There are many misconceptions when it comes to data centers and the cloud. Some execs think EVERYTHING needs to be in the cloud yesterday. Others have concerns about making the change from a traditional in-house server environment to the data center. Misconceptions can set you up for failure or deter your company from upgrading into a more cost-effective infrastructure environment. In this blog, we’ve asked our VP of Sales, Do Kim, to clear up some of these misconceptions and discuss the benefits of a data center solution.
What are some misconceptions that the c-suite have about data centers?
- It’s expensive. Often it is thought that moving into a traditional data center will be more expensive than in-house solutions. Building a new data center from the ground up is quite expensive, but leveraging a pre-existing data center can offer organizations high return on their investment. By leasing space and/or servers a company has great flexibility in the amount they want to spend.
- Data centers are not secure. Tier III rated data centers are extremely secure. Data centers can provide a lot more cyber security equipment and network equipment then in-house solutions. They typically have more physical security including guards, cameras, and key fobs that allow the facility to track people coming in and out.
- Date centers are becoming obsolete. They think that data centers are becoming obsolete because of the cloud. The cloud has to live somewhere and it lives in huge third party data centers. Data centers will continue to thrive and be built in conjunction with the growing cloud industry.
- Data centers are just for data housing. Data centers offer more than just data housing. Companies can house whole production data analyses in them, equipment for communications, along with credit card processing all out of the data center.
What misconceptions do CXO’s have about the cloud?
- That the cloud is either all or nothing. You are either all in the cloud or in a physical server. In reality that is almost impossible unless you are a really small firm. Most companies will use a hybrid model, some of their systems will be on physical servers while some will live on a virtual server.
- All of their applications will work as well in the cloud. Some applications cannot be virtualized. It can’t be done and some have no means for it. Complete systems, if they live on old equipment that require specialized workloads, will not work well in the cloud.
- The cloud will save them money. There are a lot of benefits from the cloud but cost is not always one. There are additional management fees associated with cloud hosting that are not typical in colocating. Most cloud providers come with a level of management, where colocation is self-managed. If you require a more hands off approach then the cloud is for you.
What are the overall benefits of data centers?
- Reduced IT infrastructure and management costs. Organizations can lease space in data centers and instead of hiring full time IT personnel they can pay lesser management fees to their data center provider. Current IT personnel can be freed up to focus on more strategic work.
- Increased power capacity and cooling with redundancy. By leveraging the capabilities of a data center, you get much beefier power capacity. Additionally, adding more power when needed is an easy task, just tap into the pre-built system.
- Increased reliability and up-time. 99.999% of the time is the standard for data center up-time. This is hard to match with in-house servers.
- Robust and affordable bandwidth networks. With multi-tenant data centers companies can pick between 20 to 30 carriers.
- 24 x 7 staff or support. As part of service, providers will provide support when needed and this support encompasses the additional security measures that are in place in data centers.
- Business continuity and disaster recovery. Storing everything in on in-house data center is a recipe for disaster. Geographical redundancy will help to protect your data and your business.
Fallacies surrounding data centers and the cloud can cause companies to disregard the full potential that they have to offer. Housing your data in a data center either through the cloud, colocation, or a hybrid model can be an ideal solution for many companies. Data centers offer security, cost savings, support, and additional add-ons that traditional in-house facilities cannot compete with. If you are ready to make the change, contact us.
