Colocation &
Outsourcing
Flexibility
Overly rigid long-term data centre
contracts are no longer palatable
for many global cloud and digital
organisations where the fast pace
of business and technology can
require them to change direction
quickly. If enterprises and IT
agility are held back by antiquated
and inflexible data centre
platforms or contracts that can’t
react quickly in line with business
plans, it can lead to missed
opportunities and severe IT cost
inefficiencies. This is a serious
concern for businesses today.
Flexible contract options
provide true commercial and
technical agility which benefit
enterprises. Providing the ability
to flex the contracted power, space
and time of the service at any
point allows businesses to take full
advantage of the differing costs
per compute as they increase or
decrease IT density.
By providing up to the minute,
accurate information about IT
usage, businesses can be informed
so they are able to predict their
current and future commitment
levels – enabling them to flex
their contracts accordingly, which
30 | September 2017
A look outside
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can potentially save millions
of pounds over the life of some
contracts in unnecessary space
and power charges.
Total Cost of Service
Today, the data centre market
has matured and buying
colocation space has become
the strategy of choice for most
businesses. Companies should
make sure they aren’t paying
more than they need and look for
a disruptive commercial model,
which gives absolute flexibility
from a rack to a suite, for a day to
a decade and total transparency
and control of usage.
Things to look out for when
calculating Total Cost of Service
(TCS):
• Lower build costs per MW of IT
load
• Reduced energy costs through
low PUEs and ultra-efficient
cooling technology
• Flexibility to provide high density
cooling capability
• In-built monitoring and operating
support
• Connectivity-rich data centres
with ecosystems
• Flexible contract terms for both
colocation space and connectivity
The future of colocation
In the immediate future, the
Internet of Things (IoT) is
having an impact on colocation
demands and providers. Products
such as smart home and smart
car applications are already
generating huge amounts of data.
As IoT-enabled products become
more sophisticated, machine-to-
machine communications using
open protocols will see devices
consume data in ways that we
are only just starting to explore.
The volumes of data and speed
required for this type of processing
can only be housed in buildings
designed specifically for this
purpose – a data centre.
As for the next ten years,
colocation providers will need to
adapt to emerging technologies
such as network functions
virtualisation, software defined
networks and Platform-as-a-
Service (PaaS) if they are to
continue to support the scale
and functionality needed by
modern businesses.