13 July 2015
By Eckart
Zollner, Business Development Manager, The Jasco Group
There is no doubt that, in a data-driven
world, the data centre is a critical and central component of the technology
infrastructure of any organisation. However, when it comes to provisioning and
obtaining access to the data centre itself and a variety of attached services,
there is a growing trend away from owning and maintaining this infrastructure
in-house. Hosted data centres, particularly shared data centres that also offer
a carrier-neutral colocation hub, are becoming an increasingly popular option.
Shared data centres often bring together various different providers from
across the country. This enables organisations that also make use of this data
centre to access to their services and provide a range of essential technology
solutions and services on a monthly, as needed basis, among other benefits. The
decision to outsource and the selection of an appropriate partner is often
challenging, and requires organisations to ask themselves a number of
questions. Before a service, solution or technology is outsourced, the pros and
cons must be carefully weighed and the benefits quantified, so that ultimately
the organisation can make the best decision for their business.
Data centres, while they have become
essential, also represent a significant capital investment. The infrastructure
itself is costly to procure, and also requires specialist operational skills in
a variety of areas including physical and network security, security of the
electricity supply, heating and cooling and more. In addition, this
infrastructure needs to be managed, maintained and serviced, generators for
failover power supply must be serviced, maintained and supplied with diesel and
many more aspects. The operational logistics around managing a data centre are
onerous and expensive, in addition to the large initial capital outlay. As a
result, hosted and shared data centres are becoming increasingly sought-after
in South Africa.
By providing hosted and shared services,
organisations can leverage reduced CAPEX expenditure, as well as greater
flexibility and shorter commitment times as all services are “pay as you use”.
In addition, by opting for these services, organisations can reduce the
requirement to maintain their own extensive IT and application teams. Aside
from a reduction in capital expense as well as on-going skills retention and
maintenance, these data centres also offer a number of other benefits to
business, providing access to a wide range of services and solutions that may
not have been possible to procure in-house. These include rack hosting, server
hosting, storage, archiving, Disaster Recovery (DR), virtualisation and Cloud
services.
Harnessing the unique benefits of a shared
data centre, businesses are also often able to take advantage of greater
flexibility to switch service providers. Neutral shared data centres bring
together many different suppliers and service providers, including pure
connectivity, last mile, content providers and service providers. By locating
in the same data centre, businesses have access to all of these different
services. South Africa has many market players and a spirit of healthy
competition in the cloud space, and prices as a result are constantly decreasing.
Shared data centres thus provide businesses with access to the widest choice
and the lowest prices without locking them in to the services of a single
vendor or provider. As the cloud is a developing IT service, there are many new
innovations and services being developed on a regular basis, and businesses
have access to this innovation through a neutral shared data centre.
Outsourcing in a shared data centre offers
numerous benefits, however, it is not a viable solution for the majority of
businesses to simply outsource everything. When it comes to deciding on the
level of outsourcing to select, and when to make use of which service, there
are many factors to take into account, depending on what technology is core to
the business. For example: Where is the breakeven point between owning or
outsourcing a service? Do you have critical mass for the service? How much
flexibility is required? What is part of your own product and services
offering? What elements have to remain under your own control and what elements
can be outsourced to third party providers? Is the outsource solution provider
able to meet your specifications? In addition, organisations need to consider the
legislative requirements around data storage, compliance of the data centre
with relevant standards, physical security, provision of the required uptime,
electronic security, service levels and uptime, connection possibilities, power
and cooling infrastructure as well as physical location. A shared data centre
provider should offer stability and have the relevant national or global
experience, adequate 24/7 operations and support, documentary proof of
redundant systems, and importantly no single point of failure that can
adversely affect service levels.
Selecting the right outsource partner and
shared data centre, and choosing the appropriate services and solutions to push
into the cloud, are essential in leveraging the advantages of the shared data
centre. While this may not be a viable solution for all areas of every
business, there are significant benefits to be realised, and partnering with
the right provider will help businesses to harness these benefits and make the
most of outsourced cloud-based services and solutions.