托管服务:供应商的利弊
Colocation Managed Services: Pros and Cons for ProvidersChristopher Tozzi | Sep 07, 2021
托管服务的供应商都在销售的是一个核心的产品：数据中心。
Colocation providers all sell one core product: data center space.
现在托管服务商销售的不仅仅是不动产（也就是场地），还同时提供各种类型的托管服务，旨在帮助客户设置、管理、监视和保护在托管设施，或在其他场地运行的业务负载。
But a variety of colos now sell much more than just real estate. They also offer varying types of managed services designed to help customers set up, manage, monitor and secure workloads running inside colocation facilities – and, in some cases, in other locations as well.
那为什么一些托管供应商从事这个业务领域呢？而有些在回避托管服务？本文将分析这些问题，概述托管和托管服务是如何融合的。
Why are some colos getting into the managed services business? And just as important, why are some steering sharply clear of offering colocation managed services? This article unpacks those questions to provide an overview of how colocation and managed services converge.
“托管服务”的多重含义
The Multiple Meanings of ‘Managed Service’
要理解托管服务在托管市场中的角色，首先必须理解托管服务的基本定义。
To understand the role of managed services in the colocation market, you must first understand what a managed service means in general.
不幸的是，这里没有简单的解释。IT行业内对托管服务的传统定义源于托管服务提供商(MSP)交付的解决方案，实质上是即IT外包。MSP通常采用手动操作的方法，为各种类型的IT需求提供全套的设置和管理。客户通常按月付费。MSP受益于持续的收入，而客户受益于可预测的可控成本。
Unfortunately, there’s no simple explanation here. The traditional definition of managed service within the IT industry centers on the type of solution delivered by managed service providers, or MSPs, which are essentially IT outsourcing firms. MSPs typically take a hands-on approach that provides complete setup and management for various types of IT needs. Customers typically pay a monthly fee. The MSP benefits from ongoing revenue, while the customer benefits from predictable cost.
但在其他场景中，托管服务不一定有这么广泛。例如，“托管服务”这个标签经常应用于Kubernetes等基于云的服务平台，但并不意味着会类似MSP为你管理各个方面。大多数基本上只是自动化基础设施的配置和管理，其他一切都留给客户。
But in other contexts, managed services aren’t necessarily this extensive. For example, the label “managed” is frequently applied to cloud-based services for platforms like Kubernetes. But “managed Kubernetes” doesn’t mean that an MSP comes in and manages every aspect of Kubernetes for you. Most managed Kubernetes services basically automate infrastructure provisioning and management alone and leave everything else to customers.
在其他情况下，您还可以找到一些托管服务的示例，它们主要是帮助客户规划IT部署，而不帮客户管理。换句话说，这些解决方案看起来更像是咨询服务，而不是管理服务，尽管它们有时被营销包装为后者。
In still other cases, you can find examples of managed services that amount mostly to helping customers plan IT deployments, as opposed to actually implementing them for the customer. In other words, these solutions look more like consulting services than managed services, even though they are sometimes marketed as the latter.
托管服务的业务模式
Colocation Managed Services Models
围绕着托管服务定义的模棱两可在IT行业的方方面面都适用的，托管也不例外。
The ambiguity surrounding what defines managed services holds true across most corners of the IT industry, and colocation is no exception.
有些托管，通常是小型的，除了数据中心本身外，还提供全面的托管服务。例如，纽约地区的托管供应商DataVerge提供了一套托管服务，客户可购买服务不仅支持DataVerge自己的数据中心内运行的设备负载，还可以支持外部区域。同样，大型托管供应商DataBank也在其混合云战略中增加了手动托管服务。
There are some colos – typically, smaller ones – that are full-service MSP shops in addition to being data center providers. For example, DataVerge, a colocation provider in the New York region, offers a suite of managed services that customers can purchase not only to help support workloads running in DataVerge’s own data centers, but in external locations as well. Likewise, DataBank, a larger colocation provider, has added hands-on managed services to its hybrid cloud strategy.
