In recent years, prebuilt office spaces have gained prominence as viable options for high-end renters in the New York metro area. As landlords have stepped up the game by providing more luxurious furnishings and amenities, the need for the latest in technology advancements has come into demand by prospective tenants. Providing best in class technology to tenants can be accomplished by landlords through cloud computing arrangements.
"Cloud Computing" refers to technology applications that can be hosted in a remote data center and delivered to the end user on demand (as-a-service) over an Internet connection. Many cloud service providers specialize in one or some of the technologies that businesses need; phone, backup, data storage, application servers, etc. Some of these Cloud providers also require customers to have qualified in-house staff members that are capable of migrating files and applications to their hosting sites. While many of these providers are reliable, making the choice to work with more than one can result in overlap of services, vendor management constraints, and extra paperwork due to multiple billing cycles.
Most prebuilt office spaces should be "technology infrastructure-ready" -some have riser management systems in place to accommodate telecommunication carriers, and the office and conference spaces are outfitted with conduits and stub ups for future communication cabling requirements. The tenant would then be responsible for entering voice and data service agreements with carriers, and contracting with individual vendors to design and build their voice, data, and video solutions.
Prebuilt office space landlords now have the opportunity to create an additional amenity and potential profit center by partnering with a cloud computing vendor that provides comprehensive technology services. The chosen vendor can manage all of the technology and infrastructure, eliminating the need for the landlord to take on extra IT staff. Tenants can complete a "technology requirements survey" that will indicate the desired services. The cloud computing partner will turn up the services for the tenant, and the landlord and/or vendor can invoice on a monthly basis for a predetermined fee per service. Any help desk questions, service calls, and maintenance will be taken care of by the cloud partner in a way that is seamless and transparent to the end user.
All voice, data, and video applications can be managed from a secure Network Operations Center (NOC), and delivered over a high speed Internet connection. Services can be turned up on a per user basis, with features such as Voice-over-IP with unified messaging, presence with IM, and hosted business productivity applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and Exchange email. Additional features such as storage, SQL servers, dedicated/private servers, offsite backup, and business continuity/disaster recovery solutions can be provisioned by the vendor and billed back to the tenant. Requirements to design and build a designated IT room are no longer needed when voice, video and data reside in the cloud. Because of this, the need for supplemental air conditioning and a majority of the associated power requirements are eliminated. Landlords and tenants can now take back space to repurpose it for office use.
There are many economic and productivity related benefits to cloud computing. Subscribers pay only for the technology they need to use without having to make large capital expenditures for equipment, and new users and features can be provisioned in real time without the need to hire additional IT staff. With a tenant-based model, prebuilt office space landlords can offer their customers a premium amenity with the potential for an additional profit center.
Layne Frank is director of sales for BBH Solutions, Inc., New York, N.Y.
Tags: