Customers 'should demand better collaboration' from storage providers in colo situations, says Digital Realty

'For too long the sales guy just clears off' says VP of engineering

Customers should not put up with second-rate service when deploying their data in third-party locations, according to Digital Realty.

Speaking at Computing's Data Centre & Infrastructure Summit 2014, the company's VP of engineering for Europe, Robert Bath, said colocation providers need to get better at communicating with their customers.

"I think it requires much more conversation, with a colocation provider," said Bath.

"It's been the case in our industry for too long that the sales guy clears off and you're left wondering what's going on, and I think that's where a lot of service providers are trying to differentiate right now. So there's a desire to do it."

Bath said that two of Digitial Realty's biggest clients have "actually deployed in a third party facility" to great success, but good collaboration is required to carry out a successful operation. And customers should "demand" this.

"It does require collaboration because you need to be able to access information, but that shouldn't be a barrier; I think customers should demand it, because if I was going to deploy something outsourced, I wouldn't expect a substandard set of information, or a hole in my management tools just because I'd outsourced," concluded Bath.