The reasons for moving to colocation are many and varied (from taking advantage of purpose-built, enterprise-class facilities, through to financial considerations, disaster recovery planning and refocusing resources on core competencies – to name a few) but whatever you are hoping to achieve, one thing is clear – it is a significant decision, and one that requires careful consideration throughout each stage of the process.
The ‘Datum difference’ – choosing the right colocation partner
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Choosing colocation
The ‘Datum difference’: going above and beyond
Once our clients have entrusted us with their valuable data, equipment and workloads, the least we can do is ensure that it’s safe and well looked-after. But our business philosophy is not about doing the ‘least’ of anything. Our service-enhanced approach, and experience of partnering with companies of all sizes, across all sectors, each with different requirements, means that we have an entrenched understanding of the challenges our clients are facing and the support that they need from us to achieve their business goals.
This is what we call the ‘Datum difference’.
The power of partnership
Our close relationships with a network of partners who provide a wide range of managed services (everything from carrier and cloud connectivity, to hardware and data disposal) mean that our clients can easily access all the additional services they may need to augment our colocation offering.
A commitment to transparency
You can be sure that we will take excellent care of your IT estate but we are under no illusion that our promise alone will be enough. That’s why our operations are completely transparent, and our ongoing service management provides you with regular service reviews and reports so that you know what’s happening with your vital equipment and workloads.
Prevention is better than cure
Once we take responsibility for your IT estate, our engineering team works tirelessly to ensure the facility is operating optimally through regular and thorough planned maintenance programmes, and is on hand to assist you with scheduled and 24/7 emergency engineering services to minimise disruption for your kit in case you require any changes or encounter any issues.
The four stages of the colocation journey
The transition to colocation is a strategic process that can be broken into four distinct phases:
Pre-planning and strategy
What are your business requirements and your data centre objectives? The decision to move to colocation must be one that’s endorsed and supported by stakeholders across your organisation, all of whom will have different perspectives based on their roles.
Choosing a colocation provider and defining your needs
Colocation is not about simply off-loading your IT estate and workloads and storing them elsewhere. While a secure and well-managed facility is fundamental, a good colocation partner will offer much more – a partnership to achieve your business goals.
Look for access to complementary services including managed services, cloud and carrier options, and connectivity to facilitate a hybrid solution combining company-owned IT estate and cloud services.
Making the transition
The migration process can be a crunch-point. How can downtime and disruption be minimised during the move? Should the migration take place in stages or in one fell swoop? Testing and troubleshooting needs to take place throughout the process. How sure are you that the process will be well-managed?
Reaching steady state and re-evaluating
What seems to be the ideal solution at the point of migration might not be the best solution further down the line. Technology is constantly changing, as are your business’s requirements, so your relationship with your colocation partner must allow for flex and fluidity to suit your evolving needs.
Finding your ideal colocation partner
As with any important relationship, the ideal colocation partnership is built on a foundation of trust and shared goals. But what factors differentiate an excellent colocation provider from the rest? Knowing the right questions to ask will help you to identify their strengths and weaknesses to ensure that they are the right fit:
- What scope is there for expansion of your footprint as you grow?
- Can you get access to your colocated IT estate and workloads at any time?
- How secure is the facility?
- Who are the available connectivity providers?
- How is bandwidth allocated (is it burstable so you don’t exceed your limit if there are spikes in usage)?
- Are environmental and sustainability concerns taken seriously?
- What about the uptime SLA?
- What certifications and accreditations does the facility have?
- What’s the approach to client service?
Support at every stage
Colocation is not a stand-alone solution that’s separate from your business activities – it needs to integrate with your existing and developing business requirements at all stages of your colocation journey. Our lifecycle services offer you the complementary support you might need, whichever stage of the colocation process you are at.
Our service-enhanced approach is our key differentiator and we are completely focused on making the entire colocation process a positive one for our clients. If you’d like to find out more, why not get in touch or come and see our facilities for yourself?