Gone are the days of miles of filing cabinets to store business data. As technology evolved businesses moved critical files to company networks and are now utilising cloud platforms, just as they changed from mainframes to servers.
In the early 1950s the first transistorised computer was developed which paved the way for substantial advancements for commercial mainframes. Further developments with local area networks and personal computers created a boom in the microcomputer industry. These microcomputers began replacing mainframes and the modern data centre was born.
Fast forward a few years and many organisations have chosen to outsource their servers to data centre providers who can dedicate more time and effort to efficiency and security. Organisations no longer have the drain of updating software and operating systems, or issuing security patches so IT departments can focus on delivering business objectives.
Complete hosting or colocation?
Every organisation has a different approach with start-ups opting to move almost everything to a hosted solution to keep overheads at a minimum, and larger companies opting for colocation. Colocation is a popular solution for organisations that have already invested in server hardware that is still at the top of the range.
The data centre provider takes responsibility for the building; cooling, power, bandwidth and security whilst housing the server hardware businesses have invested in. This means businesses are getting a return on their investment and benefiting from the cost savings of outsourcing.
More often than not businesses choose to move everything to data centres once their owned hardware is obsolete to take advantage of the flexibility and resiliency of an external data centre. The quality of the data centre provider can often hold the keys to hosted success so it’s imperative that businesses thoroughly vet potential providers. Standard evaluation covers how well equipped the data centre is for power outages, network and connectivity failures.
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