Sheri gill
In uncertain times, it is vital to ensure your company is as cost-efficient as possible. One main way to do this is to re-evaluate your data center’s pricing model. On a daily basis, enterprise IT spends more complex, wider, and much more expenses that are fueled with cloud mitigation and digital transformation. From power to other infrastructure expenses, taking a more thorough look into these expenses can possibly save you a lot of money.
The Biggest Expenses in Running a Data Center
When perusing your data center expenses, of course, you will want to see the biggest expenses, and they are as follows:
1. Power
Power is used mostly for maintaining a cool and comfortable environment for its workers as well as for IT servers and other IT equipment, but also to power all the equipment.
You can sum up the equipment consumption by looking at the equipment specifications which is typically a range that consists of processing loads.
In cases where the consumption is too much in kilowatts, you may consider purchasing actual power consumption, i.e. metered. For lights, office cooling, and other non-IT equipment requirements, you can only lower your bill by getting as close to the data center’s Power Use Efficiency (PUE) as possible.
2. Space
A range from $6 per square foot to more than $12 per square foot is typically the cost of commercial office space. Also, approximately 1700 square feet is required for the average data center. So, let’s say you take the median cost of $8 per square foot. You will be looking at approximately $13,600 monthly for your office space.
You can also roughly access how much your power will be by multiplying the power consumed by the power cost and then adding it to the cost per square foot.
3. Networking
There are two components when it comes to network access: Cross-connect and Internet Access (IP) charges. Usually, IP access is the cost per megabytes which is typically a fixed consumption, such as 1,000Mb, 500Mb, or 250Mb. The type of media used determines the charges for cross-connect. These media types could be Coax or DS1 / E1, Fiber, or copper for POTS.
4. Technicians
These experts hired by the data center are very vital to your organization and should be treated as such if you do not want to lose them. It is more expensive to lose valuable employees and hire other technicians who may or may not work out. So, staying abreast of their job market and salaries will go a long way, so they will not be lured to go somewhere else with better pay and benefits. Also, maintaining a great work environment goes a long way to keep your valuable team players.
The salary for data center technicians ranges from $45,050 to $69,779. These salaries are determined by various factors: Education, experience, certifications, and additional skills.
Your center can also hire remote hands, to serve as digital technician assistants. These remote hands can be hired in various units or as a pre-purchased package or an as-used basis.
It is so important to look more closely at these expenses because you can incur some blindsides that can cost significantly much more than they would not if you would have done your due diligence.
For instance, when it comes to providers, some will charge for the network, space, and power while others will only charge for the network and power. Also, all of them charge for cross-connects, but some of them may not charge cabinet power. In this case, these providers will charge different cooling power rates.
Conclusion
Taking the time to thoroughly ensure you are being much more cost-efficient in your data center will go a long way. You may be surprised how much money you would lose or have lost due to the use of disparate and inconsistent pricing models.
It is understandable how busy our society is to be and remain on top of the competitive game. However, you can also save your bottom line as well if you seriously use the information above. In many cases, your company can save tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, make sure you look at the details concerning data center expenses, having a more efficient data center, data center safety, and more. The lower expenses, such as equipment parts and office supplies, can be easily handled.
