Gartner predicts that business intelligence and analytics will remain a top focus for CIOs until at least 2017, when the big data technology and services market is set to be worth €32.4bn globally, having grown six times faster than the overall ICT market. This rapid growth is helping to support the success of the datacentre market, in particular colocation.

A combination of factors and trends is driving this growth to create the perfect data storm. Migration to cloud and the beginnings of an exponential growth of business data are key factors. The UK Trade & Investment claims the annual UK cloud computing market will grow to £6.1 billion this year and by 2015, half of all new spending by the public sector will be on public cloud services. There has never been a greater need for companies to address their storage issues. Growing data and infrastructure complexities are seeing companies of all sizes look to co-locate to create a strategic advantage. This is now even impacting SMEs, in particular, the complexities of data.

Companies need to select a colocation partner carefully in order to ensure it meets their business needs now and importantly, going forward. Barriers and other disruptive factors will continue to hit business, and premium colocation services can help safeguard against some of these. It is imperative that a provider is able to provide flexibility to futureproof itself, and in turn, its customers.

Datacentre operators now need to provide additional value, not just the best in hardware, cooling and other facility considerations.

Premium Datacentre providers, such as Telehouse, can provide a connectivity hub with respective partners and suppliers, if co-located in the same space. This marks a shift with datacentres now helping companies meet conceptual and strategic needs, building their own services and offerings.

Location can make a huge difference in terms of quality, which was a key decider in Telehouse’s choice of London as its location, due for further expansion. London is a global hub, not just economically but in terms of its connectivity. Every major telecoms provider hosts connection in to London that expand across Europe.

Latency is also a huge advantage wrought by creating London datacentres. Minimising latency is vital in industries from TV broadcast to the financial services. Positioning a datacentre in London, close to the epicentres of these industries means we are capable of reducing latency times to sub-millisecond.

The availability of power going forward is more in the spotlight than ever before and is vital to the successful operation of datacentres. Additional resilience, reliability and performance can be addressed through primary sub-stations on campus, as with Telehouse.

As well as power creation, companies should ensure their provider is energy efficient. Telehouse will introduce ambient cooling into its new facility, which uses the naturally cool air surrounding a building to reduce heat within it. The company also distributes waste energy back into the local community, converting it to heat water for local residents and businesses.

Security is another key consideration. A PWC BIS commissioned report highlighted that 93% of large organisations had a security breach in 2013 and are facing difficulties in keeping up with threats and regulation changes. Telehouse has a 100% record with no breaches during its twenty-five year existence to date. It continues to stringently monitor and improve its security through annual security audits, not only meeting but exceeding compliance regulation.

Datacentres house such business critical information and systems that they must firmly keep pace with industry developments and demands. A premium partner should not buckle under the strain as big data continues to explode and become more complex. It is more important than ever before for companies to ensure their colocation provider can aid their competitive advantage now and in the future. The choice could be the difference between business survival and failure.