The role of colo in the era of remote working

In the initial lockdown uncertainty, colocation data centres were a place to turn to for many organisations. With remote staff accessing networks remotely every day, it became more critical than ever to manage business-critical IT and systems, and ensure seamless connectivity, cloud storage and use of web-based applications. Colocation data centres became key to offering security and remote maintenance of IT real estate in the new decentralised system (particularly at the height of the pandemic when many on premise DC facilities weren’t accessible). Now, whilst the dust appears to be settling on the pandemic, off premise data centres such as ours continue to facilitate remote working:

It was tempting for many to make the leap to a total cloud-based solution to facilitate remote working when the pandemic hit, but this isn’t always the best approach, particularly for organisations working in high security environments. Colocation data centres like Datum offer the best of both worlds – a safe and fully managed location for IT infrastructure and critical applications, combined with connectivity to private and public cloud services.

Nobody needs reminding of the spiralling energy costs, something that has added to the already growing focus on environmental efficiency. Our purpose-built facility was designed and built with environmental efficiency in mind, which makes our facility a very efficient and cost-effective choice. Partnering with us can dramatically reduce a company’s overall energy consumption compared to on premise facilities through our energy-efficient adiabatic cooling, redundant power, our ability to secure the best energy contracts (including full carbon offsetting and the use of renewables) and our participation in environmental ISO accreditations and EU codes of conduct, such as:

• ISO 14001: 2015 (Environmental Management) - setting up an effective environmental management system
• ISO 50001 (Energy Management) - improving energy use through the establishment, implementation and maintenance of an energy management system
• EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres - we are signed up to this code of conduct, which sets out ambitious voluntary standards for reducing energy consumption

Ensuring that systems, data and applications are always available is key, even more so with a remote workforce. Our 100% uptime SLA offers complete peace of mind that downtime won’t ever be an issue.

Remote working has created the ideal environment for cybercriminals who have found it much easier to pick off individuals and capitalise on compromised security. Management of servers in a purpose-built colocation facility offers better security than most on premise facilities, and the data centre team is on hand 365 x 7 x 52 for remote monitoring and checks.

Remote working depends on reliable connectivity to cloud services for collaboration. Our colocation data centre provides a wide range of connectivity options and high-speed connections to cloud services.

IT teams managing on premise data centre facilities can spend much of their time on day-to-day monitoring and maintenance rather than focusing on IT strategy. Housing IT infrastructure and workloads within our colocation facility takes the pressure of IT teams and our remote hands services are always available when clients can’t come on site.

Data centres have the capacity to provide vastly superior backup measures than on premise DC facilities. Whilst many clients are using cloud to back up infrastructure, a large number still rely on physical backup media, which need to be swapped out and stored. This is a service we can provide for our clients.

Most on prem data centre facilities are limited by capacity and budgets, which can compromise investment in facility upgrades. In contrast, we are legally obliged to comply with stringent industry requirements. Accreditation activities are performed as standard at our facility and all accreditations are actively refreshed, so our clients can be assured that their business-critical IT is in the safest hands.

In a rapidly changing environment involving an increase in the use of digital technologies, many on prem data centre facilities have been constrained by space and capacity issues. Data centres like Datum can offer additional space/capacity whenever required (or a reduction in footprint to ensure that clients are only ever paying for the capacity they actually need).

Our dedicated and experienced DC team is on hand all day, every day, and can act as an extension of clients’ IT teams as well as providing strategic advice on IT transformation and optimisation. The dramatic shift in working practices has accelerated digital transformation plans for many organisations and several of our clients have benefited greatly from using our facility as a platform for their digital transformation activities.