IT is a major business overhead these days; global spending on software alone now tops over $380bn a year. When you add the expense of the hardware needed to run that software and store the data it generates, it’s easy to see why businesses are looking at ways they can trim their spending while still being progressive.
Applying our specific experience to the issue, here are Datum’s five top tips for saving money on IT by adopting colocation.
1. Free up valuable real estate
If spending on IT is going up, so is spending on property rent or ownership, especially in places like London. Moving your IT to a colocation data centre would reduce, and potentially even eradicate this requirement. There are some organisations that don’t want to move their data off-premise for security or compliance reasons, but the majority now realise that with the right partner those fears can be easily overcome.
2. Expert advice equals increased efficiency
Providing that you pick a partner that emphasises service, migrating to colocation should also mean benefitting from the help of an expert who can both optimise your setup and help you manage it more efficiently – not to mention cost effectively. To learn more about the kind of support and insight to look out for, see this information about Datum’s concierge services.
3. Consolidate costs
One of the other great benefits of colocation is that you can consolidate and reduce all your basic running costs. Remember, your colocation partner will be providing the cooling, power, bandwidth and physical security for your servers, so it’s a great chance to benefit from their economies of scale and reduced rates. It’s also very convenient to have one bill for all data housing requirements, which in turn saves you the time and money associated with managing multiple suppliers.
4. Move from CAPEX to OPEX approach
Building or maintaining your own data centre is an expensive, CAPEX-laden exercise that many organisations can no longer afford. Colocation enables you to avoid this expense and move from CAPEX to an OPEX model. The result is that you can allocate long term IT running costs much more predictably and efficiently.
5. Use colocation as part of a cloud strategy
Right now, many businesses are moving areas of their infrastructure to the cloud as part of their wider strategy; another way of bringing down costs, especially for areas of their IT that don’t require high levels of security. Most businesses are adopting a hybrid strategy when it comes to cloud because different applications demand different solutions, and colocation is a great way to enable this in order to achieve both the cost savings and performance that you need. At Datum, for example, we can support your hybrid requirements with direct connects between your kit and private and public cloud platforms. Direct connections avoid potential internet issues of speed, reliability and security.
Of course, we should add the proviso that it’s not all about the money! As demands on IT infrastructure increase, this is in turn driving demand for increased security, faster connectivity, greater reliability and higher-powered computing that all can be fulfilled by colocation.
There are so many reasons that businesses are turning to colocation. If you’d like to find out more, contact us today or to arrange a data centre tour.
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