A recent study indicated that 70% of UK consumers would choose to work with a business that offers a more secure approach to data storage. If your organisation is considering a secure data centre or colocation partner, this blog is for you.
You are joining a growing number of businesses making the switch as they look to strengthen their cyber security against increasing attacks, meet changing governance and compliance regulations and reduce significant IT infrastructure overheads and upfront capital investment in an ever-challenging economy.
As with all business decisions, such a move needs proper due diligence and scrutiny to ensure it is the right choice for your business, staff, and customers. In this blog, we look at which areas to consider when it comes to a data centre partner, so you make the right choice when protecting your sensitive data and ensuring business continuity and success.
- Security and Resiliency
With ransomware expected to be a consistent threat in 2023 and the Government’s new Digital Protection and Digital Information Bill coming online, a primary reason for choosing a data centre is security, but how do you know how robust a centre’s measures are? The answer is data centre tiers.
Created by the Uptime Institute 25 years ago, they are the international and independent standard for industry performance, with tiers going from I to IV, with IV the best performing.
Brightsolid’s data centre facilities are designed to Tier III standards, guaranteeing higher standards and 99.98% uptime.
Another critical area to consider is ISO accreditations. Established by the International Organisation for Standardisation, they set standard requirements and best practices across a range of industries.
There are a variety of accreditations relating to data centres, data management and information security, all of which we at Brightsolid hold. In each accreditation outlined below, the accreditation holder must demonstrate:
- ISO 27001: a thorough and well-maintained information security management system
- ISO 22301: business continuity management best practice
- ISO 9001: quality management systems for their products
- ISO 14001: maintenance of environmental management standards
- Sustainability
This topic has become increasingly important for organisations over recent years as they strive to meet shareholder and customer demand and ensure regulatory compliance.
When it comes to which data centre you choose, questions around sustainability may be vital when it comes to your business agenda.
These can range from ‘does the provider invests in renewable energy resources’, to ‘do they use greener sources of electricity’, and ‘what achievements or accreditations do they have’?
Brightsolid’s data centres in Aberdeen and Dundee are powered by 100% renewable clean electricity generated by wind and hydro assets, fully backed by Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGOs) and verified by EcoAct, a CDP Accredited Provider.
We also deploy an innovative and environmentally whole-room friendly cooling solution called EcoFris within our Aberdeen facility. Unique to any other Scottish data centre, this takes free air from the external environment and filters it into the data centre.
- Industry
Depending upon which industry you operate in, you will have different needs when it comes to your IT infrastructure and data storage, this, in turn, will impact your choice of provider. Let’s look at some examples:
Oil and Gas – Due to businesses constantly changing size, scalability is essential for IT provision, as is seamless connectivity given the offshore nature of many operations. Both criteria can be met effectively by a professional data centre.
Public Sector – The public sector holds and processes vast amounts of private data and is consistently under scrutiny. Therefore, the IT infrastructure they have in place must be cost-efficient, robust, secure, and compliant. All can be achieved by sharing services with other bodies via a data centre.
Finance – An ever-increasing target for cyber-crime financial businesses benefit from data centre partners such as Brightsolid, which offer protection against a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS), reducing any subsequent downtime and preserving reputation.
In business for over 25 years and running essential infrastructure for 20, here at Brightsolid, we pride ourselves on our skilled engineers and professional project management and commercial teams working across our 24-hour secure Dundee and Aberdeen facilities.
From networking, systems engineering, virtualisation, backup and storage, our expert team is constantly acquiring new skills that help us surpass expectations and give our valued customers peace of mind year all round.
Get in touch to start the conversation today.