Company insight
unnecessarily – while at the same time, high maintenance costs cut into the resources that are needed for true digital innovation. The right data-centre provider ensures the overall success of this transformation, including that of the reference model: in other words, from focusing on CapEx (capital expenditures) to OpEx (operational expenditures).
How can a data-centre provider support agility and transformation on all levels?
The right provider offers maximum flexibility, including in data centres. They can do this, for example, by offering pay- as-you-grow payment models to match the costing models of the public cloud. This allows the payment model behind the IT infrastructure to be transformed – from CapEx to OpEx. What’s more, the right partner needs to have assessment and migration skills. Both help accelerate and realise major migration projects with minimal effort by customers. This, in turn, eases the burden on in-house resources – as it’s no secret that specialists are hard to find.
Green has launched its own green initiative, whereby it feeds the waste heat from the data centre into a specially designed heating network to be used for public heating purposes.
economy over the long term. Data-centre providers, on the other hand, are in particular able to support FSI customers very well. They can do this, for example, by testing different cooling concepts, helping to optimise architecture, carefully recycling hardware and supplying 100% sustainable energy at reasonable costs. In this respect,
“Data-centre providers have the power to make a significant contribution to climate- friendly digitalisation.”
What kind of impact is digital transformation having on a financial institution’s sustainability agenda? And how can a data- centre provider support this? We can’t avoid making climate targets our priority. Missing them would be fatal. The pressure on the economy will only increase – through regulatory requirements, specific sanctions with financial consequences and pressure from consumers. Since banking is nearly fully digitalised, so-called ‘green IT’ plays a key role here. No matter where providers supply technology elements they will have to contribute to achieving climate targets. There are two different approaches here: providers can either make commitments through carbon credits or launch their own initiatives. I don’t consider the first option to be particularly useful, especially as it doesn’t affect any change in the digital
Future Banking /
www.nsbanking.com
we go one step further. We feed the waste heat from the data centre into a specially designed heating network, so that it can be used by the public for heating purposes. While data centres may be major consumers, due to the energy used by the customers’ servers, they can also be part of the solution. Data-centre providers have the power to make a significant contribution to climate-friendly digitalisation.
What can you tell us about the challenges financial institutions face in respect to security – and ensuring the constant availability and resiliency of their mission- critical infrastructure? Security, availability and resiliency requirements have all increased over the past few years. Additionally, processes have to be documented, tested and certified, as stipulated by the Uptime Institute’s leading
M&O standard, by which Green is certified. In contrast, there is a shortage of qualified specialists for these kinds of demanding operations across data centres. The high standard data-centre providers operate at makes it easier for FSI customers to buy infrastructures as a service. A good provider meets all the common standards – as well as the specific ones set out by FSI customers. A mission-critical ethos is anchored within the organisation. These days, individual requests for specific security systems are another common occurrence in large data centres – and whatever the customer wants is put into action.
What can you tell us about Switzerland as a data centre location and what makes it a particularly suitable place for banks to locate their servers? Switzerland is ideally located at the heart of Europe – and has a long tradition of security and neutrality. It boasts political stability, well-qualified specialists, a highly developed infrastructure and data sovereignty. No wonder companies value its location and view it as a suitable hub for its activities for all sectors across Europe. From a TCO perspective, it’s also highly competitive when it comes to pricing. Growth rates of 20% and more per year speak volumes of Switzerland’s qualities as a data centre market. ●
www.green.ch 57
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