Followers of my blogs won’t be surprised to discover that the broad summary of my thoughts below on the topic of virtual data centres (when compared to the alternatives) can best be encapsulated in one word: ‘hybrid’. Those of you who needed to be elsewhere five minutes ago can close down your screens now. And for those who would like to understand the workings of my conclusion, please do read on!
Virtual data centres come bearing all manner of benefits and gifts to hard-pressed data centre owners and operators. VDC running costs should be significantly lower than for physical facilities. Well-designed, the VDC dashboard should make running (and using) the VDC much easier than a physical data centre asset. Similarly, and in no particular order, we are told that VDCs provide increased reliability, scalability, flexibility and security when compared to on-premises or even a colocation data centre.
Let’s examine each of these benefits in a little more detail.
Running costs of a VDC versus a physical DC should be lower, yes. However, if one considers that a VDC is not a million miles away from the cloud (if not identical to it), then it is worth remembering that many organisations which ran headlong to the cloud have now pulled back somewhat, not least because of the (high and often unexpected) costs involved. The capital costs of purchasing servers, storage and networking are eliminated in a VDC, so CAPEX of the VDC is all but non-existent, but OPEX of a VDC vs. a physical data centre – well the supposed benefit is not nearly so clear cut.
A VDC promises easier data centre management, thanks to the dashboard which allows access to all of the virtualised infrastructure – although it is likely you’ll leave this to the VDC provider – an MSP or cloud provider. Handing over this management function to a third party sounds attractive, especially for skills-strapped SMEs. But what happens when problems occur? No matter what the SLAs might say, the reality is that the VDC is no longer in your control.
Reliability – you’d like to think that whoever is running your VDC has the necessary skills and resources to ensure its smooth running, but, ultimately, you have to make a decision as to whether or not to trust a third party to run your whole data centre, some of it (via colocation), or none of it – keep everything on-premise/in-house. Much will depend on your own organisation’s available resources here.
Scalability – an outright win for the VDC – the required infrastructure can be scaled up, or down, extremely quickly when compared to the work required to do the necessary adjustments in the physical data centre.
Flexibility – not unrelated to scalability. The VDC allows fast access to different infrastructure solutions, for as long as required – almost permanent right-sizing if you like. Physical data centres will almost always be under- or over-provisioned in trying best to respond to today’s digital, dynamic world.
Security – a tricky one. One would like to think that your VDC provider would have more security expertise than your in-house IT resources in this area, but a look at the small print invariably points out that, when it comes to security, you are solely responsible, no matter the confidence you might have in your VDC provider. Furthermore, one could argue that VDC providers, with multiple VDCs in their own physical data centre locations, are a more likely, high profile security attack target than any individual organisation (other than those with their own high profiles).
Which brings us on to some potential VDC downsides. In using a VDC, you are handing over control of security and hardware. Maybe that’s not a problem, maybe it is…
While networks are the lifeblood of any data centre environment, you’ll be particularly dependent on the bandwidth, latency and reliability of the connection between your own premises and those of your VDC provider. How resilient is this connection – and you’ll be needing more than one for sure.
As mentioned earlier, it’s more than possible that the price quoted for provisioning, running and maintaining will be the one quoted. Equally likely, there’ll be some hidden costs of which you’ll be made aware over time. This scenario brought about the cloud ‘backlash’.
Sustainability transparency. If your organisation is serious about sustainability, you’ll need to understand the sustainability credentials of your VDC provider and, importantly, the virtual data centre infrastructure they use. I’m not sure this information is easily and/or meaningfully obtainable.
I am sure that there are more VDC pros and cons which might need to be considered (as with cloud, how easy is it to move from VDC A to VDC B, for example; if I am a small business, then using a VDC, rather than struggling with my own computer room, could well be a no-brainer etc.), but I can’t think of a single, compelling reason as to why a VDC should be anything other than an important option within an organisation’s overall hybrid IT/data centre strategy. On-premise, colocation, cloud, VDC – you the user are best equipped, with some advice, as to what applications, and which hardware, belong where, if at all, within your overall digital transformation strategy. A strategy which will almost certainly include the word ‘hybrid’!