical component: 100% guaranteed uptime; the promise that a real estate business will always be online, accessible and, in the rare case something happens, backed by staff who are available to address any relevant questions or challenges. This point is a quick way to distinguish a credible colocation company from lesser competitors. (I write these words with no malice towards the competition - indeed, I welcome the healthy pursuit of excellence, which benefits the public at large - but, as the Director of Business Development for Colocation America, I see too many prospective clients who come to us as the result of missed opportunities and broken promises. Simply stated, these companies have experienced the costly - and frustrating - experience of having their sites go down, or partnering with colocation companies that lack a key presence in major cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, hubs of web traffic and commerce.)

Realty companies have an added interest in following this advice because their sites depend on showcasing specific properties, meaning: they need their sites to be up and running - constantly - without any problems. The right colocation company will have the data centers necessary to fulfill that goal, along with the additional advantages mentioned above. Indeed, other colocation companies should take a lesson from the real estate industry, where the relationship between brokers and clients is friendly, sincere and strengthened by trust. 

And finally, for smaller realty firms that need a server (which is part of a suite of options we offer) it is essential to work with a credible technology company. And for smaller realty firms on the cusp of success, they must not forsake growth for the false allure of partnering with a business that cannot provide and maintain this hardware. Again, the point is simple: perform the necessary due diligence, so reliability is a given and availability (to trained professionals) is just a click or call away. These rewards can make realty companies more flexible and productive, something we should celebrate in this new year of opportunity and goodwill.