Data Centres are vitally important as our reliance on the internet has become greater, especially over recent months. Cloud Computing and the Internet of Things to name just a couple of applications, have put the data centre under the spotlight.
With the Coronavirus pandemic sweeping the nation, data centres are in strong demand as the population moves online. The new normal is seeing many companies change their business models and are now looking for scalable options to move their data online safely and securely.
If you’re looking for a data centre in the UK, you may be wondering where you should start looking and what facilities they should provide. A data centre in London is considered as a key hotspot with a focus on specific areas such as Slough, Hayes and Enfield. And it’s not without good reason.
Data centres need a huge amount of power to operate, along with good fibre connectivity as well as minimal risk for floods and other locational hazards. London, along with these specific locations has all these benefits which is why several large data centre companies are occupying buildings in and around these areas.
Making the moving to a data centre will offer the following benefits:
- Security – Your data will have the most stringent physical security measures in place. Tiered access, CCTV and alarms are amongst the many physical precautions your data centre should have in place.
- Easy access – Selecting a data centre in London or the UK will mean as a UK based business you will be able to physically visit your data centre if you wish to do so.
- Compliance – Your data centre should meet the strict data compliance regulations under the EU General data Protection Regulation legislation. You can find out more here – https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/
- Power & Back-up – The power to your data centre will be clean and they will also have a back-up power supply in place to make sure you always have access to your data and applications.
- Cut costs – if you are currently hosting your own server room you will no doubt be well aware of how time consuming this can be for your IT team. Moving to a data centre means your IT will be free to focus on the core efforts of your business instead of dealing with power outages or server failures.
- Flexibility – The large majority of companies go through changes which can include expansion and retraction for whatever reason. Your server room has to accommodate these ups and downs in business which can end up being quite costly to the business. Server room can’t always easily be expanded and it’s not cheap building a server room with all the facilities you need. What’s more if you guess the size wrong you could be overpaying if you end up with too much space and if the business takes a sudden upturn you may need to relocate again to accommodate new hardware.
You can read more about why data centres have been vital throughout the pandemic by reading this article: https://www.savills.co.uk/blog/article/299700/commercial-property/why-data-centres-are-crucial-to-keeping-the-country-working-under-lockdown.aspx