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EIGHT STEPS TO EVOLVING YOUR DATA CENTRE SOLUTION
EIGHT STEPS TO EVOLVING YOUR DATA CENTRE SOLUTION
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STEP 8: CR
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STEP 7: CO
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STEP 6: ITEMISE
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STEP 4: ESTA
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STEP 3: DEC
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STEP 2: DETER
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STEP 1: DEFIN
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© 2015 Tata Communications Ltd. All rights reserved.
ABOUTSTEP 8STEP 7STEP 6STEP 5STEP 4STEP 3STEP 2STEP 1INTROTOC
INTRODUCTIONCollecting, transmitting, storing, and backing up enterprise data is a huge job for IT. And it’s only getting bigger. IDC estimates that 1.8 zettabytes — or 1.8 trillion GBs — of information were created in 2011. In 2012, it totaled 2.8 zettabytes. By 2020, it’s projected to reach 40 zettabytes. How do you avoid getting swamped by this gathering tsunami? This ebook is intended to help you in your thinking and planning process.
WHAT DATA CENTRE SOLUTION WORKS BEST FOR YOU: IN-HOUSE OR OUTSOURCE?Enterprise IT requirements have been moving in an upward trajectory for decades. When the enterprise IT infrastructure is close to maximum capacity, what’s the best solution? Building a new data centre is one option. At one time, it was standard operating procedure for enterprises to own and operate their own data centres. But today many can’t afford to spend the time and money — and endure the headaches — of building, operating, and maintaining an in-house data centre. The alternative is to outsource IT to a managed services provider, lease collocation space, and buy ready-made IT solutions that provide a more attractive CAPEX model. Outsourcing is a concept that’s gaining momentum in every region around the world.
What will work best for your enterprise? The answer requires careful thought and evaluation. Let’s walk through some points to consider in the decision-making process.
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ABOUTSTEP 8STEP 7STEP 6STEP 5STEP 4STEP 3STEP 2INTRO STEP 1TOC
STEP 1:DEFINE CORE BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS
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ABOUTSTEP 8STEP 7STEP 6STEP 5STEP 4STEP 3STEP 2INTRO STEP 1TOC
Every enterprise has different needs. For instance, one requirement might be providing IT support for a globally distributed sales force. In that case, the enterprise will likely need reliable, scalable data centre infrastructure and IT services available in the specific regions and markets where it does business. It may have established markets in Europe — and at the same time be working to expand into Asia.
Explore our interactive global map: http://map.tatacommunications.com/
And from this linked PDF you can learn more about the location of our data centres around the world.
© 2015 Tata Communications Ltd. All rights reserved.
ABOUTSTEP 8STEP 7STEP 6STEP 5STEP 4STEP 3STEP 1INTRO STEP 2TOC
STEP 2:DETERMINE THE MOST COST EFFECTIVE APPROACH
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Building and staffing an enterprise data centre is expensive. Costs can run well into the tens of millions of dollars. Larger enterprises with extensive financial resources are better able to handle the costs of construction, staffing, air conditioning, and 24/7 monitoring. If an enterprise is in a market with a predictable demand curve, the 10-year total cost of ownership may pencil out to be more economical than outsourcing. It may also provide a greater sense of security and control with all IT resources on-site.
For enterprises that already have an existing facility, adding more space can also be expensive, costing $200 or more a square foot according to Forrester. Installing new or more fibre can run $10,000 or more per mile to simply reach the location. For some, upgrading may be more advantageous.
For other enterprises in fast growing or unpredictable markets, it may not make sense to make long-term investments in IT infrastructure. Leasing collocation space and managed IT services can provide flexibility and a more predictable and manageable cost structure, enabling better cash flow and financial flexibility.
Outsourcing can also provide state-of-the-art performance at affordable costs. Collocation typically provides access to redundant and extremely high-speed connections to multiple internet backbones. Collocation facilities also have redundant power lines, on-site backup generators, and multi-homed Internet connections that provide 99.99% uptime. You get to use a state-of-the-art infrastructure without spending millions.
