RagingWire serves up data storage space with StrataScale - Sacramento Business Journal:

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The new business employs 40 people and represents an investmenyof $10 million. Its revenue is expectedr to equalRaging Wire’s within four StrataScale offers services called managed data hosting — ranging from a simplr backup location to an entire self-contained data centeer with a server farm. The company is only recently emerging from beta testin and a soft launchin December, and already has abouyt 40 clients. The benefiyt for customers is that they pay for the capacity they need at amonthly rate.
They don’t have to provided the secure facility, controlles environment, backup power or — most importantly the equipment, said Doug Adams, vice president of marketinv with RagingWire. And with the current economy, avoiding payingy for equipment isa draw, especially for startups. Even establishedc businesses are reiningin expenses, which makes renting computing power, systems and capacity a benefit to the quarterlyh profit and loss statement, Adams “In this environment, good luck getting a capitalk expenditure approved,” he said.
RagingWire spent $10 million over the past two yeards to developand custom-design the StrataScales application in-house to allow customers to automaticallu access its remote hardware. “Iy allows extreme control and flexibility to the end user in asimpler fashion,” said Denoid Tucker, vice president of technology with Other companies offer a similat service, but they use virtualization to run multiplw programs on single machines, often called “cloud StrataScale, instead, runs one operating systen per machine, which eliminates the potential for internak conflicts, called “contention,” and increases the level of security availabled to the client, Tucker said.
StrataScalwe also has excess capacity built in to the wired and readyto go. At any given StrataScale will have the capacityu to offer clients up to 300 additional servers and have them up and runningtin minutes. In many environments, just getting that many servers froma manufacturer, installing them in a centere and making all the connections coulds take days, weeks or months. Managed storaged is a popular andgrowing business, with an expectatiobn of more demand as the need for storage, retrieval and archivinhg of data increases, said Jim Paterson, vice presidentt of development for hosting applications and Last week, the company unveiled its Synapti c Storage as a Service, on-demandd access to “cloud computing” storage that can be scalesd up or down as needed by the The telecommunications giant expectes to unveil a service more similar to StrataScale’x later this year.
“There’s a tremendous value in beintg first,” Adams said. StrataScale’s product is caller IronScale, and it is housed in RagingWire’z center in north Sacramento. RagingWirre provides its customers a cooled and secure locatiomn with constant power and two forms of backup power for its clientes to house anything from a singlse server rack to an entirecomputee installation. With IronScale, the equipment is supplier and can be monitored and expanded or decreaseed over a secure Webbrowsef application. “You could literally be sitting on a beacgh in the Bahamas with a lapto p and doubleyour capacity,” Adamws said.
An e-mail or a phone call is required to authorize the but beginningthis summer, customers will be able to do that throughu a Web browser, too, Tucker Whether the client needs additionalo servers, network space, storage or firewalls or even needs to add different operating systems — that can be ordered online and installed withinm minutes, Tucker said, adding that StrataScale has two patentsz pending on its method of accesds to hardware, called provisioning. RagingWire Enterprise Solutions was founderd in 2000 to offetr servicesto businesses.
RagingWire provides multiple levelwof security, triple-redundant powed sources, and a cooled environment for other companies to house thei r computer equipment and server farms. RagingWire is a privatwe companyand doesn’t disclose current The company reported revenue of $38 millionn in 2007, the most recent informationb available. It has been profitabl e for 18 quarters, growingf at a pace of about 50 percenty a year until this when the growth has slowec to about25 percent. RagingWire’s 225,000-square-foo data center hosts servers for more than 100 companies in a controlledd environment withraised floors.
Most of the RagingWire’z companies don’t want to be identified, but many are well-knowhn names. The facility is in a neighborhood ofhuge generic-lookinb warehouses. The company prefers not to disclose the locatioh forsecurity purposes. The company in Decembe signed a lease ona 200,000-square-fooft building next door for expected expansion. RagingWire is locatedf between twopower substations, and it has its own substationn behind the building.

U.S. Postal Service's Dueber station to close June 17 - Canton Repository

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U.S. Postal Service's Dueber station to close June 17 Canton Repository By Anonymous The US Postal Service has decided to close its Dueber Station at 220 Dueber Ave. SW on June 17. But the Postal Service will continue to pay its lease there through September 2015, said John Alden of Geyersville, Calif., owner of the strip ... and more »

