The data center has evolved from a fortress to a hub. That’s why, from digital transformation, through the pandemic and whatever lies beyond, colocation has evolved to help enterprises answer increasingly complex connectivity challenges.
Distributed, diverse infrastructure
The traditional IT model has become increasingly distributed, making it possible for businesses to revolutionise the way they access compute power. Data from Gartner suggests that by 2025, 85% of infrastructure strategies will integrate on-premises, colocation, cloud and edge delivery options. But alongside this opportunity is the potential for vast complexity in infrastructure management.
With this increased diversity of delivery models, boundaries have been pushed in terms of what businesses should expect from colocation. The security and resilience of a data center remains a critical part of the colocation proposition, but any provider that fails to deliver them will not retain the trust of their clients. The ability to deliver this security, whilst also opening up opportunities for customers in connectivity and automation, is where colocation can truly add value.
Connectivity continually reimagined
The nature of connectivity itself has diversified. Because so many organisations are looking at a multi-cloud model for their future infrastructure plans, colocation has had to evolve to adopt even more of a hub mentality. Cloud neutrality is essential, of course. In addition, rapid and automated scaling is necessary to meet the waves of demand that have emerged from across sectors and geographies.
This accelerated towards automated interconnectivity, and more recently application-aware networking has formed part of the response to this trend. The result? The software defined cloud interconnect (SDCI), which is redefining how far software-defined data centers can perform. You can find out more about these changes in colocation interconnectivity in our whitepaper.
How DATA4 helps answer your challenges
DATA4 recognises that our customers rely on us to be secure, to provide smart technologies to enhance their infrastructure, and to give them confidence as they scale their business. We have built connectivity into the design of our European data center campuses; each of our facilities is connected to the outside world via an extensive and resilient network infrastructure.
Through this connectivity-centric approach, our customers benefit from a rich ecosystem of more than 70 telecom operators and more than 150 cloud destinations (such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google cloud and Salesforce). Thanks to our investments in this infrastructure, customers experience low latency, exceptional security and better control over the quality and the reliability of data exchanges. DATA4 is here to help you connect, scale and capitalise on every opportunity as the world regains momentum. Find out how we can support your business here.
