You can spend all day reading about what a data centre can do, and how it uses the latest technologies to do it, but what does this really mean to you as an end user? Do you really care about how a facility can maximise the efficiency of it’s airflow to reduce it’s PUE? Or how it can intelligently manage capacity to ensure facility-wide stability? Probably not, as these aren’t really benefits to your business – more benchmarks used by facilities to flex their digital muscles (amongst many others).

The real question is this; why outsource your IT infrastructure to a data centre? What are the real benefits to you and your business?

It is important to understand exactly why businesses are outsourcing their IT, and why it is becoming more of a ‘no-brainer’ with every passing day.

The core benefits, in a nut shell, are thus; save money, increase uptime, free up resources, and focus more completely on your business. Keeping your entire server infrastructure in-house is no longer a viable business decision. Doing so is counter intuitive given the rewards reaped in putting it all in a data centre, purpose-built for such an application. You can always keep the odd file server or internal system server in-house if strictly necessary, and just send out those that are mission-critical, however internet speed and reliability is so good today that there is no real reason to have any server hardware running in your office any more.

Of course, outsourcing does mean that your hardware is not within arms length of your technical team any more – however, does it really need to be? It can be reassuring to hear your servers whirring away in the broom cupboard next door, but is that a good enough excuse to keep them in a poor environment? Data centres are purpose-built from the ground up for the hosting of IT infrastructure, and use economies of scale to pass dramatic savings onto you, the end client. They also have on-site technical teams who can deal with day-to-day tasks (such as rebooting servers, installing hard drives etc) should they be required.

With that said, location is still very important – you should never be completely disconnected from your infrastructure, which has sadly been the only option for many SME’s in recent years. Hosting in the capital has traditionally been too expensive for smaller enterprises, which has forced many out to countryside data centres in Maidenhead and Milton Keynes etc – too far from their business and their market, and miles from major business and trading hubs. In an ideal world, you would like to be between 30 and 45 minutes from your data centre. Anything over an hour to an hour and a half is really pushing it, and hinders your ability to get to site quickly if required.

London is arguably the world’s premiere hosting location, serving as a major communications hub for Europe and intercontinental traffic. Services deployed in the UK’s capital city enjoy unparalleled access to global markets through fantastic connectivity and some of the world’s most solid and reliable infrastructure.

The high-uptime enjoyed by services delivered from a solid data centre is perhaps the most crucial benefit to your business. In today’s day and age, service unavailability is simply unacceptable, particularly when delivering services to your own end clients. Service Level Agreements (SLA) and Uptime Guarantees ensure data centres keep your data flowing 24×7, 365 days of the year. You need not worry about keep you hardware online, as this responsibility is largely passed onto the data centre.

This all equates to one thing – big savings. Taking hardware out of the office saves on power and cooling, and frees up space to do what you do best; running your business! Even small-scale colocation can save thousands of pounds each year, vital for the cash flow of any small to mid-sized business (and even most larger businesses).

How can we help?

Netwise Hosting’s South facility is located in Sutton, South London, just 20 minutes from London Victoria and the same again from Gatwick Airport. It is an affordable Tier 2+ data centre, with an emphasis on facilitating SME’s with fantastic colocation options, from 1U to multiple racks.

Our services are flexible and scalable, meeting the demands of even the most exacting client. By working with one-man start ups and large multinationals alike, we are able to see things top down, and understand that not every business can be pigeon-holed into a ready made solution.

Right Start Colocation Support is a set of services unique to Netwise Hosting, aimed at helping SME’s transition more smoothly into the concept of outsourced colocation. Netwise Hosting can assist with consultation, migration, racking, business continuity and disaster recovery, and much more.

Colocation services start from just £49 / month. If you would like to know more about our company and our unique service-set, please feel free to contact a member of our team today. You can also use our famed Colocation Calculator to instantly price up your own colocation deployment.

London is one of the world’s primary connectivity hubs, where much of the world’s international transit converges on its way around the globe. The city is home to some of the world’s most important data centres, which are densely populated with carriers and service providers looking for space from which to reach a pan-European audience.

London also serves as the main junction point between the east and the west, given the cities position at the heart of global connectivity, routing data between the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa.

Rack space colocation in London is a certainly a hot commodity, linked not only with its position as a highly sought after hosting location for both local and international businesses, but also with London’s sky high property prices and increasingly limited access to space and power. Despite having the largest data centre footprint in the world outside the USA, space is in very high demand.

Hosting services in Central and East London (the cities primary data centre hot-spots) have become a costly affair in recent years. The large multinational data centre operators with facilities in the Docklands area of East London have simply run out of room for new deployments, and have no additional power for modern technologies requiring for 28+ Amps per rack. Any racks that do free up tend to sell for many thousands of pounds each month, with no real room for negotiation.

Expansion plans are in place at most of these large data centres, however the cost of building them in a densely populated urban area means space inside sells for well above the international average once open and available for purchase.

In the last three to five years however, a number of independent data centre operators have sprung up across the city, taking advantage of London’s excellent city-wide connectivity to build facilities outside of the hot-zones, with ample space and power for modern deployments – and what’s more, the prices are falling year on year as healthy market competition and available space increases.

Smaller London data centre operators are now building colocation facilities of exceptional quality, with everything you would expect from a well-regarded Telecity or Equinix facility, with the added benefit of a far more personal, bespoke service. These data centres are a new breed of affordable colocation facilities in London that have bridged the otherwise sizable gap between what has been on offer to businesses over the years, and what businesses truly want from their hosted services – value being a key factor.

Both new and existing technology enterprises are now flocking to London, taking full advantage of the city’s reputation as a centre of excellence for business, and also its newly realised access to affordable world-class colocation services. There really has never been a better time to explore affordable colocation in London.

The Netwise Hosting data centre is ideal for local, national and international businesses to build reliable, scalable and above all affordable online services at a facility with core values in line with their own. Click here to read more about our colocation options.