Growth & Security through Colocation. Why small-to-medium-sized businesses choose colocation datacenters

Transcription

1 Growth & Security through Colocatio Why small-to-medium-sized busiesses choose colocatio dataceters

2 PARTICULARLY FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES BUSINESSES AND COMPANIES IN HEALTHCARE, A SECURE AND ROBUST DATACENTER STRATEGY AND PLAN IS A MUST TO MEET COMPLIANCE REGULATIONS. HOWEVER, ANY COMPANY THAT PERFORMS A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF BUSINESS USING CENTRALIZED DATA CAN BENEFIT THROUGH COLOCATION. THE CASE FOR COLOCATION More busiesses tha ever are takig advatage of colocatio for their eterprise techology ad applicatios. They choose colocatio for redudacy or for security ad lower operatig expeses with primary busiess ifrastructure. This represets more tha just a tred; it s a fudametal shift. I fact, dataceter colocatio services are forecast to grow at a CAGR of 13.2% from , accordig to a study from MarketResearch.com. Yet at the same time, may small to medium busiesses have evaluated colocatio oly to put off the decisio or to keep doig thigs the same way as yesterday. This documet is iteded to challege the assumptios of yesterday ad ecourage IT professioals to recosider their curret strategy of usig o-premise istallatios. There are a umber of reasos that busiesses have elected to udertake colocatio. O the growth side, compaies face a massive proliferatio of data, have widely-distributed ad mobile workforces eedig real time access to data, ad are cotiually virtualizig servers, applicatios ad data, demadig more from the etwork ad requirig scalable badwidth. At the same time, compaies must meet compliace ad goverace rules ad esure that busiess cotiuity is seamless i the evet of a disaster or disruptio. Also, buildig a dataceter is a pricey edeavor ad a capital expese, whereas colocatio is a operatig expese that is ofte budled with sigificat savigs o badwidth. Today, colocatio is available at historic low prices, thaks to icreased capacity ad lower telecom ad etwork costs. DRIVERS FOR COLOCATION: VIRTUALIZATION & COMPLIANCE The rise of virtualizatio ad cloud services is drivig the eed for more dataceter services. IBM s 2011 CIO Study of more tha 3,000 global CIOs revealed that 60 percet of orgaizatios are ready to embrace cloud computig durig the ext five years as a meas of growig their busiesses ad achievig competitive advatage. This is early double the umber of CIOs who said they would utilize cloud computig i IBM s 2009 CIO study. Colocatio offers the most reliable, redudat, secure ad costeffective meas of deliverig virtualized ad cloud computig services. At the same time, colocatio is essetial for compaies that must meet compliace regulatios. Virtualizatio tasks the etwork Virtualizatio ad cloud computig deped o etwork services that are fast ad reliable. But they also require the evirometal cotrols that dataceters provide. Power ad performace of the etwork is key i the virtualized eviromet, ad hardware with virtualized servers requires the optimal evirometal support that colocatio dataceters provide. Colocatio supplies flexible badwidth, fast coectios ad robust power to support the etwork, providig reliable service for virtual machies ad cloud-based services. As server virtualizatio reduces the amout of physical servers eeded, the cosolidated servers emit greater heat, which must be quickly removed for optimal daily fuctioality ad equipmet logevity. Virtualizatio is excellet at reducig the capital expediture of buyig more servers. But the servers ruig multiple virtual machies wo t fuctio as efficietly or last as log if they are ot evirometally coditioed.

