5 critical reasons to move from a server room to a data center

As long as a company's IT systems run smoothly, an in-house server room often seems like a logical and cost-effective solution. However, as the business grows, and data volumes and workloads increase, this kind of "saving" begins to cost more and more.

One day, you realize there is no more room in your existing servers for additional memory, processors, or storage. Expanding the infrastructure now requires extra power capacity, more advanced cooling systems, or even new premises. And sometimes, it takes nothing more than a failed air-conditioning unit for IT equipment to overheat, or a plumbing leak or heavy rainstorm to bring operations to a halt.

Here are 5 reasons indicating that your server room is already posing risks to your business, and a professional data center is becoming a matter of business continuity rather than just IT.

Reason 1: Slow and unresponsive systems have become your everyday reality

One of the first signs that a company's server room can no longer keep up with the pace of business is slowing and lagging core systems. ERP, CRM, accounting, transport, or warehouse management systems start running sluggishly, disruptions occur, and employees increasingly complain and waste time being unable to perform their work.

"Companies often still operate with 5 to 10-year-old system versions, outdated operating systems, and databases that not only have performance issues but also hundreds of security vulnerabilities. We frequently see situations where the business is growing, data volumes and workloads are constantly increasing, but the IT infrastructure remains almost the exact same as it was five or ten years ago. This happens because physical limits for its expansion have been reached, and replacing it with a new one is expensive and complicated. Then, the company's core systems continuously slow down, lag, and sometimes simply crash," says Marijus Strončikas, Head of Altic IT.

Meanwhile, Viktoras Aliaševičius, Chief Operating Officer for Lithuania at Delska, emphasizes that modern data centers are designed specifically for growing workloads.

"Commercial data centers providing various IT services to businesses are optimized for high availability and uninterrupted operation. They allow IT infrastructure to grow alongside changing business needs, rather than becoming a bottleneck for that business. This becomes particularly relevant in today's context, where businesses face rapidly growing data volumes and artificial intelligence workloads that most old internal server rooms were simply not equipped to handle. Furthermore, a data center should accommodate not only current business needs but also future expansion, hybrid cloud environments, and growing data volumes to avoid operational risks down the road," he says.

M. Strončikas adds that when choosing commercial data center providers, it is also important to compare network performance, as even with the same amount of IT resources, their operating speed varies greatly.

"We have migrated client systems to different data center providers and seen cases where, after the migration, without changing anything, the same systems started running 30% to 3 times faster. Therefore, before migrating critical systems, we highly recommend conducting testing in several data centers and actually checking their future throughput," he says.

Reason 2: You are "saving," but expenses keep growing

Many companies choose an in-house server room believing it will save them money. However, in practice, the opposite often happens - infrastructure costs become difficult to predict and constantly increase.

"A point comes when you need to buy new servers and additional data storage. And then it turns out that the 'cheap server room' is actually very expensive. For example, you need to constantly expand servers with additional resources like processors, memory, and disks, but there is no room left to put them. That means expensive new purchases: servers, racks to house them, and new additional premises. And what if, when purchasing, you calculated that you were buying for five years, but due to company expansion, new systems, and much faster data growth, everything filled up in two years?", says Marijus Strončikas.

According to him, businesses think they are saving, but in reality, they are risking lost sales, clients, and reputation. A single major disruption can cost more than several years of services from a professional data center provider.

V. Aliaševičius adds that companies also frequently forget the "hidden" costs of infrastructure: electricity, cooling, backup power generators, hardware modernization and maintenance, downtime risks, and the need to hire people to maintain the infrastructure.

"Modern data centers allow for flexible infrastructure utilization – companies can predict costs much more accurately and avoid large lump-sum investments. This is becoming especially relevant now, as hardware infrastructure prices have increased significantly recently due to AI expansion and geopolitical factors. More and more companies, instead of constantly investing in their own hardware, are choosing cloud or data center services, thereby shifting infrastructure expenses from CAPEX to OPEX," explains V. Aliaševičius.

According to V. Aliaševičius, local or regional data centers also offer clearer pricing compared to some global public cloud platforms, where costs can grow alongside data traffic or workloads. Sustainability is also becoming an increasingly important factor, which today is directly linked to operational efficiency and cost optimization.

Reason 3: Your IT infrastructure is left unattended at nights and on weekends

Today, most businesses no longer operate from 8 AM to 5 PM. E-commerce, manufacturing, logistics, customer service systems, or internal corporate IT systems must run continuously. However, many companies' infrastructure is still maintained as if the business does not operate at night or on weekends.

"When a business requires guaranteed 24/7 operation, internal server rooms again become the weak link. After all, no one at the company is actually working and monitoring the infrastructure around the clock. That is exactly when companies begin to understand another difference between a server room and a real data center," says M. Strončikas.

V. Aliaševičius emphasizes that professional data centers are designed for uninterrupted operations.

"Today, downtime is no longer just an IT problem – it directly impacts revenue, customer experience, and reputation. When systems are down, a business cannot wait half a day for someone to respond to a request or start solving the problem. That is why prompt response and ensuring business continuity during critical moments are vital in professional data centers. Commercial data centers ensure redundant power supply, backup generators, 24/7 monitoring, multiple network/connectivity links, and rapid incident response," he says.

According to M. Strončikas, it is no less important who will maintain the systems after the migration to the data center provider.

"When the same IT partner is responsible for both the migration and subsequent maintenance, a seamless, single point of responsibility for stable system operation is established," he says.

Reason 4: The server room can no longer handle cooling demands

While there is little IT equipment, a simple air conditioner seems sufficient. However, as infrastructure grows, cooling becomes one of the biggest problems.

"Companies often reach a limit where the server room simply can no longer cool the equipment; it overheats and its various components (including IT hardware containing company business data) break down, sometimes even leading to irreversible data loss. Then it becomes necessary to invest in uninterrupted air conditioning, redundant power inputs, and power generators. And the issue becomes financial as well as technological. For small companies, investing in server room expansion simply becomes too expensive due to lack of scale, unlike commercial data centers," says M. Strončikas.

V. Aliaševičius emphasizes that data centers today are designed precisely for such scenarios.

"IT infrastructure for executing AI workloads requires significantly more power and advanced cooling technologies, including liquid cooling solutions. Because of this, modern data centers differ greatly from traditional server rooms today. For instance, Delska's new 10 MW data center in Riga already features advanced 'CoolWall' cooling systems and other technological environments necessary for high-density AI workloads," says V. Aliaševičius.

Reason 5: Security risks are starting to outweigh the "savings"

According to experts, the perception that keeping IT infrastructure "close by" in the company's office premises ensures better control remains widespread, so many companies only start thinking seriously about security after the first incident.

"We often see improvised server rooms under stairs, in storage closets, or office rooms. Sometimes a single power outage, a failed cooling system, or even spilled coffee near critical IT equipment is enough to stop company operations for several hours," says Viktoras Aliaševičius.

According to him, in practice, commercial data centers ensure a significantly higher level of physical security, redundancy, monitoring, and operational resilience than most internal company server rooms.