Volta Data Centres Blog

Edge Computing: The Key to a more connected world

Until recently, the prevailing belief was that large, consolidated data centres were the best option for modern organisations to house their critical applications and data. After all, IT expertise within local communities was hard to come by and local IT resources were routinely under-utilised.

With a consolidated infrastructure, physical security was deemed easier to monitor and guarantee, and the cost and complexity of running one or a handful of dedicated facilities was significantly less than running lots of smaller ones.

Though much of this remains true, a new solution is emerging that is better configured to meet the demands of today’s businesses and consumers; one that can provide the flexibility, agility, scalability and speed they have come to expect – edge computing.

  

Developing a hybrid cloud strategy with colocation

When Cloud technology breached the mainstream in the mid-2000s, battle lines were quickly drawn between the providers of public cloud solutions and the providers of colocation services. For businesses wishing to optimise their network performance, it was a choice between one or the other.

The stand-off between cloud and colocation persisted for the best part of two decades. However, in recent years an interesting development has taken hold - some of the largest public cloud providers have begun offering their customers new types of hybrid cloud solutions. These next generation solutions allow customers to access public cloud services even if their workloads are housed in entirely separate data centres.

In this piece, we unpack the terms hybrid colocation and hybrid cloud technology, explain how the line between cloud and colocation has become blurred, and how organisations can look to capitalise on the potency of hybrid colocation.

  

What is a Data Centre?

Data centres overview

Two surprisingly common questions among business leaders who previously had no cause to properly engage with a data centre, are:

What is a data centre? 

At its most basic, a data centre (or “data center”) is a robust physical facility that securely houses servers belonging to itself and/or 3rd party organisations. It shares applications and data via a network of computing and storage resources and comprises a range of components including switches, storage systems, servers, routers, and security devices.

Data centre infrastructure is typically housed in a facility organised by halls, rows, and racks that are supported by power and cooling systems, backup generators, and cabling plants.

What is a data centre used for?

Data centres are used by organisations of all types to securely house the critical IT hardware that stores, manages, and processes their data. They are also used as safe places from which computers and other digital equipment can communicate with other devices in offices, homes, other data centres, all the way up to the satellites that orbit the Earth.

Everything from business processes to government services and telecommunications depend on these computers interacting in this way and being able to securely exchange data.

However, though certain characteristics are universal, not all data centres are the same.

  

What is colocation?

What is colocation? An in-depth guide to a to a modern process.

Colocation is when companies choose to place their servers and networking equipment with a 3rd party data centre. As your business grows, so too does your incoming digital traffic. More people look to access digital services from your website to your apps, and your workforce need reliable connectivity to perform their daily tasks. To manage these traffic volumes, businesses invest in servers to ‘serve’ each connected device with the information it needs to engage with the business. They are one of the most critical assets an organisation will ever own.

Well-maintained servers have the capacity to reduce business complexities considerably. They also have the potential to exacerbate them. In this piece, we look at one way modern businesses are ensuring their servers, serve their purpose.

  

Data post Brexit: What you need to know and what you should consider doing

The UK is officially no longer part of the EU. On January 1^st, 2021, the transition period came to an end and Britain’s new trading relationship as a third country with the bloc began.