In the age of cloud computing, businesses face the challenge of a shift to cloud or maintaining and investing in an on-premise data center.
Any business owner will know that there is no such thing as a big enough IT budget. You can keep pouring money into the latest IT technology, tools, and solutions, with the hope that they will keep your data safe and secure.
When your CTO and CFO work closely together in determining business needs, great things can happen.
Roadmapping the future of your business must account for your IT needs, particularly your data center.
Not only should your data center plan be appropriate for your current operations, but it should also account for any expected business growth.
Scalability is a key component of your plan when investing in a data center. A lot can happen over a five-year data center lifecycle, so your investments ought to reflect your business’ possibilities for growth and changing needs.
In recent years, hybrid and subscription-based storage and computing have enabled companies to bridge the cloud and on-premise decision in a strategic way. HPE Greenlake, deployed by Matrix Integration, combines a secure, scalable storage and compute solution into a manageable hybrid environment.
Combining cloud-based software with hardware, increases scalability but most importantly, it places the business owner in the driver’s seat for growth decisions about data. Owners are not forced to over-provision to prepare for future needs, but instead, can scale up or down throughout the lifecycle of the solution.
Like HPE Greenlake, many data center solutions are subscription-based. On average, a traditional, on-premise data center will last you approximately five to seven years, after which you may be facing a replacement of 100% of the hardware.
Data lifecycle management can be costly if you do not spend wisely. Some businesses will sink millions of dollars into massive data centers that they simply do not need or ultimately have to forklift upgrade when equipment reaches its end of life.
The truth is that data centers are necessary, but, like any IT solution, they are not one-size-fits-all solutions—your data center needs to be linked up with your business’ needs.
For those businesses not ready for a cloud computing experience, hesitant of subscription-based solutions, or perhaps needing a second site for disaster recovery, colocation or “colo” in a commercial datacenter may be a solution.
Colocation centers rent out space for the hardware needed for your data storage. Some colocation centers are placed in old shopping malls, where the space has been specifically conditioned for hardware. Power, cooling, and protection from environmental disasters are all included in colocation provider contracts reducing a business owner’s overhead and management of tools supporting an on-premise data center.
If your business’ premises are not ideal for physical components of a data center, then consider a colocation data center.
With technology constantly evolving, keeping up with the latest trends can be difficult. IT solutions from Matrix Integration ensure your company has the required resources to stay ahead of the curve.
Our team can help plan your technology budget for the upcoming year by identifying your needs and putting together a budget that meets your specific business goals. Contact us today to set up a consultation.