Where do You store your Company's Data?

In today's digital age, data centers are essential for data storage and management. The pandemic accelerated teleworking and, with it, the demand for solutions such as CPDs (Data Processing Centers), which guarantee continuity, security, and scalability for companies. With physical and virtual options, data centers allow flexibility and efficiency, adapting to the needs of each business. Madrid is emerging as a key hub for these centers in southern Europe, thanks to its strategic location and technological development.

We live in a time in history very different from the preceeding ones. We're surrounded by technology and it seems like in the future it will be so even more. All of that technology that surrounds us is based on data, therefore data are the basis for almost everything we do nowadays.

Once more we discuss a domain that has also been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. A year ago the world, the whole situation pushed the world into a new working era that is still very much alive, where teleworking has become as extended as the pandemic. Companies, in their adaptation process to the new circumstances, require for IT infrastructures of a larger scale, needing most of the times to employ storage solutions and data centers, which have become a key point, particularly in sectors such as telecommunications or the public or health sectors, which even if they needed those tools before, now they consider them even more valuable.

Advantages of having a data center

Having the services of a data center is no doubt a key piece for digitalization strategies, as well as a powerful resource to strengthen your business activity and that in addition means important advantages for the business such as :

Business continuity: Having a data center guarantees that your business will keep on working should any disaster take place, keeping and ensuring that the most important resources and information stay available.

Response time speed: Data centers must offer agile response and have optimal connectivity technologies, covering servers, optical fiber or link management, that guarantee availability at all times.

Information security: It is vital for a data center to have high information security standards (ISO27001), as well as qualified employees. This will allow you and your business to be ready for any possible disasters and keep the business going.

High storage capacity: Having a data center provides you with the possibility of stocking big amounts of information that you wouldn't be able to store otherwise. As for growing companies, having a virtual data center is also a great alternative.

Simplicity: While data management can be a complex task, having a data center service provider makes this task a lot easier, allowing for the company itself to focus on their activities.

Escalabilidad: Thanks to technology developments, when hiring a data center through a third party, your storage capacity can increase right away easily, also through cloud storage.

Flexibility: Today, thanks to high availability, data centers allow for companies to have their information available 24/7.

Efficiency and trust: High-level data centers offer availability percentages of up to 99.995%, so you can trust that data will be available anytime and with high download speed.

Cost savings: Quotes depend on the infrastructures organizations need, but hiring a third party implies saving in equipment investments as well as their corresponding updates and maintenance.

Physical or virtual data center?

Regardless of being a physical or virtual data center, at the end, their purpose is the same, storing, processing and distributing the information of organizations. According to the needs of each company, they should choose an on-premise data center, with storing equipment in an appropriately conditioned location, or a virtual one, in the cloud, which can be provided by a third party.

At Uniway, we offer you both the on-premise option, through our facilities that cover more than 1,500 square meters located at the heart of Madrid, as well as a Virtual Data Center, ready to satisfy the needs of any company.

Long live the data center!

It wasn't that long ago when people talked about data centers soon coming to an end. In 2020, due to cash flow restrictions caused by the pandemic, world expenses on data center infrastructure decreased a 10%. However, this downward trend has come to a turning point according to Gartner, end-user expenses on data center infrastuctures at global level are expected to reach 200,000 millon dollars in 2021, which means an increase of 6% compared to 2020, a figure that will keep on growing for at least the next four years.

Data are now optimistic and foresee a "historic" growth, as ensured by the consultancy Cbre. In Europa, the data center market is expected to reach the highest hiring point in its history, with 370 megawatts contracted, supported by e-commerce and teleworking.

Madrid strongly invests in data centers

It's been a few years since serveral remarkable European cities started to make big investments related to data centers. Cities like Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Dublin or Paris are today referents in this regard, with a common feature, all of them are located in Northern Europe.

As for the South, where Spain would be included, there are several cities that realized about the importance of having data centers and insist on becoming new referent points.

Currently, according to the report "Data Center Location Index 2021" by the Arcadis engineering and consulting multinational, Spain is the 30th country among the 50 most advanced markets at global level, and the first in what could be called geographically Southern Europe.

Although there are cities like Marseille or Milan, that could be considered strong competitors, Spain and specifically Madrid, has the best conditions to become the new reference hub in Southern Europe. Here we talk about issues such as geographical location, a direct connection with Africa and South America, the implementation of optical fiber, energy reliability or the long way data center development has come in Spain.