Data centre outsourcing considerations for 2010

NEW YORK, USA: Entering 2010, outsourcing of data centre operations has become so common-place that the question has shifted from “Why should we outsource our data centre?” to “How are we going to outsource our data center – and what are the best options available for my business?”

Online Tech, a managed data centre operator, has compiled a list of the top five things to consider when thinking about outsourcing a data centre.

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1) Colocation or Dedicated Servers? Colocation is an excellent choice if you already own your servers or have the capital expense budget for the hardware.

However, a dedicated server solution may be a better option for companies with a little less flexibility in their budget because it removes the capex burden from the server-hosting model by providing the server hardware and administration for a simple monthly fee.

2) Stripped Down, Fully Managed or Something In-between? The best choice often depends on the availability and bandwidth available from your IT staff. Raw colocation and basic dedicated servers typically only include Internet connection, protected power and network connectivity.

Everything else, including network security, monitoring and managing your servers is left to you, the client, to solve. These solutions are primarily targeted to organizations with robust IT staff.

Managed servers are best suited for organizations with limited IT staff. Managed servers include a full set of services from the data centre operator, including 24/7 monitoring of the server, network and applications, and acting as the first responder by troubleshooting problems and coordinating remediation.

3) Tape or Online Backup, Onsite or Offsite? One trend that has really accelerated over the last year is the move from tape backup to online backup. With the costs of storage and Internet bandwidth continuing to drop, it has become very cost effective to backup and archive data online.

For less than $100 per month, you can backup your server across a separate backup network on a flexible backup schedule, with multiple restore points and bare metal restoration. And with data centre operators like Online Tech that have multiple geographically dispersed data centres, you can also backup your server to another data center for just a few dollars more per month.

4) Virtualized or Dedicated? The problem with many dedicated servers is that they are often only using 10-15 percent of their computing capacity. With virtualization, it’s possible to reclaim the unutilized capacity for other applications on the same platform.

While vendors like VMware still seem to do their best to make it seem complicated, managed data centre operators can make virtualization a hassle-free experience. When you’re looking at outsourcing options, your colocation or managed server partner should be able to discuss virtualization options with you.

5) Private or Public Cloud? There are still issues around data security, privacy and performance guarantees that have many users still fearful of the cloud. One can suspect that the reason why public cloud vendors don’t offer a defined SLA is because they are still “figuring out” how to deliver the service reliably and securely.

The opportunity to move the computing infrastructure into a “private cloud” – where the computing power and data resources are dedicated to a specific client in a specific location with a trusted data centre partner – yet shared in a cloud formation to allow expansion and contraction of applications within the private cloud has become appealing to more security and control conscious IT departments.

When deciding to outsource your data centre, you should begin with the above considerations in mind. Always speak about your decisions with a data centre operator to determine if they can provide you with the best-optimized solution.