INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Data Centres
Has cloud killed the in-house
data centre?
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A
s worldwide spending on cloud
services sky rockets towards
US$141 billion by 2019, traditional
in-house data centres seem to be
evaporating. In 2005, 90% of data centres
were enterprise-owned, but by 2020 IDC
believes we can expect a 50–50 split with
service providers. By 2021, there will be
15% fewer data centres compared to 2015,
as in-house facilities are abandoned.
It’s unsurprising that many CIOs are
choosing to make the leap to the cloud. In
an environment where IT departments are
under pressure to do more with less, the
cloud’s pay-as-you-go business model can
more closely align to business needs, reducing
wasted spending. Better still, elastic resources
consumed as-a-service can rapidly flex with a
business’ changing requirements.
Given the breakneck pace of technological
change and how reliant businesses have
become on demanding applications and
analytics, the cloud’s ability to remove
concerns surrounding infrastructure
obsolescence is also a godsend. Huge capital
outlays and months of planning for an
infrastructure refresh are no longer required;
the cloud makes IT a simple, operational
expense and ensures a faster time to market.
In-house isn’t dead yet
While the cloud has signed the death
warrant for in-house data centres, the
axe hasn’t fallen just yet. According to
Dan Harringto, Research Director at 451
Research, “Enterprises continue to invest in
their own facilities, but make no mistake, the
cloud is coming.”
Many organisations cannot write off existing
infrastructure investments immediately,
instead preferring to ‘sweat’ these assets for
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as long as possible. Equally, most companies
can’t rely entirely on the public cloud due
the need to safeguard sensitive data, adhere
to compliance requirements, or ensure the
application performance their customers
demand. Instead, these requirements are
pushing many organisations to adopt a
hybrid approach that combines cloud-based
and on-premise infrastructure.
The majority of UK companies (58%) are now
pursuing a hybrid cloud strategy. By combining
the cloud with on-premise infrastructure,
businesses can benefit from a blend of services,
delivery and deployment options tailored to
their needs. Applications and workloads can
be matched to the most suitable platforms,
ensuring business operations are as efficient
and cost-effective as possible. However, a
hybrid approach also adds greater complexity:
it must seamlessly integrate and orchestrate
multiple different IT environments to support
organisations effectively.
Colocation and the cloud
To Dan Harrington, the future of the data
centre is “either outsourcing to colocation or
outsourcing to cloud.” However, the growing
popularity of hybrid cloud strategies shows
that the future is, in fact, both.
Colocation compliments public cloud
deployments perfectly, allowing
organisations to host sensitive applications
and data in a well-run, resilient and secure
infrastructure environment, backed up by
strict SLAs for performance and availability.
At the same time, colocation also supports
CIOs in their drive to do more with less,
eliminating the cost and complexity
of managing an in-house data centre
and freeing internal IT staff to prioritise
other business goals. As part of a hybrid
strategy, colocation also vastly simplifies
the challenge of integrating, orchestrating
and managing different cloud platforms.
Colocation facilities often contain private
access points to the major public cloud
providers, such as Microsoft ExpressRoute
and AWS Direct Connect, allowing them
to deliver high-performance, scalable
connectivity to multiple clouds through a
single secure connection.
With colocation enabling CIOs to capitalise
on all the benefits of the cloud with none
of the drawbacks, the in-house data centre
will become increasingly obsolete. With
competitive advantage hanging in the
balance, no organisation can afford to be
hampered by costly and cumbersome legacy
infrastructure. IT transformation is no longer
a question of if, but when.
The cloud may have killed the in-house
data centre, but it will be the drive for ever-
greater competitiveness that puts the final
nail in its coffin. n
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