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ABOUTSTEP 8STEP 7STEP 6STEP 5STEP 4STEP 2STEP 1INTRO STEP 3TOC
STEP 3:DECIDE HOW MUCH CONTROL YOU NEED
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ABOUTSTEP 8STEP 7STEP 6STEP 5STEP 4STEP 2STEP 1INTRO STEP 3TOC
One of the most common drivers for building an enterprise data centre is control. Decision makers may feel that the enterprise has unique data requirements that require direct oversight of design, location, and operations. For many, this also provides a greater sense of security.
For those looking to outsource, an established data centre provider should be able to satisfy those requirements, including providing secure access to the equipment for designated employees. In choosing a provider, treat the process as you would when interviewing a prospective employee. Create a list of top priorities, make sure that you get satisfactory answers, and that all of your requirements are met.
© 2015 Tata Communications Ltd. All rights reserved.
ABOUTSTEP 8STEP 7STEP 6STEP 5STEP 3STEP 2STEP 1INTRO STEP 4TOC
STEP 4:ESTABLISH THE LEVEL OF PERFORMANCE REQUIRED
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Technology and IT services are constantly changing. Keeping pace with the latest innovations is an ongoing job that can be quite costly. Servers, like all technology, need to be replaced at some point — often within a few years.
In addition, over time a data centre can reach its capacity limit. If an enterprise maintains its own data centre, at some point it will need to be upgraded for better performance, energy efficiency, and reduced risk of hardware failure. The cost to refurbish and expand the facility may or may not be economically justified.
There’s also the staffing challenge. Over the last decade, the demand for qualified data centre personnel has rapidly increased. The reason is simply that global internet usage has skyrocketed and shows no sign of slowing down.
In March, 2000, it was estimated that there were 304 million Internet users worldwide. In June 2014, that number had grown to more than 3 billion — 42% of the world’s population. The number of qualified data centre technicians and managers simply hasn’t kept pace. Outsourcing to an established data centre eliminates these challenges.
© 2015 Tata Communications Ltd. All rights reserved.
ABOUTSTEP 8STEP 7STEP 6STEP 4STEP 3STEP 2STEP 1INTRO STEP 5TOC
STEP 5:CHOOSE THE LEVEL OF SERVICE NEEDED
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ABOUTSTEP 8STEP 7STEP 6STEP 4STEP 3STEP 2STEP 1INTRO STEP 5TOC
When you outsource, your data centre provider is required to offer service level agreements (SLAs) guaranteeing specific levels of performance and uptime. If an SLA is missed, the provider will compensate you. The average recovery time for a total data centre outage is 119 minutes. The average cost of that outage is about $901,500. A partial data centre outage averaging 56 minutes costs approximately $350,400. The incentive for a data centre provider to deliver rock-solid reliable service is huge.
On the other hand, a data centre owned and operated by an enterprise may have been built a decade or two ago and might not be up to current standards. When the system goes down, the cost of the outage is absorbed by the enterprise.
A 2014 study by the Uptime Institute, found that traditional enterprise data centres suffered significantly more outages that had a negative impact on business than did collocation data centres over a 12 month time span.
Shown here is a chart of outage data from Matt Stansberry, Uptime’s Director of Content, presented at the 2014 Uptime Symposium in Santa Clara, California, May 2014:
0
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54%
22%
69%
12%
75%
14%
10%
1%
7%
7%
ColocationFinancialsEnterprise
1%
3%
8%
3%
6%
2%
7%
© 2015 Tata Communications Ltd. All rights reserved.
ABOUTSTEP 8STEP 7STEP 6STEP 4STEP 3STEP 2STEP 1INTRO STEP 5TOC
The study found that availability is the number-one requirement in choosing a data centre provider. All the enterprises in the study indicated that they were satisfied with their data centre provider — 50% were very satisfied, 50% somewhat satisfied.
The Uptime Institute has also established a tier system for grading the resiliency of data centres:
Tier 1: A basic site infrastructure that provides a 99.671% availability
Tier 2: A redundant site infrastructure with an availability of 99.741%
Tier 3: A concurrently maintainable site infrastructure that offers 99.982% availability
Tier 4: A fault-tolerant infrastructure with electrical power storage and distribution facilities that provides 99.995% availability
This information will be useful in evaluating a data centre should you choose to outsource your services.
