Today, many different types of companies are dismissing the idea of having their own servers on their premises, and with good reason. It can simply be too much work, too much of a hassle when things go wrong, and too costly with the need to hire additional IT personnel. Choosing to use a data center from a third party certainly offers quite a few options that could be able to provide those institutions with real benefits.
Why Banks Use Colocation
To understand just why so many banks seem to be gravitating toward this type of service today, you need to understand the benefits they can offer, as well as how those translate to the field of banking.
Safety and Reliability of Data
First, keeping the data, as well as the physical servers, safe and secure is essential to the success of the bank. Today, when there are so many dangers to data kept online, not to mention to the physical servers, the banking customers, and thus the bank, can rest easier knowing that their servers are truly safe. Providers who are offering these services tend to offer high security that feature a variety of alarm systems to keep them safe around the clock
If there were an issue at the bank’s physical location, such as a fire or flood, it could damage onsite servers. Having a data center that can keep redundant data, and ensure that the data is safe, ensures the bank site is always up and running. This is important for banks and credit unions of all sizes, but the smaller, local institutions tend to benefit even more. The costs of having an in-house data center that had the same level of safety and security would be astronomical.
Banks also like that the data is reliable thanks to the redundant power supplies and the environmental monitoring that most colocation centers can offer. They also have network reliability, which is vital for any bank. Customers will want to go onto the site at all times of day and night to take care of their banking business, and they need that site to be up and available for them. If they continually have trouble using the online portion of their bank, there’s a good chance they will eventually move on to work with another bank.
Quality Support
Banks that work with the best data centers offering colocation service also find that they have support when they need it. This means that if there is a question or issue regarding something happening on the server, the bank doesn’t have to wait until their IT department can handle it. They will have the people running the data center on the job as soon as there is a sign of a problem. Getting in touch with people for technical help is generally quite simple.
Providers Keep Getting Better
The colocation providers working today have service that far exceeds the expectations of many businesses. The technology continually improves, thus improving the overall service one can expect. These improvements are likely to continue.
Banks are certainly not the only types of companies and enterprises making use of colocation services. In fact, they are becoming popular with many different types of companies out there today. When one looks at all of the benefits, it’s easy to see how they are useful for far more than just financial institutions.