Transforming professional services through colocation

Colo solutions to support professional services

The core branches of professional services may have started long before the first computer, but digital technological developments are now key to the success of most partnerships and practices in the sector.

Competition is strong, particularly from ‘digital disruptors’ in the form of start-ups or incumbents offering new technology-driven innovations, and clients now have greater expectations of quality, speed of delivery, costs, transparency and accountability. Deregulation is making it easier for new entrants to come in with innovative business models and professional services will increasingly be accessed through online channels.

Datum’s proven platform for digital transformation has supported progressive professional services firms to build innovative ways to deliver their services, taking advantage of cloud technologies whilst ensuring client data is effectively secured.

Keeping pace with changing needs

The professional services sector has benefited hugely from the rise of data centres. With the increasing amount of sensitive client data, document management and big data analytics, professional services firms need access to reliable and secure data centres. Data centres offer businesses a multitude of benefits, including safe storage, reliable backups, remote access and redundant power supplies. With data centres, the professional services sector has bolstered its ability to deliver world-class services, by relying on high-quality infrastructure that enables rapid access to data, increased efficiency, and improved client satisfaction. Our data centres offer:

  • Highly secure and resilient facilities
  • Direct interconnects to private and public clouds
  • Support accreditation and compliance demands

Real world experience supporting professional services

We were selected by an innovative law firm to support them in a time-critical challenge to find an alternative provider that would be a better fit for their current and future data centre needs.

Our client was contacted by their incumbent data centre provider to tell them that due to a refurbishment project, they would have to move their 44U rack of kit into a sister data centre and only had a month in which to do so. They decided to take the opportunity to identify an alternative provider that would be a better fit for their current and future data centre needs. They approached us for help.

Time was critical, and having agreed the full requirements with Datum, the order was placed on the Tuesday with a deadline for the rack, power, cooling and network connectivity to be live by that Saturday. Through our consultative, team-led approach to service management, we were able to assure the client that their IT migration would run smoothly and on time.

Key to this was the constant contact between the client and the Datum operations team to create a full migration project plan. We ensured the rack preparation was completed in readiness and provided an engineer on-site on the Saturday to assist the client where needed. We provided a full hands-on service.

I was extremely impressed by the way that Datum addressed our time-critical challenge and helped us to turn everything round so quickly. The service they delivered was excellent and the ongoing approach to service management gives me great confidence in having selected Datum to house our business-critical IT.

The flexibility of their approach is also refreshing, to the point that in line with our expansion plans they offered us first refusal on a second rack free of charge for 12 months. The knowledge that we can expand into a contiguous rack without upfront financial outlay is ideal and allows us to confidently pursue our ongoing development.

Let’s talk

If you’ve been considering an IT migration or digital transformation for your business, we would love the opportunity to discuss your needs and show you how our approach can support your business goals. Contact us today to get started.