In our 18+ years in the technology infrastructure space, we’ve seen several major iterations in how companies use service providers for their compute, storage and network needs. From shared hosting to dedicated servers, colocation, and now cloud, the key for ServerCentral has always been to listen closely to our customers and to diligently watch where the market is moving. These two basics have enabled us to quickly adapt our business to ever changing technologies and requirements.
For the last four years or so, we’ve been delivering cloud solutions to our customers. We have become fully immersed in the new world of cloud services where it matters most: deployment.
To be clear, cloud is not a “bet the company” proposition for ServerCentral like it is for many other organizations. Rather, we view cloud as complementary to a complete infrastructure product strategy.
Traditional colocation, managed infrastructure services, dedicated servers, and remote hands continue to experience strong growth curves. On top of this, cloud continues to grow as part of the discussion.
What we see and experience are customers assuming that the cloud will magically make all of their infrastructure challenges go away. As it was in the early days of the Internet, there are all sorts of things with the cloud that need to mature. Gaps need to be filled in application design, compatibility, user interfaces, performance, security, and architecture, to name a few. These are all topics for future posts, but the point is that we’re not looking at one barrier to world domination by cloud.
While the future for cloud is bright, and we at ServerCentral remain bullish on where cloud will lead us, the last few years have taught us that cloud is absolutely not a panacea. Want proof? Ask any CIO at a bank or hospital how much data they put on a public cloud. Next, ask them when they see themselves doing that. As I said, we have a ways to go.
The good news for consumers of IT infrastructure is that you have more options today than ever to efficiently tackle your problems. Datacenters are prevalent, great IP networks are nearly ubiquitous, service providers abound, storage and compute are cheap in relative terms, and the entire market is moving to hosted solutions.
The challenge as we see it with all the options out there is how to make sense of it all and make the appropriate decisions moving forward. Is the right answer to stick it in the cloud or put it in colo? What about a hybrid solution that utilizes both? We think all approaches are right because we’re seeing all of these approaches solve real world business problems on a daily basis.
Let’s take a step back, look at the problem you’re trying to solve, and assess your infrastructure. What we arrive at might surprise you, because it just might not have anything to do with the cloud.
Your environment may be years away from a public cloud, if ever. Try asking one of the dozens of new cloud providers the same question: is the right answer to stick it in the cloud or put it in colo? All of their answers will lead to their cloud. Not surprising.
We’re passionate about solving infrastructure problems. What we’ve learned over the last decade is by focusing on a full spectrum of options, our customers come out winners every time.
