In this day and age of multi-site operations, remote working and flexitime, many people use a laptop computer as their primary working machine.
Over the last decade, desktop sales have been falling steadily, and there’s no sign of that trend reversing any time soon. Laptop computers allow people access to emails, software and the internet at any location, particularly if they are accessing the web through a dongle, or have use of a tethered internet access through a mobile phone. And remote employees are most effective when they have complete access to all the IT systems that would be available were they working on site. If your business needs to provide both remote employees and customers with consistent and reliable access to your IT resources, then you’ll almost certainly need to invest in a data centre.
In a nutshell, a telecoms data centre is a virtual vault used for the storage, management and dissemination of information that is critical to the functioning of your business. Some large organisations are able to host physical data centres on-site, but most businesses simply do not have the space or resources to do it themselves. As such, investing in a data centre service to store and host information off-site is usually the best path for a growing business to take, particularly if it needs to remain flexible and quick to respond to changing market conditions. On top of that, investing in an outsourced data centre service means that your business isn’t lumbered with the responsibility of upgrading hardware when it becomes obsolete, a process that can be inconvenient, disruptive and extremely expensive.
When choosing a data centre, there are a number of considerations that should be on your list of ‘things to check’. If your business stores sensitive customer information, then the physical security at the location of the data centre is hugely important, and you’ll need some assurances about the steps taken to ensure that everything is kept safe and sound. If you’re looking to provide a consistent service to customers and employees, then uninterrupted power supply to the data centre is also crucial, which makes sure that it won’t shut down even during a disruption to the city grid. You’ll also want to be reassured that the data centre has sufficient HVAC systems to keep your cabinets cool, and a good fire suppression system to limit damage if the worst comes to the worst. Before you sign up to anything, it’s usually a good idea to have a lengthy chat with the Network Operations Centre Manager at the data centre, to make sure that you’ve checked every last detail. You never can be too careful when it comes to secure storage of your data!