Facility managers that run colocation data centers will find their tasks and responsibilities unique to the DCaaS requirements of their facility. These will revolve around growing and supporting the IoT of their clients. For one thing, developing programs within each facility that promote flexibility and scalability will be critical. For example, it may be necessary to have the ability to take the initial processing needs of the co-lo clients and support them and their potential quick growth from, for example, 26 racks to 40 racks of storage. Adjusting programs and services — aka DCaaS — to include cloud computing versus just championing real estate within the co-lo will be a must as well.
Here are some tips for co-lo/DCaaS facility managers:
• Typically, when the UPS system hits 70 percent utilization, it is time to expand with additional support infrastructure. This may change. Due to IoT and the speed of deployment, the new indicator to upgrade critical infrastructure may now be at 60 percent capacity utilization.
• Managed services providers need to deploy infrastructure faster than before.
• Colocation providers will need to adapt internal resources to support DCaaS.
The viability of the third-generation colocation data center is quickly becoming evident to enterprise data center owners and operators across the globe. With the introduction of IoT, processing and storage will soon exceed prior expectations in growth and dramatically affect existing colocation providers as well as enterprise users.
Developing programs such as DCaaS and disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) is vital for continuity of growth and supporting IoT. Today’s options are far more expansive than they were in the past, and TCO will play an even more vital role when evaluating data centers. Additionally, evaluating private and hybrid clouds will further expand the need for TCO calculations. Due to the integration of multiple disciplines, the resources at a facility manager’s disposal to effectively examine TCO should include technology consultants, engineers, and financial modeling experts.
Paul E. Schlattman, senior vice president, ESD consulting practice leader, is responsible for the firm’s consulting practice in the areas of total cost of ownership, data center development services and merger and acquisition services. He has consulted in North America, South America, the Pacific Rim and Europe. Schlattman can be reached at pschlattman@esdglobal.com.
Email comments and questions to edward.sullivan@tradepress.com.
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Tips for FMs Who Run Colocation and DCaaS Data Centers
