What Is Server Colocation?
Colocation, also referred to as “colo,” is a data center that allows organizations to rent space for servers or other IT hardware. Instead of keeping your servers in-house, you would relocate your equipment by renting space in a colocation center. The colocation centers provide the building, cooling, power, IP address and bandwidth. The customer rents space, usually a rack, and is responsible for providing the servers and storage.
What Are The Benefits Of Server Colocation?
- Reduced IT Infrastructure and Management Costs – Cost savings is often one of the biggest benefits of colocation. Many companies find that colocation enables them to reduce the cost of overall IT management. Colocation provides the benefit of a more predictable op-ex model rather than trying to keep up with the escalating capital expenses of building, securing and maintaining your own data center as power and cooling needs grow. Rather than invest in backup generators, UPS, and HVAC units and paying the ongoing expenses associated with this equipment, colocation lets you leverage an ideal data center environment that is scalable to your changing needs.
- Increased Power Capacity and Redundancy – Private data centers can face power capacity challenges, particularly when upgrading to IT applications that require high-density power. Colocation facilities provide access to a more robust power-per-square foot ratio than most private data centers, allowing companies to leverage innovations in virtualization and high-density computing. In addition, private centers require backup in the case of a power outage.
- Reliability and Uptime – Your business continuity depends on 100% network reliability, which can be difficult and costly to maintain in a private data center environment.
- Robust, Affordable Bandwidth – As bandwidth requirements increase with more complex applications, ‘big data’ and cloud computing, colocation becomes a more economical choice. Colocation also allows you to maintain service provider diversity and take advantage of volume pricing without having to negotiate and manage multiple contracts and service agreements.
- 24/7 Local Support – With colocation, your IT team has the choice of maintaining their own equipment or using our remote hands service to supplement maintenance and management of servers and equipment.
- Security and Data Protection – Data breaches have increased year-over-year and there’s no end in sight. With data regulations becoming stricter, and penalties becoming more expensive, a data breach can spell disaster. Colocation facilities are hardened against forced entry, unauthorized access, fire and natural disasters.
- Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery – Colocating your IT infrastructure creates additional peace of mind in the event of a natural disaster, power outage, or other unexpected event that impacts your primary place of business. Colocating can ensure that your offsite servers, equipment, and applications will remain available and operational if the unexpected happens.