Companies dealing with large data banks, such as call centres or enterprises with home-based staff, understand the fundamental need for accessible yet secure data storage. Whether it be big data sets (or as they are increasingly known, “enormous” data sets) or PCI data, such businesses rely upon their data, server security, and infrastructure stability to provide the core of their services. Data centre management has primarily involved the costly assignment of one or several highly-trained employees to the role of managing those large data sets and associated hardware systems, often over a large distributed network. This role has been viewed as mission critical in maintaining data integrity and preventing security breaches.
However, maintaining on-site IT solutions for data centre management can run into high costs when companies begin to factor for the increasingly steep salaries for skilled IT professionals as well as the complexities of traditional server rooms. Considering the benefits of contracting data centre management to a managed hosting environment remotely may generate sharp operational cost reductions for enterprises with data housing and security requirements.
Managed Data Hosting
In any data centre scenario, the management aspect must be explicit and documented. Working through load balancing and the economy of size, large-scale managed hosting providers can automate much of the routine management protocol for data sets. Easily automated tasks include data distribution and scaled storage, backup scheduling and initiation, and system upgrade prompts.
Although not fully automated, many other management and security functions can be administered remotely which allows managed hosting providers to lower costs. One IT professional can cross-serve multiple client needs at the data centre or server farm, even remotely, to perform such tasks as software updates and upgrades, emergency planning, and unscheduled data archiving.
Whether the company is a start-up or data-driven, large-scale enterprise, using managed services reduces physical infrastructure costs by offloading core components. By utilizing a managed service provider, the company is able to efficiently monitor equipment, improve uptime metrics for accountability, and reduce internal workload.
What To Look For In Managed Hosting
It’s critical to select a managed service that offers full transparency as to their system capacities, on-site workers, centre stability, and disaster recovery plans. Companies should expect, and receive, clear documentation on how infrastructure management will be performed. For example, how will hardware upgrades be administered, and will they initiate system downtime that may impact data accessibility or security?
The company should also have a solid understanding of the managed host’s data centre network (DNC), the fundamental heart of the network’s connectivity and ability to balance resources in cloud demands. Companies should carefully weigh these factors against other factors such as cost when selecting a managed host for IT solutions.