What are boutique data centres?
A remote server is any server placed outside of a company’s usual location for IT equipment, or a server which is stored external to the company’s premises entirely. Boutique data centres offer a highly flexible approach to storing a remote server. They also allow clients more control compared to regular data centre products. This control includes the choice of the hardware, software and devices used. At a time when security vulnerabilities are daily news and giants in the tech industry such as Microsoft, Google and Apple have to battle against governments accessing their customer’s data, boutique data centres offer a cloud solution where clients can understand and control their remote server’s security, to put them back in the driving seat.
Colocation in a boutique data centres
The word colocation (also called co-location, collocation, colo, or coloc) is often used to describe a type of data centre which offers rack space, internet connection and equipment rental to its clients. Choosing colocation in a boutique data centre gives you the opportunity to own or rent your own server as well as other networking devices, and place them within the provider’s premises.
Usages
There are many reasons a company may choose to place servers or devices in a boutique data centre as they allow great flexibility, as appose to a regular data centre which offers generic products. This can include, but is not limited to the following list of popular boutique data centre server usages:
Storage of data
This product could be setup with a server or a storage device such as a SAN, or perhaps a combination of both. This may suit clients who want to avoid some of the market leaders in online data storage that have been compromised security wise in the past, so they can have their own equipment in the cloud to store their data.
Email servers
You may want to hold your email communications on your own server in a place you feel it will be safe, with hardware, software and devices you trust.
Remote desktops
You may want the ability for users to login with their laptops, desktops, tablets or mobile phones to a powerful remote computer with shared data storage.
Backup of data
You may want to back up your data in an external location outside of your business premises.
Backup server
In the case that one server goes down in another location you can quickly switch to another server in a different location/network to get your business up and running again with minimal time/money lost.
Security in a data centre
It has become commonplace for business to entrust their data to remote servers in the cloud, and although regular data centres employ a high level of security they can from time to time be compromised. From a customer’s perspective security can be hard to understand if not presented with all the information, which regular data centres may not want to give out for good reason, as it may be a risk in itself to make external parties aware of the detailed security policies the data centre has in place. This however doesn’t help the client who wants to know just how secure their server or data is. Clients also often do not have control when it comes to security within a regular data centre as everything is implemented for them in advance, and is managed by the data centre directly.
In a boutique data centre a client is given the control they require over security, this can include the selection of hardware, software and security devices utilised on their remote network. With the inclusion of the client in the selection of security equipment, software and policies adopted comes an improvement in understanding and the building of trust between provider and the client. A client may want the provider to manage their security devices and software, or they may want to manage their security devices and software directly, both of which is a possibility with a boutique data centre. If a boutique data centre has a number of different premises around the world they often allow the client to select a geographical location, which can be key in the decision to keep corporate data secure, as different rules and regulations apply in different jurisdictions.
Final consideration
If a client is looking for a cost effective solution, then a regular data centre may offer what they need. If client is looking for more than your average data centre can offer, and would like to have control over hardware, software and security, a boutique data centre is a worthwhile consideration.
