IT organizations are seeking to transform their traditional colocation environments with “cloudy colo” capabilities that deliver hybridization with cloud services as well as cloud-like visibility and control, according to a survey conducted by Internap Network Services.
Internap polled more than 100 IT decision makers in the U.S. responsible for purchasing a range of IT Infrastructure services from colocation to cloud and hosting. Internap said the results reveal strong interest in accessing the following cloud-like colocation services:
- 88% – Bandwidth monitoring: gain insight into IP bandwidth utilization and trends, enhancing network capacity planning
- 85% – Power utilization: view circuit-level power usage trends and logs of all initiated power cycle actions, improving planning for future power requirements
- 77% – Equipment reboot: reboot or power down any configured device without incurring the expense of remote hands services or visiting the data center
- 76% – Server health monitoring: check device power status and create alerts, helping to ensure equipment uptime
- 72% – Hybridization with cloud and other IT Infrastructure services: procure cloud and hosting services and hybridize with colocation environment, more efficiently meeting diverse application needs
- 67% – Inventory management: create and view colocation equipment for device-level inventory management and tracking
In addition, the survey showed that 57% of respondents are interested in a hybrid IT Infrastructure environment that includes a mix of colocation, cloud and hosting services to meet a range of application and use case requirements.
“Colocation, with its capex model, security, control and customization advantages, continues to be a critical infrastructure choice for many organizations. While cloud services are another important option, an all-cloud strategy isn’t appropriate for every situation. As a result, there’s growing interest not only in hybrid infrastructure solutions but in redefining the limitations of traditional colocation services by integrating the benefits of the cloud,” said Raj Dutt, senior vice president of technology at Internap.
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