3 COLOCATION CAN HELP SMALL-TO-MEDIUM SIZED BUSINESSES ($500M OR LESS) THAT: ARE MOVING TO MORE COMPLEX IT SYSTEMS MUST MEET COMPLIANCE REGULATIONS RELY ON INFORMATION SYSTEMS THAT MUST ALWAYS BE AVAILABLE HAVE AN ONLINE PRESENCE OFFER HOSTED SAAS APPLICATIONS DEAL WITH PRIVACY ISSUES. THESE COMPANIES HAVE A DUTY TO PROTECT DATA, AND IN FACT, MUST MEET GOVERNANCE AND COMPLIANCE STANDARDS ARE LOCATED IN AREAS THAT ARE DISASTER-PRONE OR HAVE POOR POWER STABILITY OR QUALITY ARE POSITIONING THEMSELVES FOR RAPID GROWTH AND NEED FLEXIBILITY AND COST SAVINGS Compliace requires colocatio OTHER COLOCATION DRIVERS For busiesses that must meet compliace or govermetal regulatios, especially those i fiacial services ad healthcare, it s too cumbersome ad expesive to build ad operate a dataceter. The required physical buildig ad security framework for compliat ifrastructure requires a SSAE 16 compliat dataceter. SSAE 16, which replaced SAS 70 certificatio, is a rigorous certificatio process that esures that the dataceter is able to meet the demads of compaies i fiacial services, healthcare ad other idustries subject to striget security ad regulatory compliace. SSAE 16 provides the additioal assurace of routie, i-depth audits of the dataceter s cotrols ad processes icludig the services provided by the dataceter operators. For all but the largest compaies, meetig this level of compliace ca oly be achieved through a colocated dataceter. Workplace mobility cotiues to icrease With workplace mobility cotiually o the rise, the always o access for remote workers to data ad applicatios is essetial. Workers expect to access the etwork ad its backed applicatios ad data wherever they have Iteret access, whether from home, remote offices or o the road. Colocatig the dataceter esures that the etwork experieces maximum uptime, eve i the evet of a disaster. The backup power for colocated dataceters is structured to last for days. Additioally, colocated dataceters have remote hads service for physical access to the etwork ad hardware whe IT staff is miutes or hours away.

4 FOR MOST ENTERPRISES, ADDING A COLOCATED DATACENTER IS SIGNIFICANTLY EASIER THAN CREATING A PRIMARY SITE FROM SCRATCH. Joh Edwards Grow your Dataceter with Colocatio Computerworld Magazie July 11, 2011 The proliferatio of data requires better badwidth As eterprises grow ad the proliferatio of data expads, the eed for greater badwidth ad speed emerges, ad compaies are faced with the choice of udertakig expesive o-premise badwidth istallatios that must be redudat. Otherwise, the etwork becomes bogged dow, slowig productivity ad performace. Usig a colocatio facility gives busiesses the opportuity to access voice ad data badwidth at substatially lower prices. Through colocatio, busiesses of all sizes ca fid access to the badwidth they eed, icludig voice, MPLS, VPLS, EPL ad Iteret services via redudat ad diverse fiber. May dataceters offer services that rage from Etheret to Gigabit Etheret to multiple T1s ad DS3s. Cost savigs ad movig capital expeses to the operatig budget As busiesses grow, they must decide whether to cotiue to host servers i-house or colocate primary or redudat servers to a dataceter. Buildig a dataceter is prohibitively expesive for all but the largest compaies, ad requires a large capital expediture. Joh Edwards, a writer for Computerworld Magazie, wrote i his July 2011 article Grow your Dataceter with Colocatio that, For most eterprises, addig a colocated dataceter is usually a sigificatly easier task tha creatig a primary site from scratch. Not oly does the colocatio cost come from the operatig budget, but colocatio also offers expese reductios i the form of ewly-available office space, reduced i-office utility costs ad higher staff availability for more importat core busiess fuctios. This is where the cost savigs actually maifests itself as a value-added beefit. Darre Ma, maagig director of Equiix Australia, remarked i a 2011 Computerworld Magazie Australia article, Outsourcig to a colocatio provider also has the added beefit of leavig the facility-based services to those whose core busiess is buildig ad ruig dataceters, allowig compaies to cocetrate o their ow busiess. Colocatio delivers risk mitigatio ad disaster avoidace ad recovery While there is a perceptio that colocatio is expesive, the truth is that NOT choosig colocatio ca be eve more expesive. I fact, may compaies that suffer server damage or theft, or sigificat dow time, fid themselves quickly out of busiess. Particularly i a state proe to atural disasters such as Califoria with its fires, floods ad earthquakes it s vital to have a disaster avoidace ad recovery pla. For that, colocatio is essetial. Today, smaller compaies ca ejoy professioal dataceter facilities ad their beefits that, i years past, oly large, wellheeled compaies could afford. The cost avoidace of avertig eve oe power outage ad the ofte days-log process of rebuildig servers ad brigig up applicatios ca aloe cover the cost of a year of colocatio. Colocatio removes risk from the eterprise by placig the compay s core IT assets i a protected, professioally maitaied eviromet specifically desiged ad staffed to house, operate ad maitai servers, applicatios ad etworks. This is importat to recogize, because, as Michael Kaspar, Colocatio Subject Matter Expert for TPx, states, the equipmet ad the techologies that are beig developed ad maufactured today are really iteded to be put i a cotrolled eviromet. Mr. Kaspar further explais that

