Why Your Data Center Provider Needs to Be a Partner
It’s becoming more common to outsource different components of IT, and fewer enterprises are continuing to run internal data centers. Relying on third-party IT providers is a way to increase cost efficiencies, improve productivity, and reduce risk. But what does it really mean to be a data center partner?
A customer partnership is all about living up to the solution built for the customer. At DataBank, if we sold it, we provide the service continuously throughout the lifecycle of the contract. Across all components of our team, from the technical frontlines to project management behind the scenes, it’s essential for everyone to be on the same page for our customers; what we refer to as: The Data Center Evolved.
Collaboration and Relationship-Building is Vital in Today’s Market
Think about the state of the data center industry: the speed of technological advancements and the resulting complexity increase daily. The days where technology was viewed as a necessity are so far behind us; IT has to function as a revenue generator. Today, businesses are technology, but here’s what businesses are not: running data centers, troubleshooting menial IT tasks, and network upgrades. Consequently, it makes sense that hybrid environments and outsourcing IT are becoming the norm.
A partnership-oriented relationship with your chosen data center provider has never been more important. When you’re outsourcing your IT infrastructure, it can feel like a considerable risk. If the relationship isn’t cohesive, details get lost in translation. For these reasons, DataBank’s methodology for working with customers is built on remaining in sync with customers and understanding business needs, challenges, and all possible options for solutions.
“Helping customers understand their options is key to being a partner. When they’re successful, so are we.”
-Wendy Stewart, Vice President of Account Management, DataBank
Account management is an important practice area to evaluate when you’re taking the leap to outsourcing IT. Your chosen provider should treat account management as customer advocacy. You’re most likely to have a positive experience when your data center provider is flexible, and doesn’t force your organization into cookie cutter solutions. Every interaction should be custom.
Building Relationships the DataBank Way
Our customer base is very diverse. We have a great deal of high-touch customers with whom account management is involved with on a day-to-day basis. When it comes to customers who are more removed, while our network operations center is always managing the network proactively, eliminating the need for customers to notify us if there’s an issue, we have dedicated account managers for those customers, as well.
Here’s the common thread: when a business becomes a DataBank customer, we treat it as a true partnership, and we walk alongside our customers on their journeys. We don’t hire entry-level personnel for account management roles; only the brightest, most experienced in the industry who have the skillsets to navigate any issues that arise. Technical, strategic, and tactical skillsets are all requirements for making our customers comfortable.
”There was one meeting in particular with a large enterprise customer. They brought in people for a channel discussion, and someone asked the customer what made them comfortable with signing a 10-year agreement with DataBank. Their response was: ‘I was comfortable with the people that DataBank put in front of me and trust that their resume matches what they can deliver every day—that’s who they are as an organization.’
We always treat our customers as partners. If they’re having trouble, then it’s a problem for us. We own that.”
-Wendy Stewart, Vice President of Account Management, DataBank
Relationships don’t stop at IT, either. It’s about staying plugged into customer culture and celebrating successes, as well. Gestures as small as sending handwritten cards if a customer acquires a new company, or launches a new product, are equally important.
Senior Leadership on the Front Lines
It’s common for senior leadership to be detached from individual customers across the data center industry. This is not the case at DataBank. On the contrary, our executive leaders are highly in tune with our customers, their goals, and their success; they’re equally as passionate as the technologists who are building solutions. Knowledge and approachability are requirements for senior leaders at DataBank. This allows account managers to do their jobs effectively because leadership investment is part of our culture.
“I can take my CEO on appointments with me to visit customers just to say hi because we have such strong leadership. They’re not removed from our customers and what they’re doing by any stretch of the imagination.”
-Natalie Haralson, Account Manager, DataBank
We listen, learn, and lead. We know our strengths, technology, and assets, and we will always pair customer needs with our offerings to ultimately create the best possible solution. Remember, when you’re in the market to outsource components of your IT infrastructure or engage managed services, make partnership a priority.
DataBank is committed to true partnership. If you’re seeking to enlist the support of a data center, whether simply for power, ping, and pipe, or more in-depth managed services, we can help point you in the right direction for your goals. Connect with DataBank, or call us at 1.800.840.7533 and speak to an expert immediately.
Who went to HIMSS 2019? DataBank was in attendance, and we’d love to talk about some of the key topics of discussion.
To start, if you haven’t heard of the HIMSS Global Conference & Exhibition, it’s the healthcare industry’s biggest health information and technology educational program and exhibition center, led by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. This year, the event focused on a rich combination of recurring and innovative healthcare topics, offering many education sessions featuring thought leaders from the industry.
Some of the main education topics covered:
- Consumer, patient engagement & digital/connected health
- Cybersecurity
- Data science, analytics, clinical & business intelligence
- Health information exchange, interoperability, data integration & standards
- Telehealth
- …and many more!
Three Main Themes from HIMSS 2019
1. Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence remains to be a key topic of interest and conversation throughout healthcare. During the event, we heard from both healthcare organizations who are on the forefront ready to go, as well as orgs who feel strongly that the industry is a long way off from integrating AI in a significantly impactful manner.
Though its development continues to advance, AI is still a new technology. At present, the main focus from the healthcare world is on predictive models. Healthcare organizations are interested in being able to analyze large data sets and use them to generate predictions, such as when certain people with particular behavioral characteristics, lifestyle choices, etc. may fall ill and/or what type of treatments they’ll need.
There’s a great deal of buzz around ML, AI, and their potential to revolutionize healthcare, but these technologies are still evolving, and will require a lot of work. Right now, AI is certainly capable of collecting information and sorting through it—eventually, it will be capable of categorization. However, true predictability models call for richer information set; from metabolic rates to lifestyle choices and genetics, a lot of variables come into play. The general consensus is that we’re a long way off before AI has a major impact on healthcare, but it’s coming.
