Gartner: IT Managers Can Cut Colocation Costs in Europe by Moving North

Consistently low energy prices and favorable environmental conditions in Northern Europe present an opportunity for IT managers to save up to 50 percent on their colocation expenses by moving north, says Gartner. Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London and Paris represent the major colocation centers for multinational and Pan-European businesses.

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Inside EvoSwitch AMS1, an Amsterdam-based colocation facility of this carrier-neutral data center provider with sustainable data centers in Europe and the U.S.

“It’s important to weigh up several key decision factors when considering moving workloads away from the major colocation hubs to Northern Europe,” said Tiny Haynes, research director at Gartner. “However, in most organizations there are several IT functions such as data warehousing or browser-based apps that simply do not warrant the significantly increased running costs of colocation in a major hub.”

Gartner has outlined some key decision factors to consider in the decision to move north:

  • Network latency – Some applications like VoIP systems and virtual desktops need a low latency environment to function well, while others simply do not. Categories applications and assign them a suitable location accordingly.
  • Application requirements – Some applications are standalone, while others are integrated with a range of connected systems. If the application is interdependent, it’s best to keep all the constituent parts within the same data center infrastructure to avoid timeouts.
  • Security compliance – Data protection laws vary between countries, and certain data or applications that use data may not be suitable for use outside specific geographies.
  • Power availability – Consider not just the availability to your rack, but also to the data center and the country itself.
  • Cooling costs – Consider both the ongoing power usage effectiveness as well as the cooling methods available.
  • Price – The price of per kilowatt (kW) of infrastructure as well as per kilowatt per hour should be evaluated.
  • Support – This should either be in-house support from technical teams nearby or support provided through the supplier.

“Once these criteria are applied, it’s likely that most organizations will find some workloads that can be moved to a lower-cost location without impacting performance,” added Mr. Haynes.

More detailed analysis is available in “Save Up to 50% on European Colocation by Choosing the Right Location.” The report is available on Gartner’s Web site at http://www.gartner.com/doc/2847719.