Summary
Computing architecture and systems continue to con- stantly evolve by their very nature. The latest technolo- gies, such as virtualization and cloud computing, are the current darlings and buzzwords of the industry, nonethe- less, the need to support them still depends on a physical data center.
Build vs Buy is an age-old question for many industries. It is sometimes driven by hard number-crunching business analytics, while in some cases it is controlled by human emotion and ego or simply out of habit. Some issues can be clearly defined, such as cost and availability of capital and time to market, while other factors such as market reputation and perceived strength, are a little fuzzier.
There is an emerging trend which is growing rapidly to- ward outsourcing the data center as many organizations re-evaluate the need to build, own and operate their own data centers. They are either outsourcing it in whole or in part, in an effort to concentrate their resources on their core business.
While building, owning and operating a data center could be seen by some as a normal part of any business with a P/L statement, it differs significantly for an Enterprise customer vs. a Colocation, Hosting, Managed Services Provider or Cloud Provider.
For Enterprise data centers, the equation may not be as clear cut as an item on their normal P/L statement, since the “Profit” related to the data center is somewhat subjective, however reliable computing is critical to the ...