5 busiesses have the highest depedece o access to their techology ad busiess critical data. To risk placig the lifelie of a busiess outside of a colocatio facility jeopardizes the busiess itself. Coutless studies address busiess recovery issues followig ma-made or atural disasters. For busiesses that have ot take measures to protect their corporate data, the cosequeces are geerally dire. Cosider these coclusios: OUTSOURCING TO A COLOCATION PROVIDER (LEAVES) THE FACILITY- BASED SERVICES TO THOSE WHOSE CORE BUSINESS IS BUILDING AND RUNNING DATACENTERS Darre Ma Maagig Director, Equiix Australia i Computerworld Magazie Australia Whe a outage strikes, the cost begis the momet the power fails, ad spirals up after that. A 2011 article i Disaster Recovery Joural states: The loger a disaster disrupts commuicatios, the more critical the impact. I the first hour aloe, it is estimated that more tha 80 percet of the fiacial istitutios would lose early $1,000 per hour; a additioal 10 percet of the surveyed fiacial istitutios claimed losses of more tha $100,000 per hour. A Uiversity of Texas study foud that 85 percet of busiesses are totally or heavily depedet o iformatio systems to stay i busiess, ad that a loss of those systems would cost compaies up to 40 percet of their daily reveues Most metropolita areas experiece power outages durig ay give year that typically wo t affect colocatio dataceters because of their built-i power redudacy. Power outages preset a umber of risks damage from spikes ad surges, the shutdow of vital systems, ad backup power ruig out. Recetly, a umber of high profile disasters from floods to storms to large city power outages have put busiesses offlie for hours ad sometimes days. Customers with colocatio may avoid these outages etirely, eablig busiess to cotiue, thereby avoidig the thousads or tes of thousads of dollars i IT services that are eeded to brig servers, applicatios ad etworks back up ad ruig. Busiess ca attempt to protect themselves with geerators, but these are highly cost-prohibitive. Battery backup/ups systems will exhaust i miutes. 1. Oe out of two busiesses ever returs to the marketplace followig a major disaster. Of those that do, half go bakrupt withi three years. The oes that survive pla their respose to a disaster before it strikes (Chubb Group of Isurace Compaies). 2. Niety percet of compaies that experiece data loss go out of busiess withi two years (Garter). 3. Withi two years after Hurricae Adrew struck i 1992, 80 percet of the affected compaies that lacked a busiess cotiuity pla failed (FEMA). 4. Compaies that are t able to resume operatios withi te days of a disaster are ot likely to survive. (Strategic Research Istitute) Further studies idicate that colocatig i a dedicated ad secure dataceter is a formative measure toward avoidig becomig aother statistic. Colocatio positios compaies for growth Busiesses have had to be more moey savvy tha ever durig the past decade. As busiesses balace decisios related to growth, they ca rely o colocatio to deliver flexibility by deferrig or avoidig capital purchases, offerig the best combiatio of badwidth optios, ad refocusig employees o more value-added, core compay work. The buy-what you-eed model is perfectly suited for compaies who eed to scale quickly.

