An Evolved Data Center Experience Starts with a Well-Defined Technical Implementation Process
The reasons for partnering with a data center provider, whether simply for colocation or for a full-scale hybrid IT solution complete with managed services, are all different. Yet, they share common denominators: improving operational efficiency and removing IT problems that negatively impact your internal team.
That process starts with a consultative sales approach where your service provider gives you options for delivering on the improvements you’re looking to achieve. But what should the experience look like after you’ve nailed down the solution that will best resolve your business challenges? Here’s a high-level overview of what a successful, transparent implementation process should include:
1. Order execution
Once you’ve worked with your chosen IT partner to build the appropriate solution, your sales representative will initiate the order. From there, orders should be routed for provisioning, dependent upon what type of solution or service you’ve chosen.
2. Assign to provisioning team member
Next, the department manager will review the order and assign it to the appropriate provisioning team member. That team member should take the order, register the necessary products, and become your POC through the implementations process.
3. Coordinate final details
At this stage, your POC should coordinate final details, any delivery dates that weren’t predetermined, and begin solution implementation.
4. Execute on implementation
Professional coordinators will manage all moving pieces between operations and facilities teams, communicate with different vendors to deliver the environment ordered, and manage due dates and expectations. Finally, the solution will pass through QA. Your solution will be handed off to your team, and the project will be closed out.
Beware of Process Without Planning
Before you select a data center vendor, make sure that their implementation process is a proven, repeatable, and well-documented methodology that executes on the above needs. But also be aware that the best implementation processes is worthless if there isn’t a plan to align it with the underlying infrastructure and services.
There are a number of obstacles that can accompany the implementation process when you entrust an IT partner with your technical project, and it’s why businesses are sometimes hesitant to trust an outside resource. Here are some of the things that cause problems in poorly planned, undocumented implementation methodologies:
- Delivery dates & staffing
- Availability of services
- Connections to different carriers
- Availability of power
- Speed and scalability
If you have aggressive demands for delivery from internal stakeholders, choose a partner who’s capable of ramping up staff and adjusting schedules for timing on delivery. Also look for infrastructure scalability. Data center providers have to be thinking ahead; growth happens quickly. Make sure service availability is consistent, and the appropriate range of connections to outside carriers is available. Ask about long-term power supply, as well. You should never have to worry about the potential for a facility to run out of power or resources. For instance, at DataBank, it’s common practice to begin construction on substations when capacity draws near in order to meet demand at an advanced pace.
“We always look to deliver projects as quickly as possible. That’s really what we’re doing as a team. We want to get our customer projects completed carefully, but quickly. We look at all windows of availability to deliver and beat expectations. That’s our goal.”
-Ron Driggs, Director of Provisioning, DataBank
Combine Process and Planning with the Right Attitude
Ultimately, implementation success will come from combining process and planning with the right mindset, and that’s what makes DataBank different when it comes to delivering on a project: we will stop at nothing to exceed expectations for delivery of services. We maintain strong, communicative relationships with vendors in every market and make every effort to reduce time to delivery intervals as much as possible. If it’s possible to move projects around to clear capacity with a vendor for a customer with greater urgency, we will. Implementation isn’t just about process, but exceeding expectations to build a lasting relationship. DataBank implementations are about earning a position as your ally.
In addition, DataBank either promotes from within, or seeks staff members with deep experience in the industry. Every specialist on the implementation team is required to have expertise on the nuts and bolts of what data centers offer, as well as strong communication and customer service skills; it’s not enough to be technical.
Ultimately, the goal is to initiate and complete the technical implementation for every customer without even creating awareness that it has taken place. Customers should enjoy a seamless, painless delivery, without the burden of having to understand every moving part or being pulled into coordination unnecessarily.
“Customers routinely give us positive feedback on our ability to ask the right questions. If there’s an order change, our team has experience outside of provisioning, and they know what to look for should the need to upgrade or make power changes arise. We will lead them in the right direction and adjust accordingly in a way that will benefit them most, and they see that.”
-Ron Driggs, Director of Provisioning, DataBank
On Thursday, April 11th, TMT M&A Forum USA 2019 will be taking place in NYC at New York Hilton Midtown. This year’s theme is “How Transactions Are Driving Change in Telecoms, Media, and IT Infrastructure and Services,” featuring executive keynotes, fireside chats, networking and meeting opportunities. At the conference, a number of CEOs and CFOs from the Digital Bridge portfolio will be participating in conversations focused on assessing how mergers and acquisitions will drive change in TMT M&A:
- Sharif Metwalli, CFO, Vantage Data Centers
- Raul Martynek, CEO, DataBank
- Jim Hyde, CEO, ExteNet Systems
DataBank’s Role in the Digital Convergence of Fiber, Tower, and Data Centers
The mobile and internet infrastructure sector within the U.S. is bracing itself for the swiftly approaching 5G revolution, and there’s a great deal of discussion throughout the industry around how next generation network technology will fit into the wider commercialization of the communications ecosystem, according to TMT Finance.
