Going neutral

When first introduced, trends such as the consumerisation of IT, mobility, big data and cloud computing merely seemed like buzzwords used by the IT industry to explain how consumers are changing the use of IT in the workplace. But every single one of these key developments is having a huge impact on how enterprises conduct business in today’s digital economy.

In response to these trends, the resulting need for increased performance, scalability and connectivity to remain competitive has led enterprises of all sizes to consider third-party data centre space to house their ICT infrastructure. For example, a provider of online entertainment services will need access to a large number of content delivery partners to distribute the latest TV series quickly and seamlessly. But attracting the range of partners you need to achieve this in an in-house data centre may be difficult or costly. And so a key criterion in deciding which type of data centre provider to choose comes down to the level and type of neutrality they can offer.

But what exactly is data centre neutrality and what benefits can it provide to organisations in today’s competitive market?

Defining neutrality
An enterprises requiring cloud, hosting, IT infrastructure or connectivity services need to identify the most appropriate type of data centre for its needs. This is where neutrality comes into play.

A ‘carrier-neutral’ data centre refers to a provider that doesn’t provide connectivity services. More recently the concept of ‘cloud-neutrality’ has been used to refer to an operator that doesn’t provide any managed services itself – whether traditional, cloud-based, infrastructure or applications. Neutral data centres are therefore not in competition with the connectivity and cloud service providers who make up their customer base.

Both types of data centre have their pros and cons, but there’s another alternative for organisations looking to access the broadest choice of cloud, hosting, infrastructure and connectivity services: the cloud and carrier-neutral data centre. These are owned and operated by a provider that doesn’t offer any of these services itself and is entirely independent of all network, hardware and software vendors. The benefits of this particular type of colocated, third-party data centre are vast.

A great place to do business
Organisations colocating in a cloud and carrier-neutral facility benefit from having everything they need under one roof – be it cloud, hosting, infrastructure or connectivity services, that can be contracted directly with the providers of choice.

Businesses using this type of facility can benefit from:
• Access to a marketplace of providers, enabling them to negotiate the best combination of price and performance to meet their specific needs
• The ability to work with multiple providers to build redundancy and resilience into their solutions for business continuity and disaster purposes
• Freedom to add or change providers as their business needs evolve with no need to physically move their infrastructure
• Commercial relationships with cloud, hosting, infrastructure and connectivity providers are completely separate from the organisation’s colocation agreement; there’s no tie-in to the operator

A cloud and carrier-neutral data centre acts like a marketplace, where communities of companies locate alongside one another and can forge partnerships however they see fit. For example, a retail bank that wants to set up a new online service for customers will have access to a wide range of hosting, application management and connectivity partners to collaborate with.

This type of facility doesn’t just benefit the end-user organisations taking advantage of the services within it. It becomes a great place to do business for all involved. Cloud, hosting and infrastructure providers gain easy access to companies that want to buy their services. The data centre provider itself can also facilitate these mutually beneficial partnerships – for example, it can produce a listing of companies colocated in the facility that acts as a guide to the range of services available, as well as offer objective advice on the various options for different customer situations.

The more service providers the data centre houses, the more customers are attracted to it, which in turn attracts more providers. The marketplace grows and thrives, driving business and revenues for all concerned.

Looking to the future
The ability to access multiple carriers has long been an important feature of neutral data centres. And as new disruptive technologies challenge the way that IT operations are being run, having access to multiple cloud or hosting providers becomes increasingly crucial to avoid drowning in a sea of competition. Colocating in a cloud and carrier-neutral data centre makes it easier to take advantage of any new trend or service offering, and rapidly develop new partnerships and service delivery models.

Over the longer term, the cloud and carrier-neutral data centre model looks set to evolve as more IT capabilities are delivered on an ‘as a service’ basis. In the future, we could also see the sourcing and delivery of services at a much more granular level, to the point that enterprises can also select platforms, applications and security capabilities from different specialist providers. This could lead to this facility evolving into a channel, from carrier, through to cloud and onto IT-neutral.

The future for neutrality is bright as it allows enterprises choice and access to a marketplace, a tightly integrated digital community that can accelerate revenue generation and deliver seamless services that customers increasingly expect. As long as technology continues to evolve, neutrality will grow in importance as companies constantly find ways to deliver on customer demand and remain competitive, scalable, agile and successful.