Digital transformation requires smart connectivity

High bandwidths and 5G rollout are promoting digital transformation. This is opening up new ways of working and bridging physical distances – in real time and at any location. Data centers play a key role by offering networking to support this transformation in innovative ways.

Companies seeking a data center partner are advised to analyze the connectivity options and the integration of different sites, providers, and resources at an early stage. After all, today’s applications generally have between four and eight dependencies on other applications. A smart connectivity strategy results in an IT infrastructure that improves flexibility and performance in the long term. It pays to keep the following in mind.

Neutrality is better than being tied to one provider
Keeping your options open creates flexibility: carrier-neutral data centers offer future-proof ways of interconnecting data and applications. The freedom to choose between different network providers favors the development of solutions customized to your specific business needs. Better networking options also reduce connectivity costs.

Carriers are making the world smaller
Data centers not only need to offer high performance; they also need to guarantee low latency for national and international connections. When a data center has the right carriers, it can connect with other continents in no more than the blink of an eye. Modern fiber-optic networks are what make this possible. In Shanghai, Singapore, and Silicon Valley alike, connection speeds in the range of 150 milliseconds are now the norm.

Redundancy provides security
Future-proof connectivity needs data centers with path-redundant solutions. Cable routes should never cross and always be installed via two separate access points to the building. The same applies to redundancy in data centers. Tier-3 data centers offer guaranteed redundancy of all critical infrastructure components. It’s better to be safe than sorry – especially when it comes to availability of business-critical data and applications.

Variety boosts connectivity
The hybrid cloud concept has proven its value in recent years. This solution elegantly combines the advantages of the private and public clouds to achieve the best of both worlds in a single platform. This means networking the various cloud products and services optimally. The quality of a data center depends on the variety of cloud services, platforms, and networking models it offers.

Time invested in strategy and planning repays itself many times over. Only in this way can companies exploit their digital infrastructure optimally and prepare for the future. It’s also always a good idea to contact data center operators directly and ask critical questions. Are they prepared to tackle complex challenges and explore new ways to find clever solutions? Apart from solid technical know-how, the data hubs of the future will definitely need to do extraordinary things and be involved in new developments.

This article by Green CSO Marco Stadler first appeared in the trade magazine IT-Markt (No. 4/2021).

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