Greg McCulloch, UK managing director Interxion looks at outsourcing data centres

As the cloud movement continues to progress, many foresee a shift away from managing IT in-house toward a model where more third-party organisations oversee servers, storage, applications and operational management. This shift will drastically change the fundamental practice of IT operations as we know it. By transitioning into the cloud, organisations can remove administrative burdens on IT departments, avoid expensive hardware and upgrade costs, and adjust their software licensing and maintenance practices. Third-party colocation data centres are increasingly convincing companies that their operations will continue free of disruption in the cloud if they leverage the infrastructure and expertise that they offer.

A recent Gartner survey revealed that CIOs expect to adopt new cloud services much faster than originally expected. Currently, three per cent of CIOs have the majority of IT running in the cloud or on SaaS technologies, but over the next four years CIOs expect this number to increase to 43 per cent.

Companies are realising the immense expense that comes with storing and maintaining data and infrastructure in their own facilities but many businesses are hesitant to move more than their basic CRM and email systems onto the cloud, keeping key applications and infrastructure in-house. Companies need to feel confident that their operations will continue free of disruption, which is why many are turning to third-party data centre providers to supply carrier-neutral colocation services.
Carrier-neutral colocation provides exceptional levels of connectivity to deliver high-speed application performance while driving down bandwidth and other associated costs. Some carrier-neutral providers offer five types of connectivity options; Carrier, ISP, IX , Ethernet and global and regional CDN, which enables a better user experience and increased network resilience for Cloud based services or platforms. Colocation also provides the option to subscribe to managed services that support critical business operations to back up data, resolve operational issues, manage maintenance, and monitor systems. In short wider choice drives better deals and maximises flexibility.

Interxion has developed specific ‘cloud communities’ or ‘Cloud Hubs’ for organisations that mutually benefit from colocating in close proximity to each other within the same colocation services provider. These communities, located in 23 of Europe’s 25 most densely-populated metropolitan areas, attract customers who can benefit from shared infrastructure and mutually beneficial relationships with those in close proximity to drive business value and revenue opportunities.

The Cloud Hub data centres host the widest variety of hosters, infrastructure providers, hyper scale platforms, social media networks as well as the majority of leading cloud platforms, SaaS providers, cloud enablers and more than 100 mid-tier system integrators.  This mean that each Cloud Hub provides access to a marketplace of suppliers and potential customers, ideal for cost-effective development, launch and management of cloud related services.

In addition, many colocation data centres provide access to expertise, ensuring that revenues are not swallowed up on recruiting, training and retaining staff. Colocation also helps reduce companies’ CAPEX and OPEX significantly. Having multiple customers under the same roof allows companies to benefit from a shared infrastructure and leverage economies of scale.
What’s more, colocation data centres provide high levels of robustness, scalability, and security because their modern server rooms maintain the latest capabilities to prevent power outages and data loss, thereby giving companies that level of confidence they’re looking for when moving away from their in-house facilities.  IDC’s recent Governance and the Cloud survey revealed that security is still a major concern for cloud users and potential adopters. About 43 per cent of users were concerned about security, compared to about 39 per cent of potential-users.

That said, when clients first tour a colocation data centre they are sometimes surprised at the level of security they must go through in order to get inside. At the same time, these checks also serve to reassure them. Modern data centres should be designed with the following layers of physical security: perimeter security at the entrance, mantraps into the data centre, access systems into the rooms and secure, locked cabinets in addition to biometrics where required. No one should enter or leave the premises without proof of identity, and all visitors should be checked against customer-defined access lists before being allowed to enter.  The IDC Governance and the Cloud survey highlighted data location as the chief worry of non-users thinking about the cloud, so it’s crucial that third-party data centres get the security message across in order to win over businesses that might be hesitating about moving to the cloud.

As part of the wider security picture a data centre must be ISO certified. ISO27001 is one of the most rigorous international standards for system and physical security processes. The audit and certification process focuses on every aspect of the business, including physical infrastructure, site security and access management, personnel capabilities, communications and operations, legal compliance criteria, and back-up and disaster recovery systems.

The growth of the colocation data centre market is proof that operating a modern data centre is not an easy task for businesses.

The complexity of it all makes it increasingly difficult to realise strategic progress in IT. As the benefits of the cloud and third-party data centre providers become more prevalent, companies will feel more confident outsourcing their entire IT infrastructure - mission critical applications included - making in-house data centres a thing of the past.