In 2018, investments across the communications landscape were aggressive, bringing several of the largest ever merger valuations in addition to significant capex investments. However, it’s important to note that last year’s M&A activity was driven by smaller companies, suggesting that consolidation and scale remains a market driver. Consequently, it’s likely that telecom and media will continue to converge as the demand for end-to-end data delivery and a subsequent need for edge geography of infrastructure assets gives way to further investment and consolidation. The ultimate result is the opportunity for businesses pursuing M&As to shift business models to a changing ecosystem.
This reflects the strategy at DataBank, largely focused on functioning as a catalyst for the industry-wide consolidation. “5G is heavily influencing new investment and M&A in the US communications sector,” said Raul Martynek, CEO at DataBank. “As such, strengthening our partnerships with the other Digital Bridge companies and forming a joint strategy for operating the
TMT M&A Forum USA 2019 Event Details
If you’ve not yet registered for TMT M&A, don’t miss out.
April 11, 2019
New York Hilton Midtown
https://www.tmtfinance.com/usa/
With 70+ speakers, 24+ sessions, and 5+ session types, there’s something for everyone looking to learn more about the next steps towards telecoms, media and technology investment, not to mention the latest innovations paving the way for TMT.
If your organization is looking for guidance on how to get ready for the 5G revolution, DataBank can offer feedback on the technology strategy and solutions that will put you in the best position of preparedness. Reach out to DataBank, or call us at 1.800.840.7533.
The ever-evolving nature of IT workloads and technologies now ensures that there is no “one-size-fits-all” strategy for IT infrastructure. Running a corporate data center isn’t the best long-term strategy for most organizations, requiring tremendous capex and adding significant management and staffing complexity. Similarly, public cloud platforms haven’t proven to be the solution for every application either, especially where needs are highest for performance, compliance and control.
Enterprises still have many IT workloads located on premises, and some analysts have reported as many as 80 percent of companies have repatriated applications or data, back to collocated data centers and private clouds due to security, performance, cost or control. (Source: Hosting Journalist)
A hybrid approach provides the best option for meeting the complex and ever-changing demands of today’s IT environment.
IT leaders need to take into account several factors when designing a hybrid infrastructure strategy including application performance, internal skill sets, costs. To get started, it helps to consider three of the most common drivers of adopting a Hybrid strategy. Colocation, Capex and Support.
Top Drivers for Hybrid IT
1. Colocation
Colocation is one option that removes the first layer of responsibility from your IT team, including core infrastructure, network, power, and cooling. Moving an environment from an on-premise data center into a data center facility improves financial dynamics. Unless you’re running a data center of mass scale, colocation is a very efficient mechanism for maintaining similar profitability metrics for the organization. It also delivers scale and resilience that most enterprises don’t have the wherewithal to generate on their own.
2. Capex
It’s worth taking a look at workloads you don’t want to operate hardware infrastructure for. Working with a data center provider for a more hybrid approach will give you the opportunity to leverage internet, security, storage-on-demand, and backup services, taking day-to-day management off your IT team’s plate so they can focus on core initiatives.
3. Tech Support
Transferring ownership of workloads, apps, and operating systems to a data center partner are another hybrid use case. A proven partner will be able to provide the infrastructure your applications rely on. This eliminates the need to worry about patching or monitoring.
Removing support and operational burdens lessens the pressures of everyday tasks and reallocates energy into building the innovative systems, applications, and solutions of tomorrow.
Further, it’s significantly easier to manage many servers at scale. Data center partners traditionally use an operations platform that runs on a more prescriptive methodology for service management. This can be applied to 1,000s of nodes, rather than relying on sys admins to do the work.
What Does Hybrid, the DataBank Way, Look Like?
As organizations have realized the value of a hybrid approach, DataBank’s collection of capabilities and environments have become one of the most convenient pathways to deploying a hybrid strategy.
Not every application will perform best in the public cloud, so DataBank provides a range of platforms to enable your Hybrid IT strategy including colocation, private cloud and public cloud on-ramps. And across those environments, we enable public connectivity to spin up or spin down workloads, yet maintain visibility within one pane of glass for simplified management and global visibility at every level.
In addition, our customers have convenient direct access to three critical components of a Hybrid IT infrastructure:
- Secure access to public cloud
- Managed security
- Storage
Each of these services are consumable via cross connect in your colocation cage. You simply plug right in one or two connections, and these products are available to your infrastructure that lives in your data center. Plus, within each data center, every customer has access to FedRAMP compliant IaaS, PaaS, or colocation, all on a single platform, ensuring long-term performance and viability of your IT strategy as business needs evolve. It’s our goal to be there for every step of your Hybrid IT journey, with as much or as little as needed for your unique requirements.
DataBank delivers all the building blocks of a hybrid strategy allowing you achieve cost efficiency, flexibility, scalability, and agility simultaneously. And we make embracing a Hybrid IT strategy easy and pragmatic – every customer interfaces with seasoned engineers—never inexperienced analysts. If you’re looking for a partner to work with you throughout the evolution of your hybrid IT strategy, look no further. Connect with DataBank today, or call us at 1.800.840.7533 and speak to a specialist.