Keep the server only in-house – often heard instructions from the company manager. However, many stakeholders are gradually reviewing their position. The change of approach is justified by professional, security and financial considerations, while the pandemic has accelerated the process somewhat. Events are closely monitored by professional data center providers, including Servergarden. Dániel Kólya, Managing Director and Erik Solymosi, Commercial and Business Development Director, spoke to Computerworld about the digitalisation that will become a utility and the future relationship between companies and hosting providers.
Dániel Kólya: If there is electricity and water in an apartment or office, we take it for granted, but if we don’t, we will be nervous. It is no longer special today to be able to take advantage of the opportunities offered by digitalisation. In addition to the internet connection, IT tools, it also means that our data is safe somewhere. But it doesn’t matter where. Professional data centers are the best, most secure choice for companies. These facilities are now considered to be the same utilities as electricity or water utilities.
Erik Solymosi: When we talk about utilities, it is crucial that the price of the service should be available to the general public, in our case the corporate sector. This has become a reality today, as a virtual server can be purchased for up to HUF 2,500 per month, and a physical server for up to HUF 20,000 per month. These costs are commensurate with your phone bill, making them affordable for smaller companies as well. This type of utility made it possible for online work to be brought to life or spread by the pandemic. Those who were not in the office could also work smoothly.
Computerworld: Is there some reorganization expected after the Covid crisis?
SE: In our view, this is more or less the case in the world, and companies renting physical or virtual servers typically do not return to their own, own systems operated on site. They realized that this construction is not expensive, and it is easy to use, easy to turn on and cancel.
KD: Here is a good example. We probably would have met in person two years ago, and the interview would have been more cumbersome to organize, much more time-consuming to conduct than we did now, in the online space. We got used to the online world during the pandemic. I see that in most companies, employees don’t go back to the office for five days out of five days a week. Home offi ce has become natural, and the use of a data center is essential in such circumstances. This is because work is hampered if, for example, sensitive data is stored on the executive director’s laptop. Nor is it safe for no one to take care of the server for weeks, as employees don’t come in to work. There are now a number of ways to keep data in a secure way, even in the cloud, to which everyone can access it anytime, anywhere.
CW: Some examples would be given where
SE: Take, for example, an agricultural a shop selling machines, where many shoppers come from the countryside, in the early hours. If farmers from afar are unable to make a purchase due to a sudden server shutdown, they are likely to turn elsewhere. If the server is running in a data center with 7×24 monitoring, this cannot happen, as the system will automatically indicate the problem and the service provider will rectify the problem quickly, even at night.
KD: Black Friday promotions are very popular nowadays, which means a jump in traffic in the web store on certain days. During these periods – but only then – the online store should operate at a higher capacity than usual. With your own server, this cannot be done economically. A scalable server or a short-term rental VPS, ie a virtual private server, can be a solution.
CW: Has the demand for their services increased during the pandemic?
SE: Compared to the previous year, we saw a 10-15 percent increase in turnover. Several factors combined influenced the process. The spread of home offi ce and online work had a positive effect, but in the opposite direction, the turnover of many companies decreased, their activity decreased. We advertise our product range by saying that our customers can always buy as much as they need. So if a company is not doing well, we will feel it.
CW: What direction can a data center provider take in the current situation?
KD: Our most important services are physical and virtual server rental, server hosting, operation of all of them, and software rental. We are now focusing on increasing our professional added value, this is what we want to make companies aware of. When they use our services, they also buy our excellent expertise available 7×24 hours. We must not forget that IT professionals are expensive, especially when their working hours are not used.
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