OISG - Moving a fully virtualised data centre to a colocation data centre provider in order to combine virtualised efficiencies with colocation cost savings is the next logical step in the evolution of the data centre.

Like all new terms, ‘next generation data centre’ (NGDC) suffers from a blurred definition. Some consider it to be the use of virtualised storage servers outsourced to a specialist provider; others consider it to be a completely virtualised data centre, whether located wholly in-house, wholly with a data centre provider, or a hybrid split between the two. The one common factor is the use of virtualisation throughout the data centre in order to provide a private cloud. Moving a fully virtualised data centre to a colocation data centre provider in order to combine virtualised efficiencies with colocation cost savings is the next logical step in the evolution of the data centre.

Security company Crossbeam recently undertook a survey of more than 500 IT professionals in order to understand the current state of this evolution – and discovered that while almost everyone recognises the value of NGDC, progress towards that goal has almost completely stalled. Ninety-four percent of the respondents quoted network security as the primary cause for this lack of progress. Infosecurity Magazine took up the story and asked us for our opinion on why this should be so (you can read the Infosecurity Magazine article here).

Put simply, the main problem with moving to a fully virtualised cloud-based NGDC is one of perception aggravated by misunderstanding and a fear of the unknown. For example, what is now being offered by some NGDC providers are in reality managed hosted virtual servers with the name cloud appended. To circumvent the concern about network security this service is supplied with an air-gap between each customer's system. The provider may also offer a self-service portal of servers with CPU, RAM, and disk and manage the resource to the hypervisor level.

But most modern organisations are already almost there. They have already moved to a virtual server environment in-house and already have a private cloud. It is the final step to the outsourced data centre that is problematic. In-house, permanent IT staff are directly responsible for the smooth running of IT and are there to shout at when things go wrong. This is not the case when the infrastructure is located in a data centre and managed by a faceless third party, irrespective of the SLAs agreed in a contract.

If you’ve got any questions about NGDC or any network security concerns, give us a call on 0845 262 1919.