Many European companies housing mission critical equipment in unsuitable premises

Global Switch, a provider of purpose built, high specification data centres, has issued a warning to businesses across Europe regarding the dangers of housing 21st century IT infrastructure in unsuitable office buildings.

The results of a survey conducted by Global Switch show that only 41 percent of companies with 1000 or more employees surveyed across Europe are confident that their mission critical IT infrastructure is housed in a 'fit for purpose' environment. This is particularly alarming when 72 percent of respondents consider the overall resilience of the 'facility' as the most important feature when choosing where to house their IT infrastructure.

The survey highlights that most businesses continue to choose to locate mission critical IT systems within the same building as their staff, which according to Global Switch is not only increasingly risky, but also is often a highly impractical option. Office buildings are primarily designed to accommodate people and there are conflicting demands between 'people space' and 'IT space'.

Julian King, commercial director of Global Switch explains: "Office buildings simply cannot supply the necessary power, cooling and security to minimise the risk of costly downtime and meet business continuity requirements."

As businesses grow and technology becomes an integral factor in the company's success, many office buildings are struggling to provide the necessary resources to keep the infrastructure functioning continuously. Unsurprisingly, the solution, according to Global Switch, is to completely remove IT equipment from the office environment and house it in a purpose-designed data centre environment.

•Date: 8th Nov 2005 • Region: UK/W.Europe • Type: Article •Topic: IT continuity
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