Canadian Lawyer InHouse

25 CANADiANLAWyERMAG.CoM/iNhousE april 2014 FiGuRiNG ouT ThE RiGhT DATA CENTRE MoDEL FoR youR oRGANiZATioN REQuiREs iNvEsTiNG soME TiME iN uNDERsTANDiNG WhAT's oN oFFER. D on't think of it as a data centre, especially if the complexities of procuring informa- tion technology infrastructure and establishing an agreement that mitigates risk seems over- whelming. Do what Darren Ghan suggests, and think of it as a garage instead. According to the general counsel at service provider CentriLogic Inc. in Toronto, there are different versions of the data-centre-as-garage scenario. You can build a garage yourself, and deal with whatever happens to it, or you can rent or lease a garage, in which case your land- lord is obliged to make sure it has all the power and cooling you'd need for your van, but you'd be responsible for the van itself and what- ever you carry around inside it. Alternately, you could work out a deal where you not only get the garage but the van, and someone else is respon- sible for changing the oil and putting things inside it, but you decide where it's driven. Ghan uses the garage analogy because his fi rm is one of those offering the various "rental" options, which in the data centre market are more com- monly referred to as colocation (where the provider takes on more of the work) and managed services. He says it's the easiest way to get across the many nuances associated with determining what data centre strategy is right for a specifi c customer. "I fi nd that in a lot of cases, clients will know they need something, but they don't know what they need," he says. "They won't necessarily understand what colo or managed is. They'll have never set foot in a data centre." That may change soon, however. According to Toronto-based research fi rm IDC Canada, the market for data centres here is already worth $4.1 billion and is poised to grow another 7.2 per cent in 2014. This is probably because more companies need computer resources to handle not only back-offi ce internal functions but customer-facing things like web sites, mobile apps, and even web-based programs for sales, marketing, and fi nance functions. Dan McMullen, business unit executive, site and facilities, with IBM Canada, works with companies across all the available business models, whether it's helping design and operate a data centre for a large organization or helping one completely outsource its data centre operations into what's called a "hosted" online environment, or cloud computing. "It comes down to size and strategy," he says. "They may not want to invest in the IT skills, so they'll look at a colocation model. Or if they have great enough needs around security, privacy, or records management, then they're by shane schicK '' '' i fi nd that in a lot of cases, clients will know they need something, but they don't know what they need. They won't necessarily understand what colo or managed is. They'll have never set foot in a data centre. darren Ghan, centrilogic inc.

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