A study of 584 U.S. based data center professionals found that91% of data centers have experienced an unplanned data center outage in the past24 months.
© 2015 Tata Communications Ltd. All rights reserved.
ABOUTSTEP 8STEP 7STEP 5STEP 4STEP 3STEP 2STEP 1INTRO STEP 6TOC
STEP 6:ITEMISE WHAT’S NEEDED FOR AN IN-HOUSE SOLUTION
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If you decide to build a new data centre or upgrade an existing one, you’ll want to take these items under consideration:
In-house expertise. You’ll need to hire and maintain a staff of dedicated data centre professionals and have them available 24/7/365. An in-house data centre can also become a burden to an existing IT staff already tasked with other core business functions. If you do decide to build, make sure that you have a staff dedicated to preventing outages and protecting critical data.
Time to market. How quickly do you need added capacity? Designing, building, and bringing a data centre up to speed can take more than a year. Be sure to plan ahead and prepare for contingencies. If you need to build a structure from scratch, factor in a potential environmental impact report and a possibly lengthy permitting and inspection process.
Financing. Building obviously requires an upfront investment. How tight is your CAPEX budget? Some enterprises choose off balance sheet financing — shifting CAPEX to OPEX. You’ll want to create a strong financial case to get management buy-in.
Scalability. Server workloads continue to spike. A 35% data growth rate per year is not uncommon and requires an organization to double on-premises storage over a three-year period1. You’ll want to plan ahead to anticipate and budget for future growth.
Obsolescence. According to a recent IDC study, the average data centre is nine years old. Gartner believes that a data centre is obsolete after seven years. Upgrading an existing facility to current standards is costly. As the owner and operator of your own in-house data centre, you’ll need to plan ahead for upgrading and replacing equipment.
© 2015 Tata Communications Ltd. All rights reserved.
ABOUTSTEP 8STEP 6STEP 5STEP 4STEP 3STEP 2STEP 1INTRO STEP 7TOC
STEP 7:CONSIDER YOUR OUTSOURCING OPTIONS
© 2015 Tata Communications Ltd. All rights reserved.
ABOUTSTEP 8STEP 6STEP 5STEP 4STEP 3STEP 2STEP 1INTRO STEP 7TOC
Leasing data centre space and services as needed is a growing trend. Think of it in the same way as leasing an automobile versus buying and maintaining one yourself.
In-house expertise
Time to market
Data migration
Scalability
Available services
© 2015 Tata Communications Ltd. All rights reserved.
ABOUTSTEP 8STEP 6STEP 5STEP 4STEP 3STEP 2STEP 1INTRO STEP 7TOC
Leasing data centre space and services as needed is a growing trend. Think of it in the same way as leasing an automobile versus buying and maintaining one yourself.
In-house expertiseBy outsourcing you won’t need to add or have in-house data centre expertise. Your IT staff will be free to focus on core business needs.
Time to market
Data migration
Scalability
Available services
© 2015 Tata Communications Ltd. All rights reserved.
ABOUTSTEP 8STEP 6STEP 5STEP 4STEP 3STEP 2STEP 1INTRO STEP 7TOC
Leasing data centre space and services as needed is a growing trend. Think of it in the same way as leasing an automobile versus buying and maintaining one yourself.
In-house expertise
Time to marketWith a timeline of less than a year, building an in-house solution is impractical. If you need a solution fast, data centre services are the better choice Outsourcing lets you solve the problem right away and have the needed services available to your enterprise virtually anywhere in the world
Data migration
Scalability
Available services
© 2015 Tata Communications Ltd. All rights reserved.
ABOUTSTEP 8STEP 6STEP 5STEP 4STEP 3STEP 2STEP 1INTRO STEP 7TOC
Leasing data centre space and services as needed is a growing trend. Think of it in the same way as leasing an automobile versus buying and maintaining one yourself.
