The current demand for digital services leaves organisations grappling with the imperative of keeping pace and strategically managing the storage and accessibility of their data and applications. Herman Chan, President of Sunbird Software, a leader in second-generation DCIM for remote data centre management, outlines the trajectory of hosting solutions, ranging from traditional on-premise infrastructure to colocation, cloud and hybrid deployments. He presents a spectrum of choices, the advantages and disadvantages of each hosting option and insights for making well-informed decisions.
On-premise data centres
An on-premise data centre is owned and operated by an organisation and located within its own facilities. It can range from one or two servers in a closet to a dedicated server room or multiple data centre facilities.
Top three advantages of on-premise data centres
- Complete control. Organisations own their buildings and equipment which allows them to customise their IT and facilities to meet their specific needs.
- Long-term cost-effectiveness. Although building a data centre requires a significant initial investment, the on-going expenses are typically lower than alternatives and the ability to optimise infrastructure utilisation can result in cost savings over time.
- High visibility. Direct oversight and access to infrastructure facilitates quicker detection and response to issues and vulnerabilities.
Top three disadvantages of on-premise data centres
- Large upfront costs. The investment in facilities, hardware, software and personnel may not be feasible for all organisations.
- Facilities management. Dedicated facilities staff with specialised skills are necessary to maintain the building and troubleshoot issues. Regular investment in new infrastructure and technology is often required.
- Fixed infrastructure. Resources are typically provisioned for peak demand, making it impractical and costly to scale down the footprint with significant reconfiguration and decommissioning processes.
An on-premise data centre may be the right choice for:
- Large enterprises with complex IT environments, high security requirements and the ability to bear the upfront cost.
- Government agencies that handle sensitive data that cannot be stored off-site.
- Financial institutions or other organisations processing cardholder data that must comply with PCI-DSS regulations.
- Healthcare providers storing patient data that must comply with HIPAA regulations.
- Research institutions with specialised equipment and high-performance computing needs.
Colocation data centres
A colocation data centre is a facility where organisations can rent space to house their IT equipment. The colocation provider supplies the building infrastructure, cooling, power, bandwidth, physical security and managed services.
Top three advantages of colocation data centres
- World-class facilities. Organisations without facilities expertise can still rent state-of-the-art facilities with advanced cooling systems, redundant power and robust security measures.
- Flexibility. Resources can easily be expanded or reduced according to changing needs.
- Low upfront costs. Other than an initial investment in IT equipment, the rest of the cost of colocation is in the form of predictable monthly payments.
Top 3 disadvantages of colocation data centres
- Lack of visibility. Tenants have little control over their physical infrastructure and must rely on their provider to accurately execute work orders.
- Migration challenges. Moving equipment to a colocation data centre requires meticulous planning, an accurate inventory and the ability to track every change.
- Ongoing costs. Additional costs for power consumption, network bandwidth, remote hands services and cross-connects can quickly add up.
A colocation data centre may be the right choice for:
- Small- to medium-sized businesses that require reliable infrastructure to store and manage large amounts of data.
- Fast-growing enterprises that need to quickly scale their data centre infrastructure to meet customer demands.
- Organisations with compliance requirements that can be met by a reputable colocation provider.
- Online services such as e-commerce and digital media companies that want to reduce latency and improve customer experience by locating equipment near the areas they serve.
Cloud data centres
A cloud data centre is a facility owned by a cloud service provider such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud. These providers offer virtualised environments that enable organisations to store, process and analyse data and run applications over the Internet.
Top three advantages of cloud data centres
- World-class facilities and IT. Organisations without facilities or IT expertise can leverage state-of-the-art infrastructure, hardware and software from a cloud provider.
- Extreme agility. Customers can easily scale up or down very incrementally based on demand, enabling rapid provisioning and time-to-market.
- No upfront costs. Usage-based pricing models enable organisations to quickly deploy services and applications without any initial investment in physical IT or facilities.
Top three disadvantages of cloud data centres
- Security concerns. Entrusting sensitive data to a third-party provider may raise concerns about data privacy, potential breaches or regulatory compliance.
- Data sovereignty issues. Data may be stored in different jurisdictions, potentially leading to compliance complexities, regulatory conflicts or access limitations.