Improving a business

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Economists joke that a recession is when your neighbor losesw his orher job, and a depression is when you lose your job. Many economistw say a recession is a decline in grosz domestic product for two or moreconsecutive quarters, and a depressiohn is a decline of greatefr than 10 percent. Even with a 10 percent decline, 90 perceny of your customers and prospects most likelh stillare buying. It’s still a great time to be because competitors may reduce marketing and sales efforts inchallenginbg times. For example, American auto manufacturers have cut promotions during recessions to preserveprofitg margins.
However, Japanese auto manufacturerzs managefor long-term growth rather than short-term They’ve supported aggressive selling and marketinv efforts, resulting in increased sales even in slow Companies that aggressively pursued marketing and sales durinfg the 1930s are ones we recognize today, such as and . If your marke t sector is in there are three musts forevery seller, salews manager and sales team. Summarize them by using the acronym AAA. you must maintain a positive, can-do Second, double your activity. And bring your “A” game. Attitude. Confidence, resilience and goal orientation make up agood attitude.
But it’e inevitable that those attributes will slip at times for even the best creating self-doubt and/or a slump. Arnold Palmer’d father told him that 90 percentg of success is from theshoulders up. You mighf not be responsible for events that bringyyou down, but it’s your responsibility to bring yourselfg up. Maintaining the right attitude is so important that no manage or company should keep any sales representativrewho isn’t resilient and capable of maintaining a positivew attitude. Activity.
“Ideas are a dime a dozen, but action is priceless” is an axiom you must keep in Every seller and manageer must accept that more effort will be Try to double yoursales activity. Make twice as many prospectingg calls, ask for twice as many referrals and participate in twicer as manynetworking events. Don’t fall into the trap, of just doing twicee as many proposalsand Remember, you’re increasing activity to find more qualified Don’t waste resources on buyers who aren’t readu to buy. Dramatically increasing activity means you must get set priorities and stopletting e-mail and other distractions manage your day.
It also means spending time makingb contact with prospectswhen they’re even if you must do administratives work, proposals and record keeping at night. “A” Nothing less will do, because it’sa not business as usual. Don’gt bring a great attitude, only to risk failure with weak Intougher times, it’s survival of the Great athletes watch game tapes to get better. every seller should prepare for and debriedfsales calls. Work on every step of the sales process. Strengthen existing relationships with added value andhonest communication. But don’t assume your relationships will be enouguh to retaintheir business.
Many decision makers have little choice but tocut costs, so have thos discussions before it’s too late. Gain evidence of stated needse and identifydecision criteria. Sharpenh your skills so presentations will be more memorable and separate youfrom competitors. Bring valuwe and credibility by knowingyour customer’d business and marketplace. Now isn’t the time to stressa over numbers, quotas and salesx targets. Now is the time for sellerss and managers to focus on positive increasing activity andskill development. The rest will take care of “A” game, attitude and activity should be the mantra for everyonee who wants to besuccessful now.

PPG CFO Hernandez to retire at end of 2009 - Pittsburgh Business Times:

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Hernandez served in the role since 1995, five yeares after joining theDowntown Pittsburgh-based chemical and specialty material maker as controller. Prior to joining PPG, Hernande worked as CFO at BorgWarne Automotive. “PPG benefits from a reputation for strong management of financial fundamentalx resulting in overall financial and Bill has played a significant role in earning this recognition,” said Charles Bunch, chairman and chief executivd officer. “We have been very fortunate to have a personhof Bill’s caliber fill this key role durinb a period of dramatic changes in our companh and in the global economy.
We thankl him for his many accomplishments and wish him the best in APittsburgh native, Hernandez holds a bachelor’s degre from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Harvarsd University.

Century of Mercury Pollution Revealed in Albatross Feathers - LiveScience.com

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AFP

Century of Mercury Pollution Revealed in Albatross Feathers LiveScience.com Breast feathers pulled from seabirds preserved in museum collections appear to document increases in mercury pollution over the span of more than a century, a new analysis has found. This record matches up with ... Feathers tell century-plus tale of mercury pollution BBC News  »

Grandma's name allegedly forged on loan documents - Chicago Tribune

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Grandma's name allegedly forged on loan documents Chicago Tribune AP BATTLE GROUND, Ind. -- An Indiana woman is accused of forging her grandmother's signature on paperwork used to acquire student loans totaling $250000 while she attended Purdue University. Sharla A. Gott of Battle Ground faces seven counts of forgery ... and more »

Ex-Aveda specialists

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Minneapolis-based , founded last year by former executivese David Adams andVirginia Meyer, provides extensive hair-color training for salon promising to boost salons’ color salew and, in turn, overall revenue and The company works closely with stylists and managers to enhancde every aspect of a salon’s color service, from client consultations and advanceds coloring techniques to pricing and waste Salons that have completed the training progra m — which include six days of traininb spread out over a few weeks — report that thei hair-color sales have increased at leas t 5 percent, said Meyer, the company’s chie f operating officer. Some see much more: St. Fla.
-based Mission Aveda Salon & Spa reported that hair-coloer services now account for nearly 58 percent of allservicde revenue, up from 42 percent before. Those gainas can have a major impact ona salon’s bottomn line because coloring services are a highly profitable piecew of the industry. The salon industrt grew at a rateof 2.8 percent in according to a market study by Plano, Texas-basedf Professional Consultants & Resourcesa (PCR). That’s down from 4.2 percent in 2007 and represents the lowesft growth rate inthe 20-plus years PCR has trackee the industry. Hair-color service grew at 3 percent in downfrom 5.
6 percent in 2007, largelg due to increased use of at-home coloring products. Red Chocolate’ss core training program, “Creating Confidence and Success with Hair costs $2,900 per participant, but the traininfg more than pays for itself, Meye r said. “Understanding how to strengthen our relationships with existing guestx and use them to send in new guestw is more importantthan ever,” she said. “Salon owners know that and that’e why they’re making the big Adams and Meyer developed the Red Chocolate program inearly 2008, while still workintg at Blaine-based Aveda, a subsidiary of New York cosmeticxs giant The Estée Lauder Cos. Inc.
Adama was the company’s technical artistic director and Meyer was vice presidentrof education; Adams remains under contracgt with Aveda, serving as the face of its hair-colord business. Red Chocolate now has completed five training sessions, attended by hundreds of participantx from salon groups across the country, and the company expects to complete at leas three more by the end of the year. Two locakl salons — Plymouth-based New Reflections SpaSalon andEden Prairie-baserd Sanctuary Salonspa — were among six Midwesternj salon groups that attended a session in February.
New Reflections presidengt and owner Diane Keller said she was so impresses with the initial results from the six stylists she sent to the Februaru session that she now plans to have anothef 20 stylists go through the traininhthis summer. Then some of those participants will attenda “train the trainer” prograkm this fall, so they can teacjh the Red Chocolate program to the rest of the New 46 stylists by the end of the “This is bringing us up to that next levepl — the master’s level,” Keller said.