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Industry leading support articles from the Netwise team.

by Matt Seaton

Do you need a colocation centre to store your business data?

Every year, businesses collectively spend trillions of dollars on IT products and services worldwide. In fact, the global forecast for the sector reached $3.46 trillion for this year, which is quite a staggering figure.

All over the world, businesses have to make the right decisions in IT management every year. So how can you make the correct cost-effective moves that will truly protect your business?

Most businesses have basic IT needs such as affordable server space and server hardware.

If you’re looking for more in-depth options to manage your business data, here’s how and why a colocation centre might be the best solution for your organisation.

What are colocation centres?

Colocation centres, or “co-lo” data centres, contain enterprise data servers at a remote location away from your own business premises. This is a purpose-built facility designed specifically to house business data systems and infrastructure.

Your own IT technicians are then able to visit the site for any maintenance or updates, or use the facility operators in-house technical team to assist you remotely.


The transfer process

Your service provider may supply you with the physical server hardware, or if you already have hardware in place, you can choose from a variety of service packages for the space you need.

To find how much infrastructure you require, you will need to consider a variety of factors, including the power requirements for each of your servers. Your provider can help you understand what specification service you’d need to support your systems.

During this process, you should evaluate how much space and resources you need, both now and in the future. You may also want to take this opportunity to immediately upscale or downscale, since you’re now entering into the process of bolstering your technical capacity. 

Common issues in business data management

For many businesses, server space is a limited commodity on-premise. This is especially true for small businesses that typically have smaller operations.

IT resources simply grow in proportion to the scale of large businesses. No matter how much building capacity your business has now, more data in the future tends to mean more space will be required.

Physical space is just one of the issues that many businesses run into when growing their systems. Overall costs for data solutions can grossly overtax a business’s financial resources. 

Colocation centres are uniquely designed to hit both of these major pain points for business.

In general, a colocation data centre helps businesses centralise their data management and scale the space to their needs. This offers more flexibility, reliability, and predictability to help you achieve your operational priorities. 

Maintenance and flexibility

Colocation data centres often function like managed IT services. Because of this, data service providers can conduct regular maintenance on your behalf. This can be a big cost saver, and reduces stress on internal technical resources that can spend more time on core business functions. This also reduces the in-house personnel required to perform maintenance.

However, you also have the option to manage your own hardware maintenance through your internal IT department if you choose. 

Reliability

Choosing to make use of an outsourced colocation service provider will always offer you increased security and reliability over going in-house.

Colocation server hosting can be an alternative to cloud storage. Many organisations that made the leap to cloud services when they began taking hold a few years ago are now moving back to physical colocation services. This is because they offer greater value for money, decentralise the control of data from the large US cloud service operators, and allow for far easier compliance when it comes to data domicile and security.

Being able to point to your own server hardware, and make physical changes to it, has major operational advantages.

Predictable expenses 

Operating costs for data management can become expensive over time. When businesses choose to manage their own IT needs the expenses typically include:

  • Electricity to power servers
  • Maintenance and equipment
  • Security
  • Data recovery
  • General overhead costs

Fortunately, you can reduce these expenses when you choose a colocation data centre. One of the best advantages to outsourcing your IT management is that providers offer services at predictable, contracted rates. 


Breaking down monthly costs

For example, a proper colocation plan will show you exactly how much space your services will occupy. These spaces are typically measured in “rack units,” also labelled as a “U.” Units will be the first expense in your data management plan, usually coming with a monthly rate for the space.

There are also predictable monthly rates for power flowing to your servers and your network bandwidth. 

Some providers may also offer additional consulting or hardware resources that may be included in your service free of charge. However, some may come at additional cost. 

At any rate, the necessary expenses for colocation data centres are largely predictable and simplified. This allows you to anticipate the costs by tailoring your service to the specific needs of your business.

Unlike traditional IT management, you don’t have to worry about surprise costs. You simply pay for exactly what you need.

Find better business data solutions

The best advantage to colocation data centres is the fact that you can customize your service to the needs of your business. 

Whatever your data management goals are, we’re here to help you achieve them with colocation solutions.

If you’d like to discuss your business data solutions, please get in touch with us by email, chat, or phone. We have some of the top award-winning locations in London to provide the safest environment for your data. 

by Matt Seaton

How to align colocation costs with business needs

Colocation services allow you to share the resources of a data centre with other businesses, without having to invest in your own private space. The cost of your organisational IT is something that you always have to consider.