In-house expertise
Time to market
Data migrationIt may sound overwhelming and difficult, but in most cases it’s relatively easy. Even if a complete migration needs to happen in increments, your data will be moving into a ready-made environment with scalable capacity easily available.
Scalability
Available services
© 2015 Tata Communications Ltd. All rights reserved.
ABOUTSTEP 8STEP 6STEP 5STEP 4STEP 3STEP 2STEP 1INTRO STEP 7TOC
Leasing data centre space and services as needed is a growing trend. Think of it in the same way as leasing an automobile versus buying and maintaining one yourself.
In-house expertise
Time to market
Data migration
ScalabilityManaged data centre services can be a good solution because you can add capacity in large or small increments quickly and easily without large upfront costs. You’ll want to estimate how fast and how much your data will grow over the length of your contract to ensure that your data centre provider can deliver the scalability and flexibility that you need.
Available services
© 2015 Tata Communications Ltd. All rights reserved.
ABOUTSTEP 8STEP 6STEP 5STEP 4STEP 3STEP 2STEP 1INTRO STEP 7TOC
Leasing data centre space and services as needed is a growing trend. Think of it in the same way as leasing an automobile versus buying and maintaining one yourself.
In-house expertise
Time to market
Data migration
Scalability
Available servicesToday, an established provider can offer you a wide range of services, typically equal to or better than what you can consistently maintain in-house. Some of the services to consider:
Collocation. You rent data centre space — which includes cooling, power, bandwidth, and physical security — for your servers and data storage equipment and manage it yourself
Managed hosting. Typically includes hardware, operating system, database, management, and monitoring
On-demand IT. Virtual servers, storage capacity, and internet connectivity that you can scale up or down as needed
Managed database. Typically includes hardware, hosting, and database administration
Managed storage and backup. Provides hardware management and security
Virtual data centre. A managed, virtualised service that provides flexible and scalable IT infrastructure
IP Virtual Private Network. Connects your business to cloud services over MPLS or Ethernet
In addition, many providers set themselves apart by offering proprietary branded services not available elsewhere. Most providers will also customise services to your specific requirements.
© 2015 Tata Communications Ltd. All rights reserved.
ABOUTSTEP 7STEP 6STEP 5STEP 4STEP 3STEP 2STEP 1INTRO STEP 8TOC
STEP 8:IF OUTSOURCING IS BEST, CREATE A PUNCH LIST OF VENDOR REQUIREMENTS
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ABOUTSTEP 7STEP 6STEP 5STEP 4STEP 3STEP 2STEP 1INTRO STEP 8TOC
If you decide to outsource your data centre infrastructure and IT services, here are a number of factors that you’ll want to consider in your selection process.
Location. How many data centres does the provider have? If you need collocation, is the data centre close by? Is the area prone to natural disasters? What about power, physical security, fibre paths?
Capacity. Can your provider meet your projected future needs?
Reliablility. Uptime? Staff certifications? On-site support?
Efficiency. How fast can they get your infrastructure or services up and running?
Ecosystem. Want to connect with partners and distributors for peering? What connectivity options do they offer? Are they carrier neutral?
Stability/Reputation. Make sure to check their history, press releases, financial reports, and industry awards. Ask for references, too.
Learn more: Rangu Salgame, CEO of Growth Ventures Group at Tata Communications discusses the launch of our new data centre in India, the latest in our global portfolio of data assets.
© 2015 Tata Communications Ltd. All rights reserved.
ABOUT TATA COMMUNICATIONSTata Communications Limited along with its subsidiaries (Tata Communications) is a leading global provider of A New World of Communications™. With a leadership position in emerging markets, Tata Communications leverages its advanced solutions capabilities and domain expertise across its global and pan-India network to deliver managed solutions to multi-national enterprises, service providers and Indian consumers.
The Tata Communications global network includes one of the most advanced and largest submarine cable networks and a Tier-1 IP network with connectivity to over 240 countries and territories across 400 PoPs, as well as nearly 1 million square feet of data centre and collocation space worldwide.
Tata Communications’ depth and breadth of reach in emerging markets includes leadership in Indian enterprise data services and leadership in global international voice.
Tata Communications Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India.
www.tatacommunications.com
