The amount of data in this world is staggering, and it’s only growing. IDC predicts that the collective sum of the world’s data will grow from 33 zettabytes (one zettabyte is one sextillion bytes) in 2018 to a 175ZB by 2025, for a compounded annual growth rate of 61%. As a business, you need to decide where to store your data.
There are many options, from high upfront IT costs to keep it in-house, using the public cloud, or even colocation. For many businesses, the best options are going to be cloud hosting or colocation, this is because these are not prohibitively expensive, but still allow a level of security that you can feel comfortable with. But how do you know if you’re more suited for the cloud vs colocation?
Factors to consider when comparing cloud hosting and colocation can include security, regulations, and costs. Other questions you need to ask yourself are how will you handle redundancy or outages? If these are things you want to outsource or not worry about, that affects your decision. Do you own your own equipment? Will those upfront costs required to colocate be prohibitive? Even with equipment costs in the first year, colocation can be a more affordable option due to monthly contracts.
Where do you see your business needs in one year? Two? Beyond? Choosing an option that’s easy to scale may be a better option if your business is growing quickly.
While ultimately deciding how to store your data and hosting is a personal decision, there are some factors you can quickly decide which makes it a better fit. To help you make this decision, we’ve created an interactive quiz that will tell you what the best option may be for you.