2. Client and patient engagement
Increasingly, technology is being used to collect and provide more data on individual patients. There’s a strong focus on improving the patient experience while using data to make better organizational decisions.
Healthcare organizations are evaluating tools, technologies, and programs built to forge partnerships between patients, caregivers, & families and their providers. The ultimate goal is to enable patients to take control of their health and healthcare decisions.
Because the economy today is consumer-based, it’s important for healthcare organizations to put the emphasis on using technology to make health easier for people, including both clinicians and patients. However, even with modern advancements like telemedicine, connecting services and the data that accompanies it along the care pathway remain a challenge.
3. Interoperability
Information management remains an ongoing obstacle throughout healthcare IT. Innovators are trying to figure out how disparate systems can communicate, connect, and share exchange information between each other: interoperability.
For instance, if a patient visits a hospital to see an immunology specialist, that doctor should have the capability to pull other medical records in order to easily tie together information relative to current medical conditions.
When technology is seamlessly interoperable, the possibilities are endless. The simple transition from paper to digital health records has certainly transformed the delivery of care, however, consistently linking patient records in different locations (patient matching) is still a persistent challenge. Fortunately, new research is leading to the breakdown of the interoperability barrier, bringing healthcare closer to arming patients and providers with current, complete data.
“There’s a really strong focus on interoperability. Today, healthcare is about the client experience, and providers really need complete information to make better decisions for patients. Information has to be readily available.”
-Matt Horne, Sr. Account Executive, DataBank
DataBank is dedicated to keeping pace with the ongoing evolution of healthcare IT, and our solutions are built to empower healthcare organizations to meet their digital objectives.
- FedRAMP compliant
- HIPAA and PCI compliance accredited
- Built to power high performance computing
If your healthcare organization is looking for guidance on your technology objectives or has questions about compliance, DataBank is here to help. Reach out to DataBank today, or call us at 1.800.840.7533 and speak to an expert.
What We Learned at PTC 2019
Did you catch PTC 2019? DataBank did, and we’d love to share what we learned.
First thing’s first: if you’re not familiar, PTC is the leading telecommunications event of the Pacific Rim, directed by the Pacific Telecommunications Council. Held over three days in Hawaii, the event has grown from a focus on Asia-US telecom to encompass the global internet infrastructure ecosystem including submarine cables, fiber, towers, data centers and their principal consumers, the hyperscale cloud and content providers. This year, the theme of the event was “From Pipes to Platforms,” with emphasis on the expansion of infrastructure globally and the inception of 5G.
A few of the topics covered:
- Global submarine cables developments
- Evolution and spread of OTT markets
- Key considerations for the Pacific in strategies, technology, and policies
- Broadband-based services and the introduction of 5G
- State of the data center market
Three Key Takeaways from PTC
1. Data center operators are incorporating network strategies into their platform. They’re leveraging dark fiber within markets, and long haul wave or lit services between markets.
Slowly but surely, data center providers are building out their own networks between data centers in order to better enable hybrid environments and increase interconnection capabilities. They are also leveraging third party access networks like Megaport and PacketFabric to reach public cloud and “off-net” data center locations. With increasing frequency, data center customers will have access to all networks and services from one data center facility.
Here’s what you should know: data centers aren’t an island, they are becoming an archipelago. They’re interconnected, and as you consider disaster recovery options, connectivity to public cloud and secondary locations, there are options that are more easily consumable than others.
2. “The Continental Edge” is emerging as the furthest most point for traffic between Europe, South America, U.S. and Asia and enabling global communications for businesses throughout the world.
In the past, submarine cables were cross connected to terrestrial fiber at distant inland data centers. Now, data centers are being built at cable landing stations and allowing end users to place content and infrastructure at the edge of the continent. This “The Continental Edge” allows users to place critical infrastructure serving another continent on a familiar location but with the lowest latency. For example, if you use the cloud, and you have content going to South America, this gives you the ability to put that content at the head end of these submarine cables that put it much closer to the next continent. US and Europe are well established but US to Asia, Europe to Asia, South America to US and even South America to Africa are now happening.
3. There is still work to be done when it comes to 5G, but as it unfolds globally, it’s sure to bring unparalleled opportunities and capabilities that will drive demand for internet infrastructure.
Think about the tremendous market impacts of 4G to digital infrastructure: it enabled a wide range of digital economy platforms, like Uber, Lyft, WhatsApp and AirBnB, which drove the need for more fiber, towers, small cells and data centers. As 5G continues development, a new wave of use cases and applications will emerge to consume more compute, storage and delivery. Early in the hype cycle of any technology innovation, it can be hard to parse out the vapor from the reality. And there is a lot of vapor. But 5G will undoubtedly impact emerging use cases like IoT, deep learning and the industrial web and drive the need for significantly more internet infrastructure along every link of the chain.
“5G is coming but we don’t think that 2019 is when it’s really going to hit critical mass. That will more likely be in 2020, or even 2021. Certainly, there’s a lot of focus on it, a lot of investment, and it’s going to be a positive development for the sector.”
-Raul K. Martynek
PTC’19: DataBank CEO on Organic Growth and What’s Ahead for 2019
DataBank is dedicated to staying ahead of the curve when it comes to technology, from interconnectedness to edge computing. Our facilities are built to anticipate the innovations digitalization brings. If you’re looking to future-proof your IT strategy, get in touch with DataBank today, or call us at 1.800.840.7533 and speak to an expert.