5 Reasons You’re Wasting Money Not Using a Data Center
So, you have built yourself a small data center for your growing business. You have a few servers and things seem to be going alright — but could they be better? Even if your data center is supplying your needs right now, a good business-mindset would keep you focused on ways to improve your business and stop wasting money. Unfortunately, you might not even know the ways you are wasting money, so we have put together a small list of reasons you are simply letting your money slip away by not using a data center for your company’s IT needs.
#1: Bandwidth
Bandwidth is a huge factor when running a successful data center, as you may have already figured out. Unfortunately it is not usually unlimited for any individual business with access to only one internet service provider, neither is it very cheap. Not only are data centers located in areas where a number of high-quality internet providers overlap, they have more purchasing power than you, and can therefore negotiate better prices. Another wall that may prove to be annoying is that lying high-bandwidth fiber can simply be out of reach for most businesses with small data centers. This is because the price of laying fibers just to reach your business is often estimated at $10,000 per mile.
Here is another thing to consider — If you think that the simple cost of your monthly usage is the only way your business will be paying due to bandwidth, then you are sorely mistaken. As your business grows, you will find that you will need and use an increasing amount of bandwidth. This may eventually cause an overload to your current network and be the source of internet downtime, especially if you are relying on a single internet provider, which data centers are not.
Unfortunately, downtime is not a very cheap expense. When you are calculating the loss of revenue for a downtime you must take into account not just lost sales due to the downtime but also the specialist labor hours it would take to restore your system, the cost of your employee downtime, lost repeat customers, and worst of all — damaged company reputation. All of this can be avoided using a data center as, not only do they provide cheaper and redundant internet services, they also maintain near-perfect uptimes.
#2: Staffing Costs
Are you a server hardware or software specialist? If so, then perhaps you are doing just fine running your own data center, on the other hand, you probably aren’t. Data centers absolutely require specialized staff to keep them running efficiently. This is because you will, with absolute certainty, eventually run into problems that you simply cannot solve without them.
Keeping your equipment monitored for downtime purposes is also necessary. Should your servers or internet fail, you should have dedicated staff on-hand at your data center 24/7 all year long to fix the problems quickly and efficiently. Your company will not likely be able to afford a lengthy downtime.
Searching for and training IT staff can also prove to be an expensive, yet necessary endeavor. Many companies’ staffing bill is over 50% of their monthly expenses, and this only rises with the need of dedicated IT staff for your data center.
However, when using a data center, you almost completely circumvent this expense. When there is a problem, it can be quickly alleviated by on-site staff who are not on your payroll. You will have no need to manage and pay for unnecessary employees, drastically cutting expenses.
#3: Cost of Expansion
When you are managing your business, you would almost never hope to shrink in size; the focus is always on growth. With the growth of revenue and the growth of clientele, you will also undeniably have a growth of IT needs. This means that your current data center setup — no matter how well it is providing for your needs now — will eventually need expansion.
If you already have a small data center, then you are probably very familiar with the pain and hassle that comes with building one. Permits, cables, cabinets, and many other factors come into play when building and expanding a data center. These are simple things that can add up to a large capital expense, or simply be avoided by moving your equipment to a data center where expansion is quick, cheap, and simple.
#4: Operational Expenses
Besides the funds that you may have already used to build your data center — which was probably a lot — now you need to take into consideration the other redundant expenditures after IT staffing and bandwidth. These include round-the-clock security monitoring, and power.
If you want your company’s information and data secure, which I’m sure you do, then you will likely want to go about creating security checkpoints, live video monitoring, and so forth. This will all be continous expenses in the areas of staffing and power.
Power will quickly prove to become one of, if not the most expensive part of running your private data center depending on where you are located and the size of your IT needs (which will hopefully continue to grow).
Unfortunately, you are probably using more power and paying more money than necessary. The servers themselves, security systems, and your cooling systems would all be completely unnecessary power expenses if you would switch to using a data center for your IT needs. Data centers are located in areas with cheaper power, and are more efficient in their power usage due to the simple concept of colocation. The entire infrastructure is designed to keep your equipment cooler at a lower cost.
#5: Time
Time is your most valuable resource, so don’t waste it. Time is simply indispensable when it comes to a young and growing business. You should refocus your time away from any tasks that you could otherwise avoid to tasks that build revenue for your company. The planning, research, education, staffing, installation, maintenance, and repair involved with your own private data center will prove to be an absolute copious waste of time that could otherwise be spent in more effective areas of your business.
The only sensible solution, then, would be to utilize collocation services, and reallocate your time into your business to continue growing without the glitches and downtime that is inevitable with your private data center. Colo Solutions is Orlando’s most-connected data center and can alleviate these money-wasting endeavors.