Data Center Expansion: Build, Retrofit or Colocate?

Scalability & Capacity Planning: Build vs. Buy - Considerations when investing in IT Infrastructure is a brief but very thoughtful analysis from Milldam Public Affairs and CyrusOne . It advocates colocation as one of the best option when considering a need for data center expansion. In recent survey of the Data Center Knowledge audience we found that 62% of our readers currently out source or plan to out source some of the data center operation to colocation, managed or cloud services providers.

Supporting the overall premise are three graphs, the first discusses operational impacts of your decision including OpEx vs. CapEx . The second offers a look at the decision process under each of the three choices posing fourteen scenarios that are certain to resonate with forward thinking professionals. The third compliments the discussion by outlining the top seven IT infrastructure management challenges.

As technology changes the need for data center expansion is close behind.  Strategic decisions around data center scalability and capacity planning deserve some critical thought, which is exactly what this white paper provides.