IT Rooms: evolution, renovation, renewal, or outsourcing?

Despite considering future needs during its design, an IT room may, over time, no longer precisely meet the needs of its users. The acceleration of digital transformation in recent years, which has led to changes in uses and needs, coupled with technological and hardware developments, are all factors that accelerate this gap.

To ensure that the data center adapts to evolving needs, it is necessary to regularly conduct an objective evaluation of the IT room. This is not always easy because data centers are complex environments due to the numerous technical lots they comprise and their interdependencies. But also because they lie at the intersection of IT department services and real estate.

This involves measuring the respective obsolescence of equipment (electrical, climatic, and security) as well as the overall load of the data center. And this is not necessarily in the sense of an overload: with the evolution of IT equipment or the outsourcing of certain digital services to the cloud, for example, IT rooms can, on the contrary, become oversized over time.

In parallel, the reliability of the room (resilience of power supply and server cooling) as well as its physical security (protection against malicious acts and disasters) and its environment (site location, placement within the building, etc.) are also criteria to consider when evaluating an IT room.

Finally, the operational organization, maintenance contracts, and of course, energy efficiency complete the analysis and provide a comprehensive overview of the state of an IT room.

Once this diagnosis is established, the next step is to analyze and define the company's needs and constraints in terms of IT production. This primarily involves service continuity: what availability requirements, over what scope of the IS? Or what backup strategy: backup, DRP, BCP? Then, the question of capacity is generally crucial: it implies a certain anticipation, without exaggeration to avoid the risk of oversizing, which leads to overinvestment and an increased environmental footprint.

Other organizational elements also come into play: financial strategy (CAPEX/OPEX), CSR approach, available internal resources, etc. For all this data, precision as well as exhaustiveness are essential, to leave as little room for interpretation as possible.

Between the existing situation and the needs, the gap analysis then allows for evaluating the associated risk levels, especially if the company is subject to obligations, whether sector-related or not (GDPR, HDS, PCI-DSS…), or adheres to certifications or standards (ISO 27001, 14001 or 50001, Uptime Institute, Code of Conduct for Data Centres…). Any observed discrepancies help establish action priorities and identify 'quick wins' that, with limited investment, can mitigate a major risk to the integrity of the IS or service continuity.

Depending on the results of the analysis, which provides precise and complete knowledge of the installation's level, several scenarios are possible. The most classic being the renovation of the existing room. While this solution certainly limits the amount of investment and implementation time, the question of the durability of these investments must be considered. Meanwhile, the limitations imposed by the existing infrastructure and the constraints related to intervening in a production room are not insignificant.

The second option consists of starting from scratch and building or fitting out a new server room that complies with the state of the art, including in terms of energy performance, and is adapted to immediate and future needs. However, this scenario requires significant investments (project, decommissioning, relocation, etc.) and generally involves substantial implementation times.

Finally, the third possibility is a partial or total outsourcing of the data center infrastructure. In this case, delegating operations, risks, and responsibilities can be an opportunity for the company. However, the initial costs (project, decommissioning, relocation, etc.), associated with recurring costs (OPEX) under a binding contract that will need to be managed, should not be overlooked in the consideration.

In conclusion, just as no two companies are alike and no information system is monolithic, there are as many solutions for evolving IT hosting as there are organizations. Each of them can also make different choices depending on the scope of the system concerned. To navigate this, and make the right choices, relying on neutral and objective feedback is often a good solution. In all cases, it is above all about anticipating to avoid hasty bad choices.