Shift in data centre buying patterns?

‘Panic Planning – Chaos in the Data Centre’ highlights the findings of interviews held with senior IT professionals representing large organisations (250+ employees) in the UK with direct responsibility for their company’s data centres. The results made for interesting reading. “There is most certainly a theme of frustration when we look at the perceived value that the operators claim they are adding,” said Terry Dempsey, Executive Director at Optimum. “Too many respondents (68%) said that operators were failing to deal effectively with day to day issues; for some in particular this happened a staggering 13 times in 12 months. As a result, we believe that this will drive forward a change in attitudes with regards to what are deemed to be the most important criteria during the procurement process - quality of staff based on their expertise in the sector will start to appear much higher up the agenda.”

Optimum also referred back to research statistics recorded since spring 2011 which show that proactive consultancy levels have only improved marginally and that there is still substantial room for improvement. Just 37% of respondents in 2013 cited that their operator was proactive, for example, when it came to advising on PUE. Comparatively, this figure was 36% in spring 2011, but interestingly had gone down to 29% in autumn 2011.

“Data centre outsourcing contracts might be signed with a longer-term vision in mind but it seems that frustrations with the standards of consultancy on offer often arise in the short term,” continued Dempsey. “The savvy data centre buyer is no longer just looking at price points. Today it is more about the bigger picture and the business benefits of the whole package - building a partnership based on a willingness to share knowledge. As an operator, if you can’t put highly experienced team members forward in order to plan strategically - and then regularly review - with your clients, you just won’t be able to compete effectively anymore.”