F E A T U R E

• Fixed infrastructure . Resources are typically provisioned for peak demand , making it impractical and costly to scale down the footprint with significant reconfiguration and decommissioning processes .

An on-premise data centre may be the right choice for :

• Large enterprises with complex IT environments , high security requirements and the ability to bear the upfront cost .

• Government agencies that handle sensitive data that cannot be stored off-site .

• Financial institutions or other organisations processing cardholder data that must comply with PCI-DSS regulations .

• Healthcare providers storing patient data that must comply with HIPAA regulations .

• Research institutions with specialised equipment and highperformance computing needs .

Colocation data centres

A colocation data centre is a facility where organisations can rent space to house their IT equipment . The colocation provider supplies the building infrastructure , cooling , power , bandwidth , physical security and managed services .

Top three advantages of colocation data centres

• World-class facilities . Organisations without facilities expertise can still rent state-of-the-art facilities with advanced cooling systems , redundant power and robust security measures .

• Flexibility . Resources can easily be expanded or reduced according to changing needs .

• Low upfront costs . Other than an initial investment in IT equipment , the rest of the cost of colocation is in the form of predictable monthly payments .

Top three disadvantages of colocation data centres

• Lack of visibility . Tenants have little control over their physical infrastructure and must rely on their provider to accurately execute work orders .

• Migration challenges . Moving equipment to a colocation data centre requires meticulous planning , an accurate inventory and the ability to track every change .

• Ongoing costs . Additional costs for power consumption , network bandwidth , remote hands services and cross-connects can quickly add up .

A colocation data centre may be the right choice for :

• Small-to medium-sized businesses that require reliable infrastructure to store and manage large amounts of data .

• Fast-growing enterprises that need to quickly scale their data centre infrastructure to meet customer demands .

• Organisations with compliance requirements that can be met by a reputable colocation provider .

• Online services such as e-commerce and digital media companies that want to reduce latency and improve customer experience by locating equipment near the areas they serve .

Cloud data centres

A cloud data centre is a facility owned by a cloud service provider such as Amazon Web Services , Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud . These providers offer virtualised environments that enable organisations to store , process and analyse data and run applications over the Internet .

Top three advantages of cloud data centres

• World-class facilities and IT . Organisations without facilities or IT expertise can leverage state-of-the-art infrastructure , hardware and software from a cloud provider .

• Extreme agility . Customers can easily scale up or down very incrementally based on demand , enabling rapid provisioning and time-to-market .

• No upfront costs . Usage-based pricing models enable organisations to quickly deploy services and applications without any initial investment in physical IT or facilities .

Top three disadvantages of cloud data centres

• Security concerns . Entrusting sensitive data to a third-party provider may raise concerns about data privacy , potential breaches or regulatory compliance .

• Data sovereignty issues . Data may be stored in different jurisdictions , potentially leading to compliance complexities , regulatory conflicts or access limitations .

• No control . Cloud providers own and operate their data centres , leaving customers no input into infrastructure or security measures .

A cloud data centre may be the right choice for :

• Start-ups or small businesses with limited IT budgets and rapidly changing needs .

• Large enterprises that want to take advantage of cloud services such as Big Data analytics , Artificial Intelligence , Machine Learning and Blockchain , have distributed workforces that need to collaborate and share data in real-time or need to leverage cloud solutions for Disaster Recovery .

• Seasonal businesses that need to quickly scale to meet spikes in traffic or other organisations with unpredictable or fluctuating workloads .

• Development and test environments to allow developers to quickly build and tear down environments and focus on innovation .

Hybrid data centres

A hybrid data centre is any integrated combination of on-premise , colocation and cloud infrastructure .

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