As with any professional business service, choosing the cheapest option is probably a bad idea, however it’s important to explore all options to ensure you’re paying fair rates that provide solid value to your business.

Here are some things to think about when measuring and deciding on your colocation costs.

Aligning colocation costs with your needs

There are several benefits to colocation. Alongside the clear benefits, there are a number of factors that you’re best keeping in mind as you begin to explore such a service:

1. Make sure you choose the best colocation company

Focus on quality over everything else. If you find the best colocation company in your area, don’t let price be a serious deterrent unless they’re charging outrageous fees that strip the value out of the service.

Not every data centre is put together to the same high standards. With the build and ongoing operational costs of a data centre being so high, an immediate red flag during your enquiries would be a bargain discounted rate, which is either being used to hook you in, or is a sign of problems with the facility and/or it’s operation.

The best colocation companies in their industry set the market, so finding out what they charge will also give you an idea of the going rate. Get referrals to make sure that you’re choosing the most competent professionals with the highest quality infrastructure.

A few of the things that you’ll need to look for when taking a colocation service include network carrier and power delivery redundancy, service flexibility, a capable support team, and physical security measures that keep the critical infrastructure secure.

2. Shop for the right fee structure

Aside from the rates themselves, you should also consider a colocation operator that offers a payment structure that works for you. Colocation rates can often be billed very flexibly, from monthly, quarterly, annually, or even by the hour in some unique use cases.

You should also find out whether they lock-in the prices for the contract term or whether the contract is revised on different time frames.

3. Figure out which hardware you want to buy

Buying your own hardware is one way to fully align your costs to your needs. Some colocation companies can also organise leasing agreements for you to rent equipment as needed, if an outright purchase is not possible.

Leasing or renting kit is great for many reasons. For example, you don’t have to pay the full price for the equipment upfront, and only pay for what you need. Under this sort of agreement, you can get top of the line, brand new equipment based on a recurring monthly rate, rather than a full, upfront capital investment.

However, it’s worth noting that these agreements do require you to keep paying well after you’ve exceeded the value of the hardware. Depending on your needs, it might be better for you to buy your hardware outright, rather than paying for it each and every month.

This is especially helpful if you are able to get a good deal on some hardware by getting it on discount or refurbished. You’ll need to figure out what makes the most sense for your company and align those needs accordingly.

4. Assess the rack capacity

When you’re looking for server colocation services, you need to figure out how much rack space you need to house your equipment.

You’ll then be able to correctly specify how much space you need to house your kit, without over-committing to more (or less!) space than you need, which will keep the costs properly aligned with your requirements. You can then scale upwardly when it’s time to expand.

5. Pay attention to cyber security measures

Always educate yourself on the latest cyber security measures to keep your company well-protected.

Without question, cyber security breaches can end up costing you lots of money. A single breach can cost your company a lot to get back up and running, and even more in any relevant fines from controlling bodies.

Ask the colocation provider what kinds of security they have in place for you, and which areas will need to be factored in by yourself.

Many of these data centres also have emergency plans and policies laid out that will help stem the bleeding if you do happen to get breached. This saves you the time and money of having to figure things out on your own and also helps to eliminate mistakes.

Cost-effective colocation services

Handle your colocation costs with care and consideration, taking note of the tips above. By following these handy pointers, your company will have a greater chance of success in employing use of world-class colocation services.

We can help you with any of your colocation needs. You can get in touch with us online, or by calling 0845 430 9900.

by Matt Seaton

9 ways that London colocation data centres can benefit you

Is your London office running out of space? When walking around your office becomes tougher than an obstacle course on Ninja Warrior, it’s time to take a look at the furniture to see what can go.

You might have an abundance of chairs or desks stacked on top of one another. But an alternative option is to look at your on-premise servers and consider whether they’d be better suited in one of London’s many world-class colocation centres.

More and more business executives around the country (and the wider world) are now taking advantage of this service, not just to free up space in the office, but also to take full advantage of the many benefits that come with utilising these facilities. If you’ve ever wondered how a colocation data centre can work for you and your business, look no further than the nine perks below.

