"Data center services are now offered in a range of options that can accommodate many different client needs. Finding the right data storage option can be a daunting task for some organizations.
Companies looking to procure data center services can range from new businesses to established firms that have outgrown their currentservers, BusinessNewsDaily contributor Chad Brooks wrote. Businesses should take several factors into account when they are trying to decide what kind of services they need.
""The reputation of a data center can really make or break a deal,"" Brooks wrote. ""The best providers generally have the best designs and best quality. They also have the most facilities, which is important to consider if your company ever expands.""
Location a Priority
Location should be a major factor when selecting a data center. Companies should decide whether they need their data storage to be located in a city, where prices may be higher. They also should consider whether the data center is located close enough to a colocation site to provide a good connection and should look for storage options that put their vital information in a geographic area that is not typically susceptible to natural disasters such as floods or earthquakes.
A carrier neutral data center that can connect to a variety of different networks and providers should be considered. Businesses that already have a relationship with specific carriers should make sure that any data center they consider can connect to them. Carrier neutraldata centers also give firms a more robust network and the flexibility to easily switch carriers. Businesses seeking data center services often have the choice between leasing retail or wholesale space. Retail spaces in data centers are more expensive, but they come with many of the tools needed for implementation already in place. Wholesale spaces give organizations a site that they can build out on their own, but they have to do all of the design work themselves.
Data center design is a critical factor to consider because facilities need to be built with concurrent maintainability, which gives them the ability to shut down some operations while allowing ongoing processing to continue. This makes it possible for maintenance tasks to be carried out without interrupting customer service.
Establishing a Strategy
Shaping a strategy for data center implementation requires companies to balance cost, agility and risk, Jennifer LeClaire wrote in CIO Today. Data center services are expected to play a larger role in business in the coming years as they continue to evolve, and businesses will need to plan their implementation.
Companies can take steps toward a solid data center strategy by deploying technology that is efficient in terms of energy, memory and and processors. Process architecture is likely to change in the next few years to reduce energy consumption and costs. Companies also can benefit by moving toward a more balanced system architecture and enhanced operational processes and tools.
Data centers require highly orchestrated systems in order to function properly. This necessitates understanding, reviewing and documenting service levels and connecting them to IT delivery capabilities. Disaster recovery and business continuity should be built into a data center strategy and use data science to manage their capacity growth. The development of new applications over the next few years is expected to help fuel increased data center usage.
""Over the next five years, most organizations will notice a significant increase in hardware - storage, server and network - capacity, extending to network traffic, data center floor space, power and cooling,"" LeClaire wrote. ""As organizations start developing the next generations of applications based on the nexus of forces, Gartner said there will be a surge in demand for storage and backup systems and new roles, such as data engineers, will multiply."""
