Online Tech Data Centers are First in Michigan to Achieve SSAE-16 Type II Certification
Ann Arbor-based Online Tech Inc. said last week that it has achieved SSAE 16 Type II certification for its Ann Arbor and Mid-Michigan data centers. SSAE 16 is the second generation data center audit standard that is replacing the older SAS 70 audit standard.
UHY LLP has completed its SSAE 16 audit on both data centers as of Feb, 28 and delivered the audit report to Online Tech's Board of Directors on May 13. The company was found to be fully compliant. The report is available to Online Tech clients to provide evidence they are hosted is a highly secure, tightly controlled data center.
Two years ago, Online Tech took a leadership position in Michigan by having all of its data centers SAS 70 Type II audited. Because security and compliance is important to the Software-as-a-Service providers and mid-size businesses that host their servers at Online Tech, the company has aggressively supported the security an audit standards.
Data center audit standards have been quickly evolving over the past year. SSAE 16 (Statements on Standards for Attestation Engagements No.16) has replaced SAS 70 (Statements on Auditing Standards No. 70) which had been the prevalent auditing standards for the last 20 years. SSAE 16 provides better alignment with international standards and requires a written assertion from management on the design and operating effectiveness of the data center controls.
In addition, new audit standards have just been released for data center service organizations called SOC 2 & SOC 3 (Service Organization Control 2 & 3). These new standards provide a standard benchmark by which two data center audits can be compared against each other for security, availability and process integrity. More details are available on a data center standards blog posted at http://resource.onlinetech.com/sas-70-ssae-16-soc-2-and-soc-3-data-center-standards/. As of March 1, Online Tech has been operating under the new SOC 2 & SOC 3 reporting standards.
"We're embracing these new data centers standards aggressively," said Mike Klein, president of Online Tech. "We believe these new audit standards will further differentiate data center operators by the quality of the service they deliver. The new standards are perfectly aligned with our business model with a focus on process, quality and repeatability, which we believe is key in delivering top tier colocation and managed private cloud hosting."
