In today’s digital economy, many businesses are evolving their IT ecosystems by deploying applications and workloads to colocation data centers. Why? Colocation delivers the low-latency interconnection optionality that’s required to the partners in modern digital ecosystems.
That includes inter-site and inter-market connectivity. I mention that because we recently launched a new interconnection product enabling our customers to have one Gbps, 10 Gbps and 100 Gbps high-speed connectivity to data centers in a campus as well as networks, applications and data in the same market. You can learn more in the press release linked above.
As defined by Tech Target, a digital ecosystem is a group of interconnected information technology resources that can function as a unit. Interoperability is the key to the ecosystem's success.¹
“Addressing interoperability and integration challenges is colocation’s sweet spot.”
2022 State of the Data Center Report, CIO
Our recently released 2022 State of the Data Center Report shows that colocation has been firmly established as a central pillar of the hybrid IT mix, with respondents citing the top reasons for migrating to colocation as performance/speed, reliability and security.
Next on the list? Businesses want access to managed services to create greater value for their customers and business partners than would be possible on their own. When the managed services they need are resident in the data center provider’s facilities – whether it be in a single building, a campus or accessed leveraging inter-site connectivity – service availability, interoperability and increased value are achieved.
Managed Services: A Critical Component to the Digital Ecosystem
Success for businesses means investing in digital technologies in order to explore new strategies, enter new markets and engage with new customers. Transforming from a siloed, do-it-yourself approach to one that is integrated and dynamic puts businesses at an advantage, even as they rely on the expertise of a network of managed services providers.
The leaders in this digital age, who blend a network of product and service providers into their ecosystem – all with industry-specific strengths, expertise and business models – control the market. While colocation creates many benefits for businesses when ramping up digitization, it notably provides a collection of interconnected IT resources and services which enables businesses to inspire brand loyalty, work smarter and set higher revenue goals.
Among those enterprises considering a move to colocation data centers, the availability of managed services is a top-tier attribute sought when considering potential providers. In fact, managed services were cited as a key requirement for colocation providers by 30% of this year’s respondents, compared to only 16% in 2021; the availability of managed services has also surged as the number one attribute since 2020, the research found.
And it’s not just managed services that are important to today’s customers. According to the report, data center providers are also expected to offer native, direct connections to major cloud providers, giving customers more robust data security, reduced latency, greater reliability and lower data egress and networking costs.
The upswing in requests for managed and cloud services is no surprise. The number and breadth of these providers is immense, as offerings include resources such as data center migration, managed networking, cybersecurity, edge computing and artificial intelligence. And although organizations don’t expect colocation providers themselves to deliver all these services, access to these resources within the ecosystem is what matters.
Better Business Driven by a Marketplace of Specialized Providers
There are many specialized IT service offerings out there. That’s why we’ve created the CoreSite customer marketplace, a robust and interconnected ecosystem of network, cloud and IT solution providers all found in one place. With the marketplace, our customers have a simple way to source providers for the solutions they need, search trusted suppliers and make decisions on whom to partner with.
Examples of our diverse resources include:
- Lumen – Lumen is an enterprise technology platform that enables companies to capitalize on emerging applications and power the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR).
- Zenlayer – An infrastructure as a service (IaaS) provider through managed and on-demand services in more than 150 edge data centers around the world.
- TDS Migration Services – TDS provides services and software to accelerate and de-risk the complex, end-to-end process for data center and IT transformations.
- Nexustek – A provider of managed IT services and full IT outsourcing solutions, offers a comprehensive portfolio composed of end-user services, cloud, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and IT consulting.
Sure, on one level CoreSite’s purpose is to help businesses move data from point A to point B, but we also serve as an interconnection hub to an expansive and interoperable ecosystem that is foundational to IT infrastructure. Most importantly, we enable our customers to operate better as a business.
To learn more about what enterprises in virtually every industry are seeking for their colocation and hybrid IT optimization, read our 2022 State of the Data Center Report.