Options for the strategic planning of IT infrastructure deployment

Today, there are several options for placing IT infrastructure for business. All of them have their own pros and cons, about each there is enough information of varying degrees of relevance.

First option: in-office location

This is a complete control over the data and the convenience of maintenance of the IT infrastructure with the availability of qualified specialists and competent organization of their work. You can independently deploy, configure, maintain, promptly diagnose faults and perform repairs in the event of a breakdown. Full control of equipment, software and data is convenient primarily from the point of view of information security.

However, there are also disadvantages of this solution: the local IT infrastructure is tied to the office and when it is relocated it will be necessary to disconnect and transport all equipment, re-deploy the network infrastructure.

The second option: colocation

Thanks to the colocation, you do not have to deal with communication and power redundancy yourself, you do not need to think about protecting the equipment from power failures, and also organize access to the Internet with sufficient bandwidth. In addition, in case of relocation of the office, you do not need to transfer the server infrastructure.

The problems of this scenario begin when there is a need to change the hardware configuration, as well as for any service when you need immediate access to the equipment.

The third option: server rental

Pros in this scenario are the same as in the previous one - the communication channel, power, cooling, access to the Internet, which is provided according to your tariff in the data center, only the equipment will not be your property, so withdraw it raider way will not work. Direct access to it will not be so simple, but it will be possible to move the entire office at least every month.

Fourth option: cloud storage

The main plus of the public cloud is that if we do not know what capacity we need or we know for sure that the capacity requirements will change unpredictably in one direction or the other, then it will be convenient to use such a cloud service as the allocation of capacities in real time.

On certain tariff plans, with a high increase in the load, the capacities will also be allocated quickly, and the billing system can be built in such a way that it will be necessary to pay for the computing power on the fact of their consumption.