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What Is A Remote Hands Data Center?

What Is A Remote Hands Data Center?


A remote hands data center is a data center that offers remote hands services. Remote hands services are services where on-site technicians perform tasks that require physical access to equipment and/or infrastructure. Here is a quick guide to what you need to know about a remote hands data center.

How a remote hands data center works

In general, a remote hands data center works in much the same way as a standard IT help desk. The only real difference is that a remote hands data center will be purely focused on tasks relating to hardware.

When clients need a task performed, they raise a ticket with the service provider. It’s now quite common for a remote hands data center to request clients to raise tickets online. It may also be possible to raise tickets via live chat and/or phone. This may, however, be restricted to clients on higher-level service packages.

On a similar note, the priority a remote hands data center gives to a ticket is very likely to be influenced by the service package as well as by the nature of the task.

As with managed IT in general, a remote hands data center is likely to offer inclusive contracts and pay-as-you-go options. These can generally be combined. For example, clients can use contracts for their core needs and top them up with pay-as-you-go services.

Common services offered at a remote hands data center

A remote hands data center can typically perform any sort of on-site, hardware-related task. The most common tasks they perform generally include the following.

  • Access and security management (for the client’s cabinet)
  • Server maintenance and hardware support
  • Physical server setup and configuration
  • Cable management and labeling
  • Power cycling and reboots
  • Hardware installation and upgrades
  • Environmental monitoring and control
  • Inventory management and tracking
  • Asset disposal and decommissioning
Benefits of using a remote hands data center

The main benefits of using a remote hands data center are convenience, efficiency, and economy.

Convenience

A remote hands data center is essentially hardware-management-as-a-service. It, therefore, offers the convenience of as-a-service models in general. Clients simply tell the remote hands data center what they need and the remote hands data center takes care of it. If the client needs to scale their business, they simply update their contract with the vendor.

Effectiveness

There are two main reasons why using a remote hands data center often improves efficiency. The first is that the technicians are on-site. This means they don’t have to travel and hence can respond more quickly.

The second is that the technicians employed by remote hands data centers are employed for their expertise with hardware. They are also likely to have access to the latest technologies and specialist equipment to help them to do their jobs. These sorts of investment purchases can be justified by managed IT service providers much more easily than by businesses.

Economy

Likewise, there are two main reasons why using a remote hands data center tends to be very cost-effective. The first is that businesses have the security of guaranteed costs for a guaranteed service. This makes it much easier for them to manage their finances. The second is that using a remote hands data center can help to reduce downtime and its associated costs.

Drawbacks of using a remote hands data center

The potential drawbacks of using a remote hands data center are much the same as the potential drawbacks of using any other managed IT service.

Security management

When vendors perform tasks relating to software, it’s generally fairly easy to monitor their activity. By contrast, monitoring the performance of technicians dealing with hardware is often a lot more difficult.

With that said, it’s definitely not impossible, especially not in a data center environment. Data centers typically have extensive monitoring systems including cameras.

Effective cooperation

Managed IT services often work best when the client and the vendor work in partnership with each other. In a sense, they both become invested in each other’s success. Both the client and the vendor need to work out how to build that sort of effective cooperation.

Potential for increased costs

If you do not scope your needs and wants effectively, you may find yourself looking at much higher costs than you expected. To be fair, however, this also applies if you do work in-house.

Choosing a remote hands data center provider

A remote hands data center essentially provides two services in one. Firstly, it provides a data center. Secondly, it provides a managed IT offering. It’s generally best to assess the services in that order.

In other words, start by creating a shortlist of data centers that meet all your requirements for hosting your equipment. Then assess their remote hands offerings.

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