1. Guaranteed uptime

One of the key reasons many businesses look to a UK data centre is the massive improvement to server uptime. Many colocation companies offer tiers that guarantee a certain percentage of uptime. They’ll also work around you and your business to schedule maintenance so that your customers aren’t impacted.

2. Assists with risk management

Compliance teams and auditors always break into a cold sweat whenever data or servers are brought up in conversation. But utilising a London colocation data centre can reduce their heart rate. This is because these facilities can form part of your data recovery strategy.

Taking advantage of a colocation centre means that if a natural disaster or outage were to occur at your workplace, there’d be no impact to your data or core network as it’s located elsewhere. This knowledge should let you and your compliance team sleep soundly at night.

3. Improved security

Hiring a team to keep a close eye on your own data centre or comms room is an expensive cost that most businesses don’t need, or simply can’t afford.

Many data centres are equipped with the latest biometric readers and CCTV systems to ensure that only authorised personnel are working on your servers. They’re also monitored both physically in person and remotely to ensure round-the-clock security for your critical systems.

4. Cost savings

When you weigh up the costs of using a colocation data centre versus managing your servers in-house, the savings become so significant that they can’t be ignored. If you’re hosting your servers at your office, you’ll need to factor in the costs of operating uninterrupted power sources (UPS), backup generators, advanced cooling systems, and diverse connectivity. There’s also the ongoing maintenance costs and staffing costs to service such a service in-house.

None of these factors are a direct cost or concern if you choose to host your servers at a London colocation centre. All of this technology is already built into the fabric of a top-tier data centre, meaning you needn’t worry about implementing this extremely expensive equipment into any on-site server room at your office.

5. Quality bandwidth

Colocation centres are designed specifically to manage multiple enterprise clients and provide them with the bandwidth they need to function properly. Attempting to replicate this in-house would require a mammoth investment and infrastructure. However, there’s no guarantee that you could recoup these costs, which is why many businesses choose to utilise these facilities.

Data centres form the beating heart of the internet, and as such have masses of capacity on their networks, and delivery their connectivity from multiple carriers, making the connections to client systems hyper-resilient.

6. Certified support technicians

Partnering with a colocation centre doesn’t just give you a place to store your servers. It also provides you access to experts in the field who can manage and troubleshoot any problem that may arise. The staff have all the necessary certifications and stay up to date with all of the latest trends and information so that you and your employees don’t have to.

7. Easier scalability

If you’re struggling with space in the office at the moment, what will happen as your business continues to grow? Instead of worrying about growing pains, you can work with a colocation centre to make adjustments and alterations quickly as your company continues to boom. The team is proficient with various types of requirements across all industries and is always ready to make changes to space, support, power, and security as required.

8. Stronger infrastructure

In order to scale this quickly, it requires state of the art infrastructure that can be cost-prohibitive to replicate in-house. It would also take a mammoth amount of time and energy; something many companies don’t have in ready supply. Utilising a colocation centre’s advanced infrastructure gives your employees and customers the confidence and trust they need to be able to do business. 

9. Colocation data centres are good for the environment

Before you sign on the dotted line, one question you should ask is how the colocation centre powers its facilities. Only a select few use 100% renewable energy, meaning that all of their power comes from sea, sun, and wind.

A green facility can significantly reduce your carbon footprint, which is something that more and more consumers are looking further into before they purchase from a company. Attempting to replicate this in-house is not always possible for a lot of businesses, especially if you share a building or office space with other companies.

Looking for more reasons?

Businesses across the UK are seeing the many benefits that come from utilising colocation centres. Whether it’s freeing up space in the office, cementing a disaster recovery plan, or picking the brains of certified experts, it’s giving companies the peace of mind that their data is safe and secure.

If you’d like to learn more about how a London colocation data centre can benefit your business, or want to see what everyone is fussing about for yourself, get in contact with us today and we can help you get going. We’ll even pour you a nice cup of tea!

by Matt Seaton

Connecting the dots in data: Why do you need a colocation centre?

Have you ever wondered what a colocation centre is and what it can do for your business? If so, you’ve come to the right place.

Whether you’re tired of managing your own IT infrastructure or you’ve simply run out of space to house more hardware, here’s everything you need to know about colocation centres and how they can help you.

What is a colocation centre?