其他托管服务大多属于“基础设施自动化”类别。最好的例子可能是Equinix，只要客户购买了服务包，可以为客户提供裸机服务，帮助客户自动设置基础设施(Equinix也在某些地区提供其他类型的托管服务，但这些服务与它的裸机解决方案没有直接联系)。
Other colos deliver managed services that fall mostly into the “infrastructure automation” category. Probably the best example is Equinix, which bought Packet in order to deliver a bare-metal-as-a-service offering that helps customers automate infrastructure setup within colocation facilities. (Equinix also offers other types of management services in certain regions, but these are not directly connected to its bare-metal-as-a-service solution.)
至于以咨询为主的托管服务类别，你可以从像Evoque这样的托管中发现。Evoque最近收购了一家咨询公司，帮助客户规划包含已托管资源在内的IT架构。CyrusOne是另一个提供咨询服务的托管公司。
As for the consulting-centric category of managed service, you can find that from colos like Evoque, which recently acquired a consulting firm to help customers plan architectures that include colocated resources. CyrusOne is another example of a colo that provides some consulting services.
尽管大多数托管供应商都提供某种形式的托管服务，但并非所有都认同了此类解决方案内的价值。例如，今年早些时候，QTS负责网络连接的执行副总裁肖恩·贝利(Sean Baillie)在接受Data Center Knowledge采访时表示:“我们不提供托管服务，未来也不会。”
Although it seems that a majority of colocation providers offer some form of managed service, not all see value in such solutions. For instance, Sean Baillie, executive vice president for connectivity at QTS, told Data Center Knowledge in an interview earlier this year, “We don't do managed services, and we're not going to.”
总结:托管服务的取舍原因
Summary: The Why (and Why Not) of Colocation Managed Services
托管通过提供托管服务能获得什么(或失去什么)？为什么在设计托管服务产品时，有些人会选择不同的策略？虽然很难对这些问题得出明确的结论，但有几个趋势似乎很清楚。
What do colos stand to gain (or lose) by offering managed services, and why are some choosing different strategies than others when devising managed service offerings? While it’s difficult to draw hard-and-fast conclusions about these questions, a few trends seem clear.
一个趋势是，混合云是越来越多的托管服务商对提供某种形式的托管服务感兴趣的部分原因。在这个时代，越来越多的托管客户接受混合架构，将托管的设备负载与公有云服务结合在一起，托管供应商希望通过提供公有云供应商大多数没有提供的管理咨询或支持解决方案，由此来获得优势。也许，这是一种鼓励客户将更多的负载保留放在托管设施内，而不是与托管服务商竞争日益激烈的公有云的方法。
One is that hybrid cloud is part of the reason why more and more colos are interested in delivering some form of managed service. In an age when more and more colocation customers are embracing hybrid architectures that blend colocated workloads with public cloud services, colocation providers seem eager to gain an edge – and deliver something that public cloud providers mostly don’t – by offering managed consulting or support solutions. It’s a way, perhaps, of encouraging customers to keep more of their workloads inside colocation facilities and out of public clouds that increasingly compete with colos.
第二个趋势是，小型托管供应商似乎对提供全方位托管服务更感兴趣，为了让自己从大型托管供应商中脱颖而出。如果您经营的是一个区域性的托管供应商，无法涵盖全球网络的数据中心，那么您至少可以提供一些手动的托管服务。
A second trend is that small colos seem more interested in offering full-service management solutions, presumably to help themselves stand out from large colos. If you run a regional colo that can’t boast a global network of data centers, you can at least deliver a set of hands-on managed services that most large colos, which focus primarily on real estate, can’t.
那些托管服务，或者至少没有广泛推广托管服务解决方案的公司呢？他们可能认为，坚持核心的、经过验证的托管业务模式，从长远来看将获得最好的结果。构建托管服务的成本很高，并且给托管的业务操作增加了更多的复杂性。因此这是可以理解，为什么一些托管供应商喜欢坚持他们最了解的事情：出租出售不愿提供数据中心的场地，其余让客户完成。
What about those that have disavowed colocation managed services, or at least not developed any managed service solutions extensively? They perhaps believe that sticking to the core, tried-and-true colocation business model will yield the best results in the long term. Managed services are expensive to build and add much more complexity to a colo’s business operations. It’s understandable why some colos prefer to stick to what they know best: selling data center real estate and leaving it up to customers to do what they will with it.
深 知 社
翻译：
甄宗亚
万国数据 高级产品总监
DKV（Deep Knowledge Volunteer）成员
校对：
Plato Deng
数据中心高级研究员 /DKV（Deep Knowledge Volunteer）创始成员
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