Is Colocation Right For Your Business?

Determining where to house your company's data computing and/or storage infrastructure is a significant decision for any firm. The right solution will enable your company to scale up and down as needed, meet your unique business needs and provide the reliability and security you can trust.

A colocation (colo) is a data center facility in which a business can rent space for servers and other computing hardware. Typically, a colo provides the building, cooling, power, bandwidth and physical security while the customer provides servers and storage.. Here are six benefits businesses are experiencing from choosing a third-party colocation facility.:

• COST EFFICIENT - Choosing a colocated, multi-tenant data center allows companies to scale their environments to their specific needs. Splitting the expenses of space and equipment with other companies helps to offsets costs; therefore, a multi-tenant data center is more cost-efficient than if the financial responsibility fell on the shoulders of one business. Furthermore, with this model, companies can benefit from modernized infrastructure, skilled and experienced data center operators and tactical real estate areas.

• FLEXIBILE - More choices are always better. Colocations provide expanded network and carrier connectivity options. Colocation providers are typically carrier-neutral, which offer a competitive marketplace within their data centers' MMRs. Most colocation providers offer their customers lower-rated network and carrier options to choose from, as well as, blended bandwidth services, relying on multiple carriers to ensure 100% network availability.

• ENERGY EFFICIENT - Data center colocation offers more efficient energy and cooling than server rooms set in buildings that are not intended to be data centers. Improved power efficacy results in an overall reduction in energy consumption, and thus, generates cost savings. In the data center economy, the average cost of downtime continues to rise, and in many cases, the worst consequence is the stain left on your company’s reputation. In many businesses, any extended downtime can mean the end of your business. The reliable/redundant power, network and cooling infrastructure provided by a colocation data center, along with uptime SLAs are essential for companies who rely on online traffic and e-commerce.

• HIGHLY SECURE - When choosing a colocation data center, companies can leverage resources that would otherwise not be available to them due to their exorbitant costs. One such resource that may not be feasibly affordable includes security. Colos enforce robust layers of security to protect their infrastructure, which often consists of the use of security cameras, enforced security processes and procedures, onsite technical personnel and a 24x7x365 security staff.

• SCALABLE - Colocation services provide companies with the scalability that they wouldn’t have in their own server rooms or data centers. In a colocation set up, you can expand quickly and seamlessly. Most large colocation facilities offer direct connections to many of the cloud providers who often cohabitate within the same data center campus. This makes it relatively simple to scale within a hybrid data center model. Additionally, using colocation offers better control over fixed costs and long-term IT budgets, so it becomes easier to grow without breaking the bank.

• CONTINUALLY SUPPORTED - With 24x7x365 monitoring and support, you can rest assured that your systems are being maintained by IT experts and certified engineers who will serve as an extension of your company. In the instance that an urgent problem requires attention, onsite technical staff should be available and ready to troubleshoot and resolve any issues. When considering a colocation provider, you should do your due diligence to ensure they offer this service.

If you believe colocation is the right solution for you, the first step is understanding how much space and power you will need in your new data center. Conducting a thorough inventory of assets, moving to a converged infrastructure and shutting down ghost servers is critical to ensuring you lock into a lease that is right for your current and future requirements. Advantage works with dozens of data center operators and colocation providers across the globe, allowing us to find the right solution and location for your specific needs.