Colocation &
Outsourcing
Data hall inside
Virtus’ LONDON4
data centre.
need). These facilities are far
enough from city centres for
disaster recovery purposes, but
close enough to deliver application
performance that local and
international businesses demand.
Security
‘Top five
things to
consider
when
choosing a
colocation
partner:
Location,
security,
connectivity,
flexibility
and Total
Cost of
Service.’
Security is one of the main reasons
that some large organisations have
traditionally preferred to build their
own data centres. As this is often
becoming financially unviable,
providers must demonstrate that
the security of their customers’
IT infrastructure is one of their
highest priorities. Both external and
internal security are paramount.
Security requirements should
be looked at in three key ways:
1. Physical: There should be at least
seven layers of physical security
that can be tailored for enhanced
levels, as required. From
perimeter fencing with intruder
detection, access control, CCTV –
external and internal – restricted
pass code access, man and vehicle
traps; data centres can guarantee
the highest security needs that
any industry sector needs.
2. Process: ISO27001:2013
certification should be in
place to evidence processes
and procedures and show that
every aspect of security is
tested regularly.
3. Digital: Easy access to a choice
of DDoS mitigation services
should be available through
an ecosystem. Providers
that partner with key digital
security vendors create a
strong defence so businesses
can deal with attacks should
they materialise.
Connectivity
Businesses use public clouds for
access to huge amounts of data and
massive compute capability, for on
demand computing when needed,
or simply for storage. But they still
maintain their own private clouds
as a way of processing and adding
value to their own sensitive data
that they collect and to handle
complex computations. This is the
hybrid world that is becoming the
de facto standard.
Connectivity to the right
carriers is critical if cloud is to
work. This ensures that multiple
public clouds can be accessed,
which will increase performance.
The term for this is ‘on-ramp to
cloud’. Companies should be aware
that whilst some data centre
providers can build the best high
performance computing platform,
without connectivity provisioning
on-ramp to other clouds,
businesses won’t be able to adopt a
hybrid cloud strategy.
Location
Businesses today expect low-
latency and reliability from
colocation providers, with zero
tolerance for downtime. However,
the data centre does not have to be
located in a city, it can be located
on the outskirts which eliminates
expensive city centre premiums.
Smart providers chose optimal
locations combining low cost
availability of ample space and
power for hyper efficient data
centres with low cost availability of
broad and rich connectivity (fibre
that today’s digital businesses
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