An Age of Colocation: The Benefits of Off-site Data Solutions

There are a number of factors that are currently driving the adoption of colocation solutions. The huge growth of digital data and the challenges associated with management and security are placing pressure on in-house IT departments who may not have the resources available. Many companies are finding that their internal data centres are running out of space, power and cooling capacity and therefore require an outsourced solution to ensure business continuity.

The rise of big data also presents new security challenges. As data becomes more integrated and complex, the more mission critical it is to a business and the more valuable it becomes to those who may be looking to access it. Increasingly, companies are looking to the data centre, where large volumes of data can be safely and securely stored. More complex applications such as big data and cloud computing also increase bandwidth requirements, making colocation a more economical option.

The importance of IT for business continuity
As IT is the lifeblood of most businesses today, managers are realising the importance of a reliable IT service for business continuity, and in turn, business reputation. Secure IT provisions are also essential to comply with industry regulations. In industries such as financial services where confidential customer information is stored, this is even more important.

In the 2013 Business Continuity Management Survey1, 89 per cent of managers agreed that ensuring continuity of operations is one of their key responsibilities. Out of a number of threats to business continuity including loss of skills and people, loss of IT is the threat that would cause the biggest impact on their organisation.

In addition, one third of managers questioned in the survey had experienced reputational damage as a result of disruption to business services, while 41 per cent had experienced reduced revenue. Loss of IT and telecommunications were the second and third most popular reasons to activate business continuity strategies between March 2012 and March 2013, behind extreme weather conditions such as flooding and snow. This creates an obvious requirement for IT solutions that will safeguard data and ensure a business is operational 24/7 with minimal downtime.

The changing requirements of data centre users
In the dot-com era of the 1990s, the advent of the data centre was driven by the need for high speed computing power and internet connectivity to host applications. Prohibitive hardware costs meant it was more cost effective to outsource data requirements. Colocation is still able to reduce overall IT management costs, removing the need to purchase backup generators, UPS and HVAC units and eliminating the ongoing maintenance and running costs associated with this equipment.

However, a key advantage is also reliability and uptime. Business continuity is dependent on network availability and third party data centre providers are able to ensure this in a number of ways. Data is typically monitored 24/7 by qualified engineers, security monitoring systems and internal and external CCTV. In addition, as data is stored and hosted off-site, it remains unaffected by circumstances in the workplace such as power cuts, flooding, fires or data theft.

In today’s market, data centre providers can also show their commitment to information security by obtaining the ISO 27001 Information Security Management Accreditation and the ISO 9001 Quality Management Standard. Both standards are awarded to companies who can demonstrate that the necessary controls are in place to address confidentiality, integrity and the availability of information.

Providers with a number of data centres can also replicate the same information across more than one of their sites, meaning added resilience for the data and added peace of mind for the organisation. Data centres can also be equipped with monitoring services which automatically scan, identify and fix, where possible, any server irregularities before they become an issue.

Conclusion
In a world where IT loss can have a significant impact on both company reputation and revenue, the data centre’s ability to ensure business continuity and data security is of ever growing importance. The increase in big data also presents new security challenges, making outsourcing data requirements to a secure environment extremely valuable.

References
1. ‘Weathering the storm’, The 2013 Business Continuity Management Survey, Chartered Management Institute, March 2013.