Leasing data center infrastructure is a primary data center solution for many companies today. Whether utilizing cloud or colocation, entering into a relationship with a data center operator provides several benefits to the end user. Our current blog series has explored these advantages, including economic savings, flexibility, scalability, and the competitive market. A final yet important benefit leasing provides data center users is the timing advantage.

Speed-to-market is now a more influential part of how companies evaluate needed data center solutions. Because of the changing business climate, users want and need access to their data center as quickly as possible. Building a company’s own data center takes time, especially for organizations with complex data center needs. By the time the solution is complete, the IT strategy can change or the company may want to pursue a different strategic direction. These delays can often cause stalled business initiatives, allowing competing companies to introduce similar services and start attracting customers.

Leasing often provides an organization with a faster path to their end data center solution. With the infrastructure already in place, companies can move into their leased solution and immediately implement their strategy, often providing a more dependable execution path. Furthermore, organizations can add additional services and scale up the amount of capacity needed instead of having to design, build, and install their own data center, often delaying the release of new services. We currently track approximately 200 MW of available critical power in the ten primary US data center markets, meaning users have a number of available options for their data center needs.

The very recent announcements of cloud providers choosing to lease their data center solutions instead of building their own is a good example of how timing can influence these decisions. In the past, these cloud operators built and owned their data centers in markets with low power cost and favorable tax incentives. Over the past twelve months, however, several cloud providers have leased large amounts of power in major colocation markets like Chicago, Northern California, and Northern Virginia. These companies are obviously capable of doing it themselves, but the speed-to-market advantage in these geographies greatly influenced their decisions.

As companies depend more and more on technology, the timing advantage leasing data center infrastructure provides becomes extremely important. Data center strategies change often, and leasing infrastructure today provides users extraordinary benefits.