Some days it seems like everything’s in the cloud. Cloud-based services for everything from voice to conferencing and beyond can be picked up from someone else’s servers, and someone else’s data center. It would be easy to think that no one really needs a data center any more. Sometimes, however, a data center can be the most valuable asset a company has.

The Cloud Has to Come From Somewhere

For any business with a plan to bring out cloud-based services, a data center is vital. With that in mind, though, it might seem like a company could just subcontract all the operations a data center would perform, and carry on from there.

So When Is a Data Center Necessary?

Maybe you’re not planning to provide cloud services, but there are other reasons to have a data center in play.

• Hybrid operations. For some businesses, a hybrid approach to the data center is the way to go. A data center manager may not have much of a data center on premises to manage, but that data center manager could be useful in providing insight into operations.
• Analysis functions. Keeping at least a small data center in-house is a great way to open up analysis functions. Though the cloud is more secure than ever, many businesses are hesitant to send valuable, proprietary data into it. With an in-house operation, data generated on-premises stays there, and can be analyzed for useful patterns without letting that data out of the house.
• Redundancy protection. The on-premises data center could provide some functions while outsourcing others, providing redundancy in the event of an outage. A cloud-based system can continue operating if the local system loses service, giving a business the best chance of ongoing uptime and minimal disruption.

How Do I Get Started With a Data Center?

Having a data center in-house, even a small one, can be a valuable complement to cloud-based services in providing a secure, versatile operation. To get the right kind of data center for your needs, talk to us at Emcon. Our experience in data center management can help you put together the kind of data center you need, large or small.