b'Partner News Spring 2022 33EnterpriseBut theres no one-size-fits-all solution. TheDuring the recent lockdowns in England, answer, different for every company, willdata centres were classified as critical be based on what talent is needed, whichinfrastructure and the workers within roles are most important in which location,As businesses start to planthem essential, ensuring that data centre how much collaboration is necessaryfor a hybrid environment,customers knew that their facilities were and where offices are located today.still fully operational 24/7, regardless of they should look to find theany other restrictions which may have Theres one essential consideration whichsolution that best fits theirbeen in place on other industries.applies to all however, and thats how toplanned ways of working.deal with the technology challenge ofWhats more, colocation allows companies any enduring change to the workplace. to expand their infrastructure to fit the needs of their growth without having Technology leaders have a crucial jobto take on large capital expenditures. over the next months and years to manage a large-scale transition in theIndeed, data centre colocation offers IT way we work and data centre colocationteams a measure of agility it otherwise providers are particularly well placedmay not havecrucial in this uncertain to help customers get this right. environment where its not just growth that companies need to be prepared Outsourcing the IT conundrum for, but potentially downsizing too. While everyone within an organisation was challenged by the lengthy lockdowns,Providing a safe pair of handsa huge bulk of the work fell on the ITCrucial too will be the ability to demonstrate engineers and solution architects. Theyrobust disaster recovery strategies. This is had to ensure their workforce had thesomething that the industry has tools required to successfully migrate toalways provided to its customers, a safe remote working environment. supporting many of the most critical digital environments for decades. Now one of the biggest questions for those planning a long-term shift is whereIts good to talkFurthermore, the onset of mass remote to house IT infrastructure, if a diminishedThe plus points of data centre colocationworking has given rise to remote physical footprint is on the cards.are significant. Not only can organisationsmanagement. This is also available to capitalise on the knowledge of specialistcustomers of data centre colocation Its here where data centre colocation canproviders and enjoy best of breedwhere many of the processes are be the solution. Colocation services notperformance and efficiencies such as powerpossible to orchestrate remotely, only include networking, physical securityand cooling; having IT assets in a colocationfrom remote checks and measures to and power and cooling components butfacility allows fast, easy connectivity to cloudsophisticated alarm systemscritical in also years of expertise a data centreservices which are almost certainly part ofthe event of widespread lockdowns. provider has in managing business criticalany remote and hybrid working strategy. infrastructure. This ensures the smoothWith recent events provoking a new mix running of a companys IT is safeguardedThe robust, reliable interconnectof working from home and office work, for the long-term, whatever its needs. infrastructure in a data centre can enablethere will be increasing demands on the businesses to set up and access theinfrastructure of today and tomorrow. For companies who want to downsizeremote and hybrid working world far their physical locations and/or reimaginemore quickly than using in-house IT. As businesses start to plan for a hybrid their office environment, using dataenvironment, they should look to find the centre colocation can free up valuableColocation also addresses some of the mostsolution that best fits their planned ways office space, potentially creating morepressing physical security concerns that haveof working. Such a radical shift in working is room for hot desks and meeting rooms.come to the fore over the last 18 months.an opportunity to rethink IT infrastructure and find the best solution for the business.There are plenty of other good reasonsLockdowns have been challengingif to migrate servers from on-premisesyour computer room or data centre is aTo build an optimised IT infrastructure and to infrastructure, even for an office thatspart of your office building, and that officehelp radically reimagine the world of work, not going down the fully or partlybuilding is empty, how do you know yournow may be the time to consider decoupling remote route. Colocation can result inIT infrastructure is safe? In a colocationthe IT infrastructure from the office working improved cost efficiencies and betterfacility, you can rest assured that yourenvironment and migrating the complex performance, such as 100% uptime for themission critical infrastructure is supportedbusiness of managing the in-house servers to IT that keeps a business functioning. and in a building that is always protected.a specialist data centre colocation provider.'