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The 21st century differs sharply from what the world has ever seen. We are fortunate to see evidence of endless shifts and changes. And we are driven by curiosity and optimization, looking to discover more about ourselves and the world around us by better understanding the data.
Our society is keen on inventing new technologies, on providing more accessible solutions, on getting a deeper understanding and on collecting more data. Due to technological accessibility, using smartphones, surfing the web and installing numerous applications, we might seem to be overwhelmed with information. Its flow seems to never stop. But if we pursue these processes consciously, we will conclude that the real gold is the data we, the users, generate.
Imagine, companies acquire data for users and, frankly speaking, in many cases, users even pay for sharing their own data via telecom service providers. Later, companies convert it into information data and resell it, which becomes insight into how to boost development, how to optimize business processes, how to increase productivity, how to maintain crucial discoveries and how to contribute to overall life improvement. But someone is making big bucks on this!
To excite and motivate, let’s look at some numbers. IDC predicts that the world’s data storage will grow to 175 zettabytes by 2025, a 61% increase from 2018. It was reportedly estimated that 1.2 trillion digital photos would be taken in 2017. That’s about 160 pictures by each of the 7.5 billion people on the planet. Then we have videos, emails, endless social networks and lots of big data to consider.
If we look at the so-called big data and impose its application on the corporate world, we will be free to say that companies are blind and deaf without it. Data has become an indisputable factor in negotiations, discussions and convictions. We can resolve issues only if the data we collect and analyze can provide value and make a difference.
Rapidly growing volumes and value of data and its processing have brought the necessity of physical locations and the creation of data centers. If a company loses its data, it can, in some cases, become bankrupt. Though companies have existed in various forms since the onset of the computer, they have brought significant shifts in almost every sphere — from the way the data is being processed to social influences like the real estate market boom and the unemployment rate decrease. Data centers are centralized locations where computing equipment is placed for large amounts of data collection, processing, saving, distribution and access.
The global data center market size is predicted to grow by $284.44 billion between now and 2023. This market is witnessing increased investment and capacity expansion of existing facilities. Based on what I’m seeing, the increased investments are mainly ascribed to the increasing call for public cloud services and the use of alternative technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data.
But still, no matter how popular and demanded data centers are, ignoring marketing and excluding it from the business plan is the biggest mistake that can be made. Data centers are often considered “the brain” of a company and the place where the most critical processes are run. From the beginning, such centers were keen on keeping information for transnational corporations (TNCs) and government; today, they are transforming into a solution cloud services need for a bigger circle of users, including individuals and any businesses that use cloud services.
Global data centers are appearing rather fast and creating a highly competitive environment, giving clients many colocation data centers — including modular data centers — to choose between. Being centers for innovation and pioneering by nature, the logical presumption is to believe that data centers are especially open to new approaches, fresh ideas and innovative tools. They obviously could not become this way by keeping up with past notions of how the environment, modern world and society operates, so new marketing initiatives must be applied here as well — and quickly.
Not to become a victim of turmoil, marketing strategy for data centers must consider both directions: digital marketing and public relations (PR) strategy. Moreover, to gain success, the strategy has to be accurate, precise and customer-centric, fuelled with highly remarkable content that tutors and builds brand awareness while it solves clients’ challenges.
By delighting the customer and maintaining an emotional connection with them, the data center will be able to leverage traffic to the website and social media channels, raise brand awareness, convert visitors into leads, drive revenue and move toward prosperity. Robust and sophisticated PR strategy can set the data center apart from competitors, positioning it as a leader in the industry, and this can create new opportunities. Data centers use their own data to create competitive advantage as well, and data may define their strategic successes.
