Virtual data centres are the affordable, scalable and flexible data solution every company needs.

Cloud computing has become such a key term in the tech industry, particularly in the last year, that, at this point, it might almost be a little bit embarrassing to admit if you still don’t know what it means. If we’re all being honest, the cloud still sounds as magical and suspiciously ephemeral now as it did when it first became a tech buzzword a little over a decade ago.

Unpacking the mystery

What ‘the cloud’ really refers to are massive, remote data centres accessed by users via the Internet – usually housed on less-than-prime pieces of real estate. That’s a bit more reassuring, right?

At Vox, we host in multiple secure data centres across South Africa. Thanks to our country’s Protection of Personal Information (PoPI) act, companies need to ensure their data is only stored in countries with privacy acts as strong as ours, so, generally, it’s safest to store your data within our borders – this is a must anyway if you’re part of the financial services or government sectors.

Related: Key considerations for an effective cloud strategy 

The cloud is still an absolute fairy-tale for those of us who remember having to buy masses of external hard drives to store our photos, videos and precious documents.

Hard drives prone to malfunction, mislabelling and software incompatibility…

Cloud computing is an even bigger deal for small to medium size enterprises (SMEs) who might not have the budget to build a data centre of their own but find they can’t run a successful business without one. This is where the virtual data centre (VDC) comes in.

Changing the game

When setting up your own data centre, as a rule, it’s always been best to overestimate the number of servers needed rather than be faced with too few – which are costly to buy and take a long time to order and install. Choose too many though, and you’re at risk of blowing your IT budget on infrastructure you don’t need.

This choice of a rock or a hard place is made less so with a VDC that not only allows companies to start off with as many servers as they’d like, but scale back or add on where needed and only pay for the storage used.

Instant access

Not only does the Vox VDC offer businesses access to a complete data centre without having to worry about things like power, connectivity and floor space, it also provides users with the ability to manage virtual machines, networking and edge gateways exactly as they would on-site from a custom-built, user-friendly platform.

Companies are then able to access their data via secure online portals from wherever they happen to be, using any device at hand. The only thing needed is an Internet connection – and we’ve got you covered there too.

But, that’s enough talk. It’s time to click through to our handy tutorial and discover what spinning up a Vox VDC looks like for yourself.