Growth Strategies

Managing the expanded colocation product portfolio drives new business opportunities; however, it also comes with challenges in design, delivery and operation. Infrastructure management teams must be able to quickly and efficiently analyze, plan, implement, change, document, and monitor all technology activity in the colocation center. 

With a central data repository in place, complete visibility and transparency throughout the data center network infrastructure can be achieved. Thus, managing multiple sites in a location-independent tool will enable infrastructure manager to work hand in hand and improve the overall service quality. Network managers can receive immediate insights into all the data connections in their networks and data center infrastructure, independent from the underlying hardware vendor technology, and confirm customers have the right network connections and uptime and that SLAs are being met.

The colocation connectivity operations that can benefit from software-supported optimization include the installation and maintenance of new capacities, provisioning connectivity and cross-connects between ecosystem peers, and incident management.

Installing and Maintaining New Capacities
By performing a capacity analysis of existing network infrastructures, managers will have complete knowledge of the service hierarchies on the transport network and the ability to implement and route new connections through appropriate hardware. This is fundamental to increase bandwidth and reduce latency for connectivity services.

Provisioning Connectivity and Cross-Connects
The planning and cabling of different partners or partners and a platform in the data center through cross-connects and meet-me-rooms is fundamental. Fast and automated routing and patching can help to speed-up service delivery tremendously and generate higher incomes through the amount of connects delivered to peers.

Incident Management
Fast root-cause analysis leads to a quick problem resolution and helps to avoid penalties because SLAs are not met. This is especially interesting when analyzing errors and their impact not only in active and monitored infrastructure environments, but also in passive elements. Impact analysis and routing through the entire facility infrastructure within a central database of documented assets is essential for a quick problem resolution.

Network Capacity Expansion Best Practices

While the market is growing and internet traffic is increasing, MTDCs need to be sure their communications network can withstand the added pressure of new customer demands. Implementing the right software solution to support the successful execution of their differentiation strategy is key.

Planning and performing a network capacity expansion can be a seamless process with a software solution like FNT Command. The appropriate solution will enable the analysis of network capacities to determine the need to increase network bandwidth. Infrastructure operations teams can easily identify this need based on the integrated dashboard analysis and warning thresholds provided by the implemented solution. 

After visually navigating the schematic network – operation teams can then view all of the components needed to be installed in the rack view. An appropriate software solution can generate a specific report for connected services that can be used to understand which customers and services will be affected when the node is switched off for the capacity expansion and maintenance measures. All services provided through this specific node can be easily displayed, including all service hierarchies. 

Third, the installation of a new card to expand network capacities can be planned by the responsible network infrastructure manager visually within the rack view and based on the integrated asset library that comes with a solution such as FNT Command.