OFF-SITE DATA CENTRES
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IT to the cloud, you need to understand how that might impact compliance as well as cost, and your whole operating model. Even if you have specialist staff in-house it’s highly recommended that you work with a partner who can handle most or all this process for you. This might be your data centre provider, specialist MSP or a managed cloud services provider.” Manja agrees that this requires meticulous planning, testing and implementation. “The complexity of the migration depends on various factors such as the extent and intricacy of the infrastructure, the level of personalisation required and the availability of proficient personnel to oversee the process,” she says. “Collaborating with a reputable data centre provider and enlisting the services of skilled IT experts can help achieve a smooth and successful migration.”
in particular chapter eight, which provides that firms must ensure they take reasonable steps to avoid undue operational risk and cannot outsource operational functions that would impair the quality of internal controls or the regulator’s ability to monitor compliance.” This is something that businesses must take seriously and mitigate against, Tim adds. “Fines under the GDPR can be eye watering, with Meta recently fined €1.2 billion for breaching data protection laws, which is the biggest such fine to date,” he says. “A smaller, but still significant fine totalling £48.65 million, was issued last year by the Financial Conduct Authority against TSB Bank for operational risk management and governance failures, including management of outsourcing risks, relating to the bank’s IT upgrade programme.”
Will Ominsky VP of MSP sales
getnerdio.com
Always more cost-effective But despite the physical and legal
complexities of moving to off-site data centres, they will always be more cost- effective than on-premise, regardless of energy prices, says Joe. “It always costs less to use a properly equipped third party infrastructure provider,” he says. “Their hardware is more modern and efficient than yours. You can guarantee their energy contract is cheaper than yours. Their cooling is way more efficient than yours. If they make use of cloud technologies, they are probably better at optimising infrastructure utilisation too – in other words, you can get the IT you need with less hardware, less power, less committed consumption, less cost. “So, whether energy prices rise or fall, a specialist data centre provider will always be cheaper, and greener too. You’re probably using 25% more power to run your own servers and paying at least 25% more for that power. “Data centres are their business, and most of these infrastructure companies – whether they simply offer data centre infrastructure, or hosting, or cloud infrastructure as a service – are always ahead of a typical enterprise, and certainly a typical small enterprise, in terms of finding ways to optimise density, reduce power consumption and adopt more efficient, cost-effective platforms. Another way they do this, is by moving away from expensive proprietary platforms and adopting open- source based solutions instead – this is a fast-growing trend.”
Tim Wright tech and regulatory partner
Legal considerations When considering moving from an on-premise solution to an off-site one, there are legal aspects that have to be factored in too, adds Tim Wright, tech and regulatory partner at law firm Fladgate. “One key consideration for any data migration is the need to comply with data privacy laws such as the GDPR,” he says. “In addition, financial services firms will also need to comply with sectoral regulations that apply to outsourcing and cloud computing. For example, in the UK, firms must comply with the Financial Conduct Authority’s Handbook,
fladgate.com
One key consideration for any data migration is the need to comply with data privacy laws such as the GDPR. “
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