7 Questions to Ask Before Re-investing in Your Data Center

Scaling up or upgrading a data center requires investments, most of them expensive ones. When it comes to making these investments, a crucial point to ponder upon is the return on investments (RoI). In other words, considering whether or not a particular investment is worth making.

If you are thinking of reinvesting in your data center, ask yourself these questions first:

If it’s five years or older, it’s probably cheaper to invest in newer equipment than incur losses due to expensive troubleshooting and maintenance required for outdated equipment. Not just that, by simply getting rid of zombie servers, you will save considerably even before you make the investment in newer equipment!

Equipment

How old is your equipment?

Speed is one of the most important factors that determine the efficiency of our work today. Therefore, an investment in a more modern switch/router will only improve the efficiency of your functioning and help you serve your customers better.

Switches/Routers

Are your switches/routers slowing you down?

When we say “better”, we are not necessarily referring to “new”. Invest in modern technology only after studying it and seeing a tangible impact it can make on the overall performance of your data center functions.

Technology

Is there better technology available?

The most basic PDUs are merely designed to distribute power. But PDUs today can do much more – telling you exactly how much power you use where and helping you take better control of power consumption. This, in turn, can save you money as well! Read more here.

Power Distribution Units

Are your power distribution units helping you save power?

Are there energy-efficient alternatives to the cooling solution you use?

Cooling Solutions

Cooling a data center is an expensive affair. At the same time, it is also an important investment that is essential to protect your other investments, including your server equipment. However, there are cooling systems that are more energy-efficient than others and, therefore, more cost-effective in the long run.

Is there a smarter way to manage your data center?

Management Tools

If your management tools or methods are tedious and time-consuming, require hours of manual intervention, and do not have automated systems in place, you are wasting one of your most valuable resources – people. You will see that employing smarter tools will help you cut down hours and even bring down the size of your teams. Moreover, predictive systems help you from spending time, effort, and money on reactive maintenance.

Are they sturdy, safe, space-efficient, and durable?

Enclosures and Accessories

Data center enclosures and accessories like server racks, network cabinets, blanking panels, and so on are one-time investments if you purchase them from a quality brand. If you research for durable products, you won’t need to worry about updating them for newer ones unless you are planning to bring in more equipment.

An investment in your data center is worth it if it:

The Bottom Line

• Ensures increased uptime (and minimized downtime)

• Brings down operational costs

• Requires fewer maintenance/troubleshooting efforts

• Guarantees better security

• Enhances the speed and overall performance

Need help with reviewing your data center and making well-informed investments? Get in touch with us for an expert consultation.