Companies are increasingly choosing to outsource certain specialist work, such as: accounting, payroll accounting, cleaning and security. Mainly because of the investment in time, money and people it saves companies. But also because there is a lack of internal expertise. In addition, compliance with laws and regulations and having the right certification can be an issue. This also applies to managing your own data center. External factors may result in a (forced) decision to outsource.
There are several reasons why companies may be forced to choose to outsource their data center. In such cases, this is generally always motivated by financial or operational factors. The external situation makes the cost of managing the data center in-house too high or there is simply no alternative available, making the choice for an external data center the most logical one.
In our previous blog {link to blog} we set out the reasons for moving the data center. Relocating your company and, with that, the data center can be one of the reasons why you are forced to choose to outsource the data center. For example, because the new location offers insufficient space or on account of the cost of redesigning the data center being too high.
Managing your own data center requires specific employee abilities and skills. The staff are mostly engineers who need to have knowledge in the areas of electricity, cooling and business continuity, for example. Besides the fact that these profiles are hard to find, it is difficult to deploy these people in other areas of the organisation. So when current employees reach retirement age and new specialists cannot be recruited for the data center for reasons mentioned earlier, outsourcing the data center to a location where all these skills and capabilities are present is a logical choice.
When different companies pool their activities, by way of merger or acquisition, many are left with two or more (small) data centers. Their collective data does not fit into these data centers, creating demand: so where do we consolidate? It is important to merge the IT infrastructure as soon as possible; no company will find it beneficial to remain in two IT worlds. An external data center often offers the solution in this case. We discuss this in detail in our previous blog.
External factors mean that companies have to modernise at breakneck speed in order to keep up with increasing demand. Topics such as scalability, security and end-to-end user experience are the order of the day. This modernisation of the IT infrastructure requires a lot of knowledge and investment. When companies run into issues due to an outdated IT environment, this is often the time to tackle the entire data center.
The past year has shown that being able to scale up quickly can determine the success or downfall of companies. With the closing of physical store locations and working from home as the new standard, companies are having to reinvent themselves. With the pressure on IT systems and the growth of data increasing rapidly, being able to scale up quickly is a must. Most in-house data centers do not meet this need, while an external data center is equipped to do just that.
Legislation and regulations sometimes make it simply impossible for companies to work with their own data center. Take financial institutions and hospitals, for example, where one of the requirements is for data to be stored in multiple locations, with a certain minimum distance between sites. Legislation and regulations ensure, among other things, that business continuity and privacy are guaranteed. As the data center is not the core business for most companies, they do not follow the laws and regulations closely in this regard, meaning there is a chance that they may not meet the requirements.
The European Green Deal states that Europe must become climate neutral by 2050. This requires a lot of adjustments to the current way of working and substantial investment in the current IT systems. Investments that are currently being made proactively by external data centers. Outsourcing the data center means that companies no longer need to make these investments themselves. For example, in line with the European Green Deal, 25 cloud providers and data centers, including LCL Data Centers, have signed the Climate Neutral Data Center Pact (CNDCP). This pact has taken a self-regulatory initiative, in cooperation with the European Commission. It supports both the European Green Deal, which is intended to make Europe the world's first climate-neutral continent by 2050, and the European Data Strategy, which is aimed at making data centers in the EU climate-neutral by 2030.
Consumers are making increasing demands on companies when it comes to customer experience. These companies in turn conclude solid SLAs with their own suppliers. They must be able to demonstrate that they can meet demand 24/7. Webshops, for example, want a guarantee from transport companies that they can deliver within 10 hours. This demands a lot from the infrastructure of both companies. Connectivity is crucial, as the slightest downtime can be costly. This requires the modernisation of current infrastructures, which are inadequate in many cases.
The above reasons may not in themselves immediately cause a "forced" choice to outsource the data center. In general, it is often a sum of several external factors. When companies find that the current data center no longer meets their needs for multiple reasons, that the issues are piling up and that they are beginning to lag behind the competition, action then has to be taken. It's the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back. This is the time for companies to start thinking about the future, with questions like: Does my own data center still comply with the legislation and regulations? Can I continue to meet the demand of my customers? What is the raison d'être of my data center?
The benefits of the 'forced' outsourcing of IT infrastructure are endless. This way, companies no longer have to worry about certification, scalability, attracting staff and connectivity (one cable away). Or about the deployment of new technologies, such as: smart mobility, IOT, Edge data centers, with interconnectivity instantly within reach by deploying a remote data center.
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