Established in 1994 as an Internet Service Provider, LightBound provides clients with a unique mixture of quality customer service, industry experience and state-of-the-art technology. As one of Indiana’s largest privately held colocation facilities, LightBound offers customers a robust set of solutions including managed services, disaster recovery, data backup and cloud computing. LightBound’s data centers implement only the best technology for monitoring, management and cooling.

Most recently, LightBound implemented an Environet infrastructure management system. According to LightBound’s data center manager, Dan Allen, LightBound’s criteria for selecting a monitoring system was “intuitiveness, product compatibility, scalability and support.” Environet’s intuitive web-based interface decreased the training time needed for employees and made the system accessible from remote locations, which means faster response time if an event occurs.

An Easy Choice

Investing in Environet was an easy choice for LightBound, “Environet was an easy sell for us; it was not just a graphical front end that was bolted onto our equipment. We immediately recognized that it was built from the ground up as an end-to-end solution specifically geared towards data centers,” Allen explains. 

The graphical floor plans were especially helpful for LightBound, especially the thermographic view. Environet’s thermograph view incorporates temperature data from the probes mounted on the ceiling of LightBound’s data center. The data is then displayed through Environet using gradient color coding over scaled floor plans creating a real time depiction of data center temperatures. In addition, Environet monitors the temperature data for unsafe highs and lows and sends immediate notification if one occurs. All these features allow LightBound to visualize hot spots in the data center and proactively manage their state-of-the-art cooling system.

According to Allen, a primary function that LightBound needed from a management system was to “quickly identify problem areas or status of any equipment in our facility despite where it is throughout the building.” Environet’s vendor neutral capability helped meet this requirement. Environet’s ability to communicate with third-party equipment meant no costly integration and equipment replacement costs. LightBound was able to connect and detect alarms with data center equipment throughout the facility regardless of manufacturer.

A True Collaboration

Working with LightBound proved beneficial for everyone involved. Director of Environet Sales, Steve Lewis, explains, “The project was truly a collaboration as LightBound introduced new technologies and philosophies to the Geist portfolio. The integration of Environet brought new features, views, and metrics that should be considered by all data center operators.”

LightBound’s dedication to providing their customer’s with premium service played a major role in the decision to implement Environet. The functionality of the Environet system meant that their customers’ would have comprehensive management for their data. Efficient alarm notification was imperative for the facility. According to Allen, “We recognized that our new facility would be highly visible with the customers we were bringing online. Having the ability to spot trouble quickly with any system was very important to us.” With Environet’s alarm notification and escalations, LightBound can receive status updates in real time through the system via email, SMS, or even phone. 

What truly sets LightBound apart is their focus on customer service. LightBound provides exceptional customer care and remains a highly customer focused company. With LightBound’s emphasis on customer service it makes sense that they would appreciate another company with similar values. Geist focuses on serving the needs of each customer, which was a key benefit in LightBound’s partnership with Environet. Lewis notes, “This new partnership is one that will continue to grow as we innovate and develop a solution that not only meets the needs of LightBound, but their clients as well.”

LightBound couldn’t agree more. Throughout the entire process, LightBound received excellent care from Geist. “The support staff has been a delight to work with every time. I simply state my problem or request and they jump on it right away, I spend very little time having to explain what I’m trying to accomplish,” says Allen.

LightBound is extremely pleased with the results yielded from the first deployment of Environet in their data centers. This immediate success has led LightBound to pursue placing Environet in each of its data centers.  “We are already making arrangements to add Environet to our legacy buildings in the very near future. Environet made such a positive impact on us; we have to have it now in every facility!” Allen explains.

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About LightBound
LightBound is an Indiana based company that is an experienced, stable and well-respected provider of Tier IV data centers, Internet, telecommunications and Cloud computing services that has been in business serving some of Indiana’s largest enterprise customers for 18 years. Our success relies on our highly experienced network operations center personnel who provide around the clock pro-active monitoring and management with a high level of customer service.