- No control. Cloud providers own and operate their data centres, leaving customers no input into infrastructure or security measures.
A cloud data centre may be the right choice for:
- Start-ups or small businesses with limited IT budgets and rapidly changing needs.
- Large enterprises that want to take advantage of cloud services such as Big Data analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Blockchain, have distributed workforces that need to collaborate and share data in real-time or need to leverage cloud solutions for Disaster Recovery.
- Seasonal businesses that need to quickly scale to meet spikes in traffic or other organisations with unpredictable or fluctuating workloads.
- Development and test environments to allow developers to quickly build and tear down environments and focus on innovation.
Hybrid data centres
A hybrid data centre is any integrated combination of on-premise, colocation and cloud infrastructure.
Top three advantages of hybrid data centres
- Flexibility: Organisations can distribute their workloads to the most appropriate buckets to efficiently meet changing business needs.
- Security and compliance: Mission critical infrastructure and sensitive data can be kept on-premise or in colocation facilities ensuring a balanced approach that addresses security concerns and regulatory requirements.
- Cost optimisation: It can be more cost-effective to leverage cloud services for periods of variable demand or to rapidly deploy new services before eventually migrating them off the cloud.
Top three disadvantages of hybrid data centres
- Complexity: Integrating and managing multiple environments introduces challenges and risks that require experienced professionals and robust management and monitoring tools to navigate.
- Performance issues: The distance between environments can introduce latency that slows down data processing and application responsiveness. Plus, cloud services will require a constant Internet connection.
- Unexpected costs: Organisations with limited budgets and resources may not be prepared for unanticipated issues that can add up quickly.
A hybrid data centre may be the right choice for:
- Enterprises with diverse IT needs that have already invested in on-premise data centres and want to gradually migrate some workloads to the cloud.
- Organisations with compliance requirements such as governmental, financial, healthcare and legal entities that must keep sensitive data on-premise or in a colocation facility.
- Businesses seeking cost optimisation that can leverage different hosting options based on the characteristics of their workloads.
- Companies prioritising Business Continuity that use the cloud for data replication and backup.
How to choose the right data centre for your organisation
You must carefully consider all viable options and determine the best fit for your organisation. While the selection criteria may look different for every organisation, your process should include these steps:
- Assess your business needs: Consider your organisation’s size, growth projections, budget, technical requirements and compliance obligations, and understand your current infrastructure’s limitations to lay the foundation for your decision-making process.
- Define your goals: Know your key objectives (i.e. reduce costs, increase scalability, improve performance, enhance security, streamline operations) to guide you toward a solution that most aligns with your goals.
- Evaluate your requirements: Define your technical requirements (i.e. processing power, storage capacity, network connectivity, software compatibility, data transfer speeds, latency, redundancy, Disaster Recovery options) and security requirements (i.e. physical security, data encryption, access controls) now and in the foreseeable future.
- Evaluate costs: Compare the upfront costs, ongoing costs and potential hidden costs of each option.
- Consider organisational readiness. Determine your organisation’s ability to adopt and manage each option in terms of the available internal resources and expertise as well as the need for training, additional staffing and on-going maintenance responsibilities.
- Evaluate SLAs and reputation: If you opt for a colocation or cloud provider, carefully review the SLAs from each prospective vendor. Assess their uptime guarantees, support response times and penalties for non-compliance. Also consider their reliability and track record by checking customer reviews and speaking with references.
Final words
Selecting the right infrastructure option is crucial for your organisation to thrive. On-premise data centres offer complete control and customisation but require significant upfront costs and maintenance. Colocation data centres provide cost savings, flexibility and reliability, but come with limited visibility and migration challenges. Cloud data centres offer unmatched scalability, although dependence on Internet connectivity and limited control are factors to consider. Hybrid data centres combine the flexibility, control and redundancy of multiple options, but complexity challenges may arise.
What all deployment options have in common is the need to monitor and manage the infrastructure. A modern DCIM tool is needed to proactively resolve issues that may impact downtime, improve capacity planning to maximise the utilisation of existing resources and intelligently reduce energy consumption and automate manual tasks to boost productivity.
By understanding the strengths and limitations of each option and leveraging modern data centre management tools, you can confidently navigate the ever-changing landscape of digital infrastructure and position your organisation for success now and in the future.