In short, a colocation centre is a data centre that allows businesses to rent space for servers and other IT equipment. It is ‘colocated’ because the use of a third party remote facility is employed, rather than a private, purpose-built on-site facility.

These remote facilities offer a secure environment to house your critical equipment. In addition to space, they provide power, cooling, and connectivity for your hardware. This gives organisations an affordable way to expand and scale their IT infrastructure without worrying about physical restrictions or management.

You can rent the space you need and bring your own equipment to set up in the data centre. Then, you can remotely coordinate with the staff to manage the hardware from afar. Colocation services are ‘low-touch’ and can provide much-needed flexibility, allowing you to upgrade or downgrade as needed.

Some data centres also allow businesses to buy or rent equipment. They can then connect the equipment for you, so you can avoid the headaches that can come with complex system setups. Colocation centres provide a variety of services like this and tailor them to your exact requirements.

What services do they provide?

Colocation services vary by provider, but the core services typically include:

  • Space for IT hardware
  • Uninterruptible power systems
  • Physical security protection
  • Cooling systems and advanced environmental controls

The advantage of teaming up with colocation service provider is space. Colocation centres are designed and built to house sensitive IT equipment. While you can build your own space for IT hardware, it’s going to require a lot of time and money to do so.

On top of that, you need to create an environment in which you can precisely control the temperature and humidity.

With a centre dedicated to cooling, you can forgo building or expanding space within your business to house IT equipment. They handle all of the cooling and temperature controls, and are experts in doing so. These centres also have highly trained security staff to ensure no one can access the sensitive data on your equipment.

Security is paramount in the data centre industry. Many data centres have multiple levels of physical security, from video camera surveillance to biometric authentication. This strict approach to security will keep your kit safer than ever.

Data centres have backup power systems, too. In case of a power outage, the machinery can automatically switch to a redundant power supply. You won’t have to worry about inclement weather or other physical disasters pulling your network offline with an uninterruptible power supply.

Depending on the data centre, you can customise the services you want for your business. For example, you can choose from a range configurations to suit your needs. You may also be able to get services like equipment inspection, consultation from on-site staff, or regular inventory analysis reports.

Why do you need one?

So, now you know what a colocation centre is and what services you can get through one. But why do you absolutely need one?

When you outsource hardware management, you can save money and redirect your IT team’s time elsewhere. It allows you to be more strategic with your resources, which can directly affect your bottom line. Instead of worrying about hardware, your team can focus on your core business function.

As your business grows, you will inevitably need more space for servers and networking equipment. Even if you have enough space onsite today, you will gain more customers and more employees. The most cost-effective way to scale with that growth is to store your equipment offsite.

If you need to scale back, colocation services make it easy to do so. They have staff onsite to handle all the physical needs of your hardware, which allows your organisation to be more flexible. You can save money and scale up or down depending on your needs without having to worry about space.

Colocation service providers may also offer consultation. Their employees are experts in data centre management, so if you have questions, you can turn to them for advice. They can help you maintain and update certifications, ensuring your hardware is functioning at the optimal level.

Data centres used to be the territory of large enterprises, but nowadays, every business has a need for such a service. Colocation centres provide an affordable option for businesses of all sizes. You can find a plan tailored to your needs and expand without having to pay exorbitant prices.

When you choose to house your equipment in a colocation data centre, you receive all the advantages without any of the costs of maintaining a facility that size. You can decrease downtime and save on resources. But you should take the time to vet your colocation partner before picking one to do business with.

Find a data centre you can trust

With all the benefits provided by colocation centres, you may feel tempted to dive right in and pick one to start working with. But before you do, it’s important you choose a company you can trust. Ideally, you should partner with someone who can provide state-of-the-art services and facilities.

Here at Netwise, our London colocation centres deliver world-class services and an unrivalled experience in the marketplace. Our London Central data centre is one of the UK’s leading facilities, and can handle the resilience your critical IT infrastructure demands.

If you’d like to learn more, get in touch today. You can book a virtual tour with us or ask us anything about colocation and our services.

by Matt Seaton

7 data management mistakes and how to avoid them

Accurate and reliable data has never been more critical in the business world. All the complex data challenges you face could be detrimental to the success of your business. You need to ensure that you have everything under control.

About 98% of companies use data to improve their customer experience, and to be a part of this, you need to avoid some common data management mistakes. The modern customer comes with high expectations. There’s regular pressure to improve transparency, and even more need to ensure customer privacy.

