Techssocial | When your business experiences steady growth, it is but natural that you will need more storage space for your data. This is the time when you have to take a critical decision as to whether you should co-locate your servers at a third-party data center or build your private data center to accommodate your needs. The IT requirements are likely to be different for different businesses; whether they concern the daily management of business operations or support for critical data.
So, when you are expected to take this crucial decision, you should consider both options and weigh their pros and cons to see which solution suits your needs the best. In doing so, it is necessary to take into account many factors; these will cover virtualization problems, different cloud hosting environments, differences in the manner in which businesses manage various IT issues, etc.
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Evaluating the best option for your business: building a private data center or colocation:
When you have to build your own data center, costs are likely to be quite steep. Moreover, you will need to pay additionally for installing fiber in that facility; costs can increase to more than $10,000 a mile. The big businesses will have adequate funds to pay for the construction of the facility and the fiber installation. They can manage the staff and IT requirements seamlessly, providing round-the-clock technical support and infrastructure maintenance, including cooling and power supplies. So, when you own a very large business that handles large volumes of data, you will benefit from an in-house data center.
What are the benefits and drawbacks of maintaining a private data center?
When you maintain a private data center, you will be able to enjoy the advantage of complete control over the data and data security measures. You can oversee its operations and this gives a sense of security. As an owner of this data center, you will also have access to the power supplies, cooling systems, and space, temperature, and air-conditioning systems. Once you have erected a data center, you can also use up the remaining space for constructing extra cabinets.
While these are the key benefits of owning your own data center, a major drawback is that when you have built it, you cannot expand the space and scale up the infrastructure without buying new equipment.
What are the benefits and drawbacks of outsourcing?
- When you are the owner of a small company you will also need data storage facilities for growth. While a start-up is likely to need nominal space it will however need good connectivity for growth. Since startups must work on tight budgets, it is difficult for them to afford a private data center. Apart from the capital costs of building a data center, they will also have to bear operational costs in maintaining IT staff for monitoring the facility. This is why when you outsource to a provider; you can enjoy many benefits in terms of saving on overhead expenses.
- You will find that there are many providers which offer carrier-neutral connectivity that means that you are free to choose any provider which you feel suits your budget and business requirements.
- When you lease a data center you are likely to save on your upfront costs. You will have a lower TCO or Total Cost of Ownership because you can select from any carrier and you do not need to recruit staff for looking after this facility; you are relieved of costs for equipment maintenance.
- When you are building your in-house data center, you may need to make extra payments for installing additional equipment. But when you choose to outsource your business, the data center providers will allow you to scale up your resources when you need to. So, you can get extra rack space to accommodate your storage needs.
- Data center providers will also offer you round-the-clock support staff to ensure that data remains accessible at all time. Carrier services will also have their network presence in the data center facility to make sure data gets processed faster. Since you can outsource with any provider of your choice, the chances of carrier failure is also significantly reduced. Your infrastructure and applications are therefore better protected in the third-party data center. You can choose from various fiber and copper routes to provide reliable services, thereby eliminating latency problems.
- Finally, a data center provider will also guarantee 24×7 securities being equipped with data encryption systems and bio-metric access. Clients can be sure that their mission-critical data is well-guarded with the most sophisticated technologies.
To sum up, for companies which need additional rack space and easy resource availability, it is better to build your own data center. For medium-sized and small-sized companies or start-ups, it is preferable to choose colocation. Regardless of the size of your company, the importance of outsourcing your business to a trustworthy colocation provider cannot be undermined.
Hemant is Digital Marketer and he has 6 + years of experience in SEO, Content marketing, Infographic etc.