Case Study. 4D-DC services used: Colocation & Connectivity. Data Liberation provides expertise and insight to

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2 Case Study Company: Location: Sector: Data Liberation Wimbledon, UK Market Research 4D-DC services used: Colocation & Connectivity Company bio: Data Liberation provides expertise and insight to some of the world s largest research companies, and some of the smaller ones too. Their team is experienced in delivering insightful market research projects. PAGE 2

3 Tell us about your business - in a nutshell, what does Data Liberation do? High level, we understand what customers want and translate that into systems to give them that data. In a more basic term - we write reporting systems for market research. We don t have research people with us, we re a bunch of geeks, building the back end systems. So who do you work with? Who buys your products? We work with lots of research agencies which then in turn work with other companies from SMEs to blue chips. Lots of people do not want others to know where their data is, but that s where Data Liberation is different. We want our clients to know that our data is in the UK, in Byfleet. I always invite them to come to the data centre, to take them to see the servers that their data will sit on. Keeping data location a secret seems silly to me; I am proud to be able to say where the data is and how secure it is. PAGE 3

4 Was 4D your first supplier of colocation services? No, we used to use BT before, in their data centre in Cardiff, back in 2006/2007. We then moved to 4D around At the time we had a lot of our data on our own rack in our office, which we still do, but I didn t want to have to worry about air conditioning and power all the time, so having our main rack in 4D Surrey I don t have to worry about cooling if it s hot at the weekend. Once we moved here our in-house set up was downsized considerably. We now have a quiet rack, which is fantastic. We also replicate our data from our office to here and from here to our office. And we have tape backups in addition to this, so at any one time there are multiple backups of the data sets making sure that there is no way we can ever lose data. What were the key drivers to move? Location, location, location. You had to tick all the other boxes like redundant power and internet connections etc. all the standard ones like lots of data centres have - those things are hard to differentiate datacentres by, but location is always going to be the number one choice for companies like mine. Making sure the data centre wasn t in the middle of London or difficult to get to is important to me. I m based in Wimbledon and wanted somewhere I could drive to in 20 minutes if I had to. PAGE 4

5 So do you use the remote hands? I can do, I haven t much in all honesty, but when we have set things up we get them to push the odd button here and there, but it s more of a peace of mind thing, knowing that your trained staff are here all the time. And that brings me onto the second reason why I chose the 4D site: people. I wanted to work with data centre owners; a lot of people who say they own a data centre, in reality, don t, which is not what I wanted. I can come in and talk to someone I know if there is a problem. The security of knowing that I can get help when I need it from any level of seniority is very important to me. Did you look at other providers when you looked at 4D? Yes I did, but I never made it onto another site tour. Back in 2013 I phoned up and spoke to one of the account management team at 4D-DC. The person at the other end of the phone was fun, engaging and knowledgeable. When I then went onto speak to other providers they didn t give me confidence on the phone to start with, they gave me the feeling that I wouldn t like the building, so I didn t even bother looking at the sites. One of the other sites I was considering is bigger than yours, I think it may well have been better known than 4D at the time, but I felt that my company would be a nobody to them and that we wouldn t matter. Even at 4D we may not be a large client but we do feel like we matter to you. Any tips for people looking for colocation? I think research is essential, word of mouth is even more important. PAGE 5

6 So what would you say to someone else embarking on the journey of finding a colocation provider? I would recommend that they come to 4D-DC, even if this site is not ideal in terms of location for them, I would still say to come here and look at the site. Location is important to me, but it s also everything else: it s the staff; the ability to meet people and discuss things here; the s and contact with you; it shows someone is there and cares about the business. So many other people within your environment are just faceless boxes, who are not there all the time. If things go wrong you need to know that you can just pick up the phone trust the people to fix it, and with 4D I do. PAGE 6

7 The account management team what are they like? I like your account managers, they are easy to relate to, informative and knowledgeable. I am quite tough on the account managers. If they started pushing other services too hard I would probably tell them to go away. Luckily they don t so we get along well. Generally I am tough on communications because I am so busy. I think most people are too busy these days. The nice thing about the information that we get from you is that it reminds me to look at your website every so often. I skim the newsletters and I am aware you have a cloud offering now. I will definitely consider it if I ever have a need for it. How is the on-going service? I am happy as long as I don t have to phone you. If I phone you there s a problem so that s why you rarely hear from me! Your service is a little like insurance; you never want to have to use it but you always make sure you have it in place just in case the worst happens. Before Data Liberation came to 4D we were worried about the environment our servers were in-for instance power, lighting, air conditioning. Now we have peace of mind that we know our servers are looked after. PAGE 7

8 About us 4D specialises in providing flexible, highly efficient, resilient and cost-effective connectivity, cloud and colocation solutions. As an independent provider based in the UK, 4D prides itself on its outstanding customer service, 24/7 support and security from its flagship Tier 3 data centre in Surrey. Clients range from start-ups and SMEs, through to IT providers, large corporates, the public sector and organisations in the financial and legal sectors. Connectivity Owning its own diverse dark fibre to Points of Presence (POPs) in major data centres in London enables 4D s connectivity services to far exceed average internet connections. This ensures that speed is optimised, peak periods of activity don t affect operations and that businesses can scale up (and down) to reflect their requirements. Cloud 4D s Cloud Hosting platform combines the company s expertise as a data centre operator with the latest in cloud technology. Simply put, it s a virtual rack called Data Centre as a Service (DCaaS) that offers the ultimate in flexible and costeffective cloud storage. This approach enables businesses to scale their IT infrastructure in line with their needs - upgrading or indeed downsizing on the fly with 4D s highly resilient platform. Colocation Renowned for its reliability and resilience 4D offers a bespoke colocation solution that assures 100% power uptime and is exceptionally secure, cost effective, ecofriendly, flexible and highly scalable with 24/7 on-site support. For more information visit or contact our sales team on PAGE 8