In a digital economy, organisations need to use cloud based technologies to drive efficiencies and service their customers and stakeholders better. To meet this need there are a range of Australian data centers, offering the security, reliability and high availability demanded by businesses.
Making sure you choose the best data centre option for your business can be a challenge, so read on to discover how to make the right choice.
Why use an Australian data centre?
The data centre market in Australia is on an upward trend. Third-party data centers in the country are estimated to reach a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6%, amounting to $40 billion USD in investments by 2026.
So, it’s high time to invest your data gathering and processing in one of the country’s many data centers, primarily if your organisation is located in Australia.
Aside from obvious reasons such as data transfer rates and latency due to the proximity of the data centers to your business, below are other reasons:
- Compliance with data regulations – Australian data centers use the latest encryption and cybersecurity protocols to protect your data from potential breaches.
- Data governance – If you’re considering using overseas data centres to cut costs, you must observe their local data laws. Depending on which countries the data centres are located in, you also may have to disclose information you send to them.This produces many processes and red tape that you could easily forego using Australian DCs.
- Greater visibility – Data centres in Australia are transparent when it comes to their terms of use and the actual files you store in them. This gives you a sense of security when managing sensitive business information.
What are the data centre solutions available for Australian businesses?
There are different data centre solutions for you, each of which is purpose-built for any type of business you have.
Below are the typical services available:
Storage as a Service (STaaS) uses cloud computing to keep your data secure and available anytime you need them.
It also scales along with your needs. For example, you can expand your storage space to Petabytes if the need arises, so you don’t have to worry about running out of space. Moreover, pay-as-you-go models lets you pay for the space you’re currently using.
There are two types of Storage as a Service to choose from:
Production Storage
Production storage is built for primary use, which prioritises speed and reliability. Thanks to over two Petabytes of storage at your disposal, it enables you to boost your business performance.
This service gives you full control over how your data is stored in Australian data centres. At the same time, there are geo-redundant options to choose from, so you have extra copies of sensitive data in case of emergencies.
Backup and Data Protection
This option is perfect for businesses that simply want to store backup data at a data centre separate from their primary environment. Many Backup as a Service solutions utilise this storage.
Separate archive storage makes infecting your data with ransomware considerably more difficult, which is a great thing. This service also saves your data in multiple locations for redundancy purposes, thus adding an extra layer of security.
Hosted Servers allow businesses to host their entire environment in the cloud. They are also commonly used for specialist scenarios like hosting Disaster Recovery sites or for a High Availability (HA) situation.
Australian data centres won’t turn off their servers to save costs, meaning people can visit your site anytime, even after office hours. Also, many offer reliable 24/7 support to attend to all your concerns to ensure everything is running correctly.
There are two types of hosted servers:
Dedicated Servers
Dedicated servers offer 100% of their CPU and RAM resources, guaranteeing best performance for your service. They also give you complete control of your software and applications.
Software controls can scale your servers seamlessly using multiple virtual machines (VMs) or more dedicated physical hosts.
Virtual Machines (VM)
VM services run in a multi-tenant environment where more than one customer or tenant resides in the hardware. VMs on hosted servers provide multiple use cases including: if your business requires creating and using developmental environments to run multiple applications in a single location, for Disaster Recovery, for customers who have maxxed out their existing environment or for businesses with a small number of VMs.
For clients that have their own hardware that they wish to house in a data centre, colocation services are just the ticket. Example deployments would be a backup appliance or a phone system servers.
Using a provider’s data centres, you house your servers, network hardware, and storage in a centralised location for high accessibility. The best colocation services offer Tier III data centres with 99.82% uptime and 72+ hours of protection from a power outage.
If you’re offering Software as a Service (SaaS) tools that require cloud connectivity, you must determine the best method of delivering your platform to customers online.
The data centre provider will first identify the existing links with various platforms. From here, it works with your current platforms or recommends new links from upgraded partners before proceeding with your cloud connectivity.
Contact us now to discuss the data centre solutions that will be the right fit for your business
Private vs Public vs Hybrid Cloud Providers - what's the difference?
This cloud provider type offers all its resources to a single customer. It also provides many benefits cloud computing is known for, such as security and total control of IT infrastructure.
Most businesses choose private cloud due to the ease of meeting regulatory compliance requirements and handling sensitive data, particularly in the finance and medical industry.
A public cloud service provider refers to data centres that offer computing resources, such as ready-to-use software applications to virtual machines, available to all businesses – not just a single customer.
Its architecture enables users to access virtual resources on shared physical servers. But their respective data are isolated from each other, creating multi-tenant environments.
This cloud provider type is what companies use to launch and operate SaaS tools that they sell to customers. Public cloud is flexible and scalable as it works based on your needed resources.
As a combination of public and private cloud services, hybrid clouds are products of a unified, flexible, and optimised computing environment where enterprises can maximise their cloud workload management.
This cloud service configuration type enables businesses to reach their goals more efficiently than using private or public cloud providers exclusively.
For even better results, organisations should seek out connected hybrid multi-cloud services, including various public cloud service providers in the same environment.
Hybrid cloud combines the best of both public and private clouds.
Organisations can access the service provider type that best suits the workload, storage need or use case in a hybrid arrangement that means they can take advantage of superior efficiency, cost control and flexibility.
Using either environment to execute their workflow affords enterprises greater scalability than ever before.
Choosing the best data centre for your business
When choosing the right data centre (or data center, wherever you may be in the world), observe the following tips:
- Location – Physical proximity to your data centre lets you easily reach out to your provider for upgrade requests and unique concerns. Also, bring your business to data centres in the right place where natural disasters are unlikely to occur to guarantee your data’s safety.
- Flexibility and scalability – Ensure that the data centre can provide you with the power, connectivity, and storage space your business needs as it grows.
- Reliability – Enterprises should choose data centres with high uptime to manage their data regularly without interruptions. Excellent on-premises customer support that can solve all your problems related to its infrastructure is also essential.
- Efficiency – If you’re currently scaling your business, you want a data centre provider that can deploy features reasonably fast, no matter the volume of your request. At the very least, the managed provider should communicate the timelines and deliverables with you to manage expectations.
- Interconnectivity – Sharing the same data centre serving potential distributors, partners, and competitors is a good thing. They provide more business opportunities for interconnection and collaboration.