You not only have more data, but you have access to the technology required to convert that data into actionable and meaningful insight. The question is, how do you leverage data to improve customer experience, and ultimately grow your business?

How do you even track this data? In this article, we’ll explore some of the most common data management mistakes and help you understand how to avoid them.

1. Lack of centralisation and visibility

We have already established how important data is to a business.

However, you’d be surprised to learn that only a small percentage of companies integrate their sales, marketing, and finance data and make it accessible in a centralised location. The problem is, if you only have access to a part of the data, it’ll be hard for you to make informed decisions.

You won’t be able to visualise the bigger picture, because some of the most vital data will be missing. Centralising access to data in your organisation is essential. Relevant parties will have access, and this could be the difference between how successful or unsuccessful you are in a data-driven economy.

2. Not understanding the potential of the data you have

The amount of data produced every day is a mind-blowing 2.5 quintillion bytes, which stands to increase with the growth of IoT.

The thing is, your business is sitting on a mountain of data on everything from your customer’s buying behaviours to their preferences and your operational effectiveness.

However, chances are, you’re not analysing this data to its full potential. Consider all the data you get in your company and how it can help you anticipate customer needs. How you can identify opportunities that will improve the efficiency and overall performance of your business.

3. Not having a dedicated data management team

Apart from the kind of tools and technology you use to manage your data, it’s equally as important to have a dedicated data management team. Even if you choose not to make it explicitly dedicated to data, the one thing you need to understand is that the team must be well-trained and experienced in data collection and management.

They should be aware of privacy policies and understand data quality, protection, analysis, and implementation. Creating and maintaining a dynamic data management team for your company is an essential part of effective data management.

Find the right team to ensure you get actionable and insightful results.

4. Failing to comply with global data privacy regulations

Businesses have gone global with the use of the internet, and you’re possibly reaching out to customers all over the world. Even if you’re not doing so now, it’s probably a part of your business plans as you expand, right? In an era of globalization, other countries will also have an influence on the economy, and how businesses function and process personal data.

Even if you were to choose to serve European customers only, you still need to comply with Europe’s Global Data Privacy Regulations. Failure to comply could lead to significant fines. This means that you should adhere to international data privacy rules in all the countries your business operates in.

5. Failing to secure data

One of the most essential aspects of data management is having the right data security measures.

We’re living in a world where cybercrime is thriving, and so are hackers, malware, viruses, ransomware, etcetera. You are also faced with both internal and external threats, so you must find a way to secure your data effectively.

The bigger challenge here is that you may need to copy confidential information to mobile devices, employee hard drives, and USB devices. The issue here is that these devices are portable and prone to loss, theft, and damages.

If such devices got lost without proper passwords, data backups, or proper encryption, your sensitive data could get into the wrong hands, putting your company and customers at risk.

Company servers also need to be extremely secure and having a data security team can solve this. Ensure there are no vulnerabilities, and only authorised personnel have access. You can hire a professional company for a quarter, half, or full rack colocation service for all your data.

6. Being lax about data quality

The one variable that truly has an impact on the success of your marketing campaigns is the quality of the data you have.

It’s impossible to deliver the right messages to the right target market unless you have quality data. Besides, everything right now is in constant flux, so it’s impossible to use bi-annually or even quarterly lists.

A part of your data is inaccurate, inadequate, incomplete, or unavailable. This can result in a wasted budget, missed opportunities, and failure to meet your objectives.

This is one of the most common data management mistakes you should avoid. It’s possible if you find the right data management tool that will help you collect complete and clean real-time data.

7. Tracking the wrong metrics

Can you show how your marketing strategies contribute to your overall business revenue?

A very small percentage is able to, but the thing is, it’s essential for you to tie your marketing efforts to performance. This will require you to track metrics that impact your business.

Before you can get any meaningful insights, it’s vital that you consider what you need to know. First, identify what problems you want to solve, what goals you want to achieve, and the metrics you need to measure.

The worst data management mistakes to avoid

There you have it! These are some of the top data management mistakes you should avoid because they’ll only drag your business behind. There is so much that goes into data management, and you need to ensure that you have the right tools and the right team as well.

If you’d like to know more about data collocation, please get in touch with us, and we’ll be glad to tell you more and help you out.