6 90% OF COMPANIES THAT EXPERIENCE DATA LOSS GO OUT OF BUSINESS WITHIN TWO YEARS. Garter 2016 Colocatio is more secure For may busiesses, keepig a server dow the hall is like leavig their wallet o the desk. While they do t thik that your colleagues or customers would take it, the fact is, they are takig a tremedous ad uecessary risk. Busiesses have goe out of busiess due to fire, flood, egligece ad theft. Other icidets cause millios of dollars to mitigate ad leave a legacy of bad PR ad recurrig headaches. All oe eeds to do is tur o the ews durig the past 60 days to see the large ad small compaies sufferig data loss due to theft or atural disasters. No compay is exempt from the potetial malicious itrusio of their data systems. It does t just happe to big firms. Healthcareifosecurity.com reported i 2010 that thieves broke ito offices of a Califoriabased optometry practice ad, despite the presece of alarms ad cameras, stole equipmet icludig a server with 40,000 patiet records that held vital data icludig social security umbers. Busiesses that process sigificat volumes of credit card trasactios should seek higher levels of security from colocatio providers, ad look for itelliget routig, etwork moitorig ad reportig, ad costat, updated firewall support ad Itrusio Protectio (IDS/IPS). Colocatio facilities are staffed by professioals who ve udergoe backgroud checks. Not oly are these facilities desiged to meet the evirometal eeds of the equipmet, but they are also desiged to be secure, complete with 24x7x365 security staff ad access systems that may iclude card access, double-autheticatio systems or biometric security. Video surveillace both iside ad outside colocatio facilities is stadard. A QUESTION OF WHY NOT? Today s fast-paced busiess eviromet, distributed workforces are icreasigly reliat o access to corporate data ad applicatios. At the same time, the very ature of virtualizatio, SaaS ad cloud systems make data ad system availability a absolute imperative. The rise of colocatio i dataceters today represets a opportuity for small-to-medium sized busiesses to evaluate how they curretly coect to the Iteret or their private etworks ad whether or ot they ca mitigate risk ad save moey through the strategic use of colocatio also gives busiesses the opportuity to flexibly scale without the added cost of buildig ad operatig their ow dataceters. Whe faced with the decisio to maitai the core of the busiess i a usuitable eviromet, or ivest millios buildig a expesive dataceter, colocatio, with its secure eviromet ad dedicated staff, becomes the compellig ad ecoomical choice. CITATIONS New Global IBM Study Cofirms Cloud Computig Poised to Take Off at Compaies Disaster Recovery for Busiess Frak Iaa, Disaster Recovery Joural, 2011 Burglars Steal Server at Cliic Howard Aderso, Executive Editor, HealthcareIfoSecurity.com, May 19, 2010 Grow Your Dataceter with Colocatio Joh Edwards, July 11, 2011 Choosig the Right Colocatio Provider Kate McDoald, Computerworld Australia, Sept. 9, 2011

7 COLOCATION OFFERS THE FOLLOWING BENEFITS: ABILITY FOR THE CUSTOMER TO INSTALL THEIR EQUIPMENT IN A SECURE FACILITY THAT IS ENVIRONMENTALLY CONDITIONED FOR MISSION-CRITICAL SERVERS ELIMINATES THE NEED FOR CUSTOMERS TO BUILD AND MAINTAIN THEIR OWN INFRASTRUCTURE, MOVING CAPITAL EXPENSES TO OPERATING EXPENSES FACILITATES GROWTH BY ENABLING CUSTOMERS TO PAY FOR WHAT THEY NEED AND SCALE THE SERVICES/ BANDWIDTH AS THEIR BUSINESS DEMANDS ALLOWS ACCESS TO HIGH CAPACITY, MULTI-THREADED AND REDUNDANT BANDWIDTH, OFTEN AT A DISCOUNT MEET GOVERNANCE AND COMPLIANCE STANDARDS ABOUT TPX TPx is the premier maaged services carrier that delivers comprehesive commuicatios solutios to 75,000 busiess locatios atiowide. Busiesses atiowide trust TPx to maage their missio-critical etwork services. TPx s awardwiig, eterprise-grade uified commuicatios, maaged IT, ad etwork coectivity services empower compaies to uleash productivity by streamliig processes, proactively moitorig systems, ad stayig curret with rapidly-chagig techology. TPx backs its services with a zealous commitmet to Customer Care, icludig a etwork uptime guaratee ad 24/7/365 live-aswer techical support. Ready to move your busiess commuicatios to the cloud? Call us at tpx.com