Colocation has been an important IT infrastructure option for decades. Recently, as a direct response to the COVID pandemic, there is a new reason to use colocation.
COVID forced many employees to Work From Home (WFH) over the past 2 years. As WFH became more accepted, another use case for colocation has been identified. The ability to quickly and cost effectively place IT systems in a secure and conveniently located data center reduces risk when moving to a remote work environment.
More than 2 years after the onset of the pandemic, companies are changing how they work. Office leases are not being renewed. Smaller offices with flexible layouts are being set up to save money and to support hybrid work models where employees come to the office a few days a week. Some companies have completely abandoned their office to have employees work from home all the time.
For most companies, business cannot be conducted if critical computer systems are not available. The process of moving an office requires powering down IT equipment so it is vitally important to prepare a plan that minimizes disruption.
Moving An Office Can Be Risky
Planning an office move can be stressful. The final decision to not renew an office lease is often made with only a few months left on a contract. Once a move date is set, the pressure is on to take care of a multitude of tasks. To minimize the risk of disruption of critical business operations during a transition it is important to prepare a detailed plan.
Most organizations have migrated some computer workloads to the cloud. However, there are usually residual applications that are not best in the cloud. For example, database applications that require a large amount of outbound data transfer are extremely expensive when hosted in the Public Cloud due to costly egress fees. Other applications require low latency or high security and thus should be placed locally and not in the cloud.
For those applications already provisioned through a public or private cloud, the move from an office should not be disruptive. Once internet service is available at the new location, the applications may be used.
Other workloads may be suitable for the cloud but may not have been migrated yet. These applications should not be migrated to the cloud as part of the office move. It is too risky to add these types of rehosting projects to the primary task of a major office move. These workloads should be placed at the colocation facility temporarily until they can be safely migrated to the cloud at a future time.
Colocation Reduces Risk
With colocation it is possible to move workloads that are not suited for the cloud to a secure local data center. By decoupling the move of IT infrastructure from the rest of the office relocation, organizations can reduce the risk of a service interruption. Once computer systems have been placed at the colocation facility the rest of the office move can be completed at any time without concern about the day-to-day functioning of the business.
A growing number of companies in Connecticut and Westchester County planning an office down-sizing or a move to WFH have used CAPS’ colocation services to reduce risk and provide a bridge to the future.
Pictured above is the Old Drake Hill Flower Bridge. Originally built in 1892 this bridge spans the Farmington River in Simsbury, Connecticut. Exactly one hundred years after construction, cars were banned and the bridge was designated for pedestrian use only. A few years later it was decorated with flower boxes.
