colocation & outsourcing
noted the average power profile
of a typical colocation rack has
increased over the last five years
from just over 2kW to more than
4kW of concurrent draw. Rack
sizes are growing in dimensions –
with customers increasingly using
49U and 52U racks, with rack
depths increasing to 1,200mm.
So the physical rack density is
increasing but the majority of
powered equipment is, as we
know, far more efficient in terms
of cooling and power management
functionality. In the last 12 months,
we have also observed a marked
increase in the number of three
phase (400V) racks requested,
driven predominately by larger
main stream storage solutions.
The manufacturer specifications in
terms of anticipated or provisioned
power capacity versus the real world
usage can be significantly different,
which challenges the efficiency
assumptions of three phase over
single phase power delivery.
As a result, this is clearly an area
colocation and outsourcing providers
can assist customers with. This
typically introduces other challenges,
such as how to meter three phase
supplies and load balance power
delivery and UPS protected supplies.
Many existing colocation customers
have continued consistent and steady
growth particularly with cloud service
providers who adopt multiple providers
in small configurations defined by
cloud architectures.
The evolution of skills to support
emerging development methods,
cloud services and micro service,
applications, platforms and ecosystems
has no doubt brought colocation
providers closer to the outsourcing
value propositions. So how has
outsourcing adapted and responded?
Pressure
Integration with and migration to
cloud services is involving review
and redevelopments of existing and
new application architectures. The
development skills required and in
demand can be difficult to attract,
retain and develop, which places
greater pressure on customer
projects. With time to market so
critical using proven methodologies,
discovering and enabling this from the
ground up may be slower than using
an outsourcing service. Importantly,
Open networking
has to prove itself to
customers
to stand a chance.
this expertise, resource capabilities
and reuse of proven methodologies
not only increases project success
to time and budget, but enables
key business staff to support
transformation of business processes,
workflows and marketing. For many
customers, there is an increasing
acceleration of online sales, support
and delivery services.
The ability to focus on maximising
the value created from technology
and process change while minimising
transformational risks is a key benefit
in the use of outsourcing services.
These benefits increase further when
seeking to extend transformation into
additional markets and geographies
through test, validation and refinement
using more localised knowledge
and logistics to fulfil and provide a
consistent customer experience.
There is greater emphasis in many
outsourcing agreements on order
fulfilment and customer experience
metrics, as well as service evolution.
What we have continued
to witness in both colocation
and outsourcing sectors is
commoditisation of services.
Coupled with convergence of value
propositions, we have observed
and will continue to, increased
consolidation such as CSC and HP
as well as strategic partnerships
and diversification with an emphasis
on security, marketing, logistics
and fulfilment as well as consistent
support experience in new
geographies and markets.
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