by Scott Lewis
I recently had the opportunity to speak to 150 executives regarding their concerns about technology and the opportunities they have. My goal was to make this an open forum so people could ask questions and learn from each other. What I learned from this was very interesting and a little surprising. Although most of the participants understood that computers and technology are important to their businesses, they really did not understand the overall impact that technology has on their businesses.
One of the most popular and fastest-growing methodologies for deploying, managing and securing back-office resources that the executives I spoke to would benefit from is in our collocation or hosting division. The popularity of the hosted methodology stems from the need to have you focus on your core competency while transferring supporting resources to organizations whose core competency is the management of technology resources.
Why has collocation or hosting become so popular? Historically, as businesses have grown, we have added a computer here and there. Eventually we decide to upgrade to a server, then two servers, then three servers. The next thing we know we have gone from a couple of computers and an IT guy to a large infrastructure with multiple servers and a complete staff of IT professionals. As this infrastructure of hardware, software and people grows, we find ourselves managing an IT department. That’s where we can become divided between cost and performance.
The technology industry has become so fragmented that the days of having the one superstar IT professional are over. We now have security professionals, networking professionals, server professionals and communications specialists. This trend is driven by the demands of organizations to be competitive and reduce costs while making workers as productive as possible.
The downside is that we have created high-cost IT staffing requirements to support the entire organization. Of course, our other option is to reduce costs and expect less experienced IT people to handle a complex situation, which results in underperforming IT departments, lower productivity, increased long-term costs and end-user dissatisfaction.
Collocation has proved to be a productive, secure and cost-effective manner of deploying technology and managing technology resources. Collocation can also relieve your organization of the burden of being a technology support company and allow it to focus on your business. When you examine some of the advantages of collocation, such as total cost of ownership, maintenance and management, scalability, data security, reliability, protection, and future proof, you’ll see that it can bring to your organization resources you need in a bundled service.
Total cost of ownership can vary from company to company. First we need to look at factors such as facility cost, physical space, hardware costs, software costs, air conditioning, fire protection, redundant power and the human cost of maintaining an internal IT staff. Collocation can offer your organization a methodology that can release it from these costly burdens and provide you with better resources.
Maintenance/management is a key operational point when you are selecting a collocation hosting company. You want to ensure that you are entrusting your data and systems to an organization that has a track record of providing managed services in a collocation environment.
Security was an interesting subject in the roundtable I led. I had more than one participant say to me: “Who would want my data? If they want it, they can have it. What would they do with it anyway?” This is exactly the attitude that has created a multibillion-dollar business of buying and selling stolen data.
We need to realize that we have to start protecting ourselves and our organizations. Examine the security of the provider during your selection process.
Determining whether collocation is right for your business can be difficult. Carefully consider the advantages you’ll experience, especially when you are working with a full-service managed services company. Transferring the burden of support and hardware maintenance, while increasing productivity, security and reliability, means a lot of bang for the buck of your business, and this is why the popularity of hosting has increased.
Scott Lewis is the president and CEO of Winning Technologies Group of Companies, which is composed of Winning Technologies, Xpress Host, Lingo Communications and Investigative Protection Services. He has more than 25 years of experience in the technology industry and is a nationally recognized speaker on technology subjects.