Top 5 things to keep in mind before making a Data Center decision
With so much data disruption at the helm, New entry companies are muddled with many questions - how should companies that are beginning now make their perfect data center decision? Here's a peek!
07 Oct 2020
With so much data disruption at the helm, New entry companies are muddled with many questions - how should companies that are beginning now make their perfect data center decision? Here's a peek!
Smart technology's adoption is accelerating globally, with IoT-powered devices becoming a prerequisite to making our everyday tasks easier and faster. By 2025, an average person is likely to interact with a smart device nearly 4,800 times a day. This projection is roughly triple where we stand today. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, this projection is likely to be realized sooner. The rise in the number and usage of smart devices, coupled with increasing amounts of data consumption, has led to a surge in demand for DCs.
India's data usage per smartphone has grown by more than 20% over the last two years, averaging at about 11 GB / month and has increased further by about 20% - 25% within two months since the lockdown. Rapid digitization, a widening customer base, improving tech infrastructure, and increasing internet penetration have given India's DC industry a strong impetus. Most companies embracing Data Centers after understanding the crucial role data plays in their companies' growth and efficiency.
Post the pandemic, the need for data storage is likely to grow further, which is expected to lead to a substantial addition in DC stock across the seven key cities during 2020-21, causing the country's DC capacity to cross 600 MW.
With so much demand disruption at the helm, companies starting now are muddled with many questions - how should companies that are beginning now make their perfect data center decision?
Here are 5 easy but efficient solutions:
Location and Security
Location is one of the most critical factors when selecting your data center. Although you could save money with a center that's further away, you'll lose some of the benefits of having it close by. In areas prone to natural disasters, finding a data center on a separate power grid/ station and away from any potential risk is the safer option. Finally, if your IT staff needs to perform maintenance or upgrades, you want to ensure the data center is easily accessible.
Security is another critical element of a data center decision. These facilities will house all your enterprise data and applications, and a breach could mean disaster for your business. The average cost of a cyber-attack on data centers rounds out to $4 million. Hence Data center should ensure software and technology that protect your assets, but they should also have robust physical security. Your center should have proper foolproof access systems, surveillance, and adequate security personnel. However, ensure that these security features and objectives don't limit the scalability of your service.
Resiliency
The Data Center's ability to recover quickly and continue operating even when there has been an equipment failure, power outage or other disruption is critical in the Data Center decision making. Data center resiliency is achieved using redundant components, systems & facilities. If any element or section experiences a disruption, the redundant element takes over seamlessly and continues to support computing services hosted in these centers. Today's data centers claim their systems are fully redundant; the terminology has become so cluttered in recent years. It is worth taking a closer look at the actual backup capabilities and the data center redundancy for occupiers.
Connectivity and Networking Capabilities
A key advantage of a carrier-neutral data center is the variety of ISP connectivity options. Multiple connectivity options help achieve a high-level redundancy, ensuring the facility having access to the outside internet almost continuously. Blended connectivity options also provide substantial protection against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Data centers can also offer direct connectivity to the cloud through simple cross-connects. For organizations where latency and downtimes to the cloud are critical, Data Centers offer them the advantages of connecting their servers directly to the cloud provider’s servers through this cross-connect.
Reputation & Operational History
Similar to researches made for any intended purchase, research on the reputation and Operational history of a Data Center is exceptionally critical. While no provider will be perfect, necessary checks, compliance adherence, market reputation, etc. will give an honest insight into how the center handles issues. It is worth the time spent on this credibility evaluation, and a few calls to their existing clientele can help assess the service levels better.
Simplify Assessments, Contract negotiations and documentation
When a commercial real estate broker negotiates an office space renewal, the consultant comes up with several strategies using local and national market knowledge to ensure market renewal rate, also preserving the landlord-tenant relationship. Similarly, using an outside data center consultant can further enhance the negotiations, helping an excellent working relationship between the customer and the manager. Data Center Benchmark exercises provide clients a deep dive into the data center market.
Smart technology's adoption is accelerating globally, with IoT-powered devices becoming a prerequisite to making our everyday tasks easier and faster. By 2025, an average person is likely to interact with a smart device nearly 4,800 times a day. This projection is roughly triple where we stand today. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, this projection is likely to be realized sooner. The rise in the number and usage of smart devices, coupled with increasing amounts of data consumption, has led to a surge in demand for DCs.
India's data usage per smartphone has grown by more than 20% over the last two years, averaging at about 11 GB / month and has increased further by about 20% - 25% within two months since the lockdown. Rapid digitization, a widening customer base, improving tech infrastructure, and increasing internet penetration have given India's DC industry a strong impetus. Most companies embracing Data Centers after understanding the crucial role data plays in their companies' growth and efficiency.
Post the pandemic, the need for data storage is likely to grow further, which is expected to lead to a substantial addition in DC stock across the seven key cities during 2020-21, causing the country's DC capacity to cross 600 MW.
With so much demand disruption at the helm, companies starting now are muddled with many questions - how should companies that are beginning now make their perfect data center decision?
Here are 5 easy but efficient solutions:
Location and Security
Location is one of the most critical factors when selecting your data center. Although you could save money with a center that's further away, you'll lose some of the benefits of having it close by. In areas prone to natural disasters, finding a data center on a separate power grid/ station and away from any potential risk is the safer option. Finally, if your IT staff needs to perform maintenance or upgrades, you want to ensure the data center is easily accessible.
Security is another critical element of a data center decision. These facilities will house all your enterprise data and applications, and a breach could mean disaster for your business. The average cost of a cyber-attack on data centers rounds out to $4 million. Hence Data center should ensure software and technology that protect your assets, but they should also have robust physical security. Your center should have proper foolproof access systems, surveillance, and adequate security personnel. However, ensure that these security features and objectives don't limit the scalability of your service.
Resiliency
The Data Center's ability to recover quickly and continue operating even when there has been an equipment failure, power outage or other disruption is critical in the Data Center decision making. Data center resiliency is achieved using redundant components, systems & facilities. If any element or section experiences a disruption, the redundant element takes over seamlessly and continues to support computing services hosted in these centers. Today's data centers claim their systems are fully redundant; the terminology has become so cluttered in recent years. It is worth taking a closer look at the actual backup capabilities and the data center redundancy for occupiers.
Connectivity and Networking Capabilities
A key advantage of a carrier-neutral data center is the variety of ISP connectivity options. Multiple connectivity options help achieve a high-level redundancy, ensuring the facility having access to the outside internet almost continuously. Blended connectivity options also provide substantial protection against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Data centers can also offer direct connectivity to the cloud through simple cross-connects. For organizations where latency and downtimes to the cloud are critical, Data Centers offer them the advantages of connecting their servers directly to the cloud provider’s servers through this cross-connect.
Reputation & Operational History
Similar to researches made for any intended purchase, research on the reputation and Operational history of a Data Center is exceptionally critical. While no provider will be perfect, necessary checks, compliance adherence, market reputation, etc. will give an honest insight into how the center handles issues. It is worth the time spent on this credibility evaluation, and a few calls to their existing clientele can help assess the service levels better.
Simplify Assessments, Contract negotiations and documentation
When a commercial real estate broker negotiates an office space renewal, the consultant comes up with several strategies using local and national market knowledge to ensure market renewal rate, also preserving the landlord-tenant relationship. Similarly, using an outside data center consultant can further enhance the negotiations, helping an excellent working relationship between the customer and the manager. Data Center Benchmark exercises provide clients a deep dive into the data center market.