Challenges for Importing IT Hardware for Data Centres

Released On 7th Nov 2018

Thirst for Data

In today’s world, computer networks are no longer contained within the walls of a business’s offices – virtual networking, hosting sites and global business means that network traffic can often span the earth regardless of where it originates. 

With the ever-changing technology landscape, it is now possible to have your office in Sydney, Australia but your servers, hosted or otherwise, in the US. We are seeing a move from cloud into edge and converged technologies, taking the data centre solutions into a hybrid role. This means that co-location services become more and more attractive and cost-effective to the user. 

Building and maintaining data centres is big business and is evolving rapidly. We are no longer seeing the burst of large secure buildings housing thousands of servers in the middle of cities; we are now seeing the development of data centres in far-reaching countries, emerging markets in Asia and South America as well as extremely isolated cold regions for liquid-based cooling to help with the environment and operational costs. 

One thing is certain – the thirst and reliance on data centre storage, hosting services and security solutions isn’t about to dry up any time soon. We may even see the birth of quantum computing and Artificial Intelligence in the commercial space.

Challenges

The creation, ongoing maintenance and growth of a data centre requires hardware technologies, everything from large servers to firewalls, routers, switches, plus much more, to be imported into the data centre location. 

However, this can present a challenge; as a data centre is often a ‘dark site’ (defined as such when very little staff actually work there because the technology is maintained remotely), or the data centre is not a registered entity, the process of following trade compliance requirements for the restricted technology becomes complex – there aren’t any staff to complete import paperwork, and there is no registered entity to act as the importer of record, effectively making it almost impossible to get the kit to the hosting site.

How can Mouse & Bear Solutions help?

Mouse & Bear Solutions has extensive knowledge and experience in ensuring that the trade compliance requirements are met and completed, as well as acting as importer of record. We can help negate delays and fines for the parent company of the data centre. 

Mouse & Bear can take the stress and complexity out of navigating the challenges of the entire import process into over 160 countries around the world, ensuring goods are delivered on site in a timely, and legal fashion.

Contact us to find out how we can help. Please email iorsolutions@mouseandbear.com, call 01935 848526 or send the enquiry form below.

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