The colocation data center has been trending, and it is no surprise. After all, it has a variety of benefits to give. Remember, everything that has advantages also comes with disadvantages, and so does the colocation data center. Being a helpful addition, it has been chosen by multiple businesses to make their operations flow smoothly and efficiently.
What is a Colocation Data Center?
Understanding colocation can be tricky because it doesn’t have one but several definitions. But in the simplest way, the colocation data center is defined as a process when any company locates all of its physical servers to another place under the safeguard of a 3rd party data center. And now, taking care of the servers and managing their daily tasks will only be the facility’s duty (3rd party). It is somewhat like renting a place, a warehouse, to keep the servers instead of buying one of your own. The company will be allowed to store parts of its IT infrastructure.
An easy way to keep your servers, routers, and all networking equipment secure and at easy access. It basically includes the upkeep of the servers, such as:
- Checking the basic power delivery and ventilation system
- Maintaining its cooling and heating equipment
- Looking after connectivity issues
- Supplying strong backup power in case of a power blackout
- Ensuring all aspects of cybersecurity as well as physical security
As the customer (company) will have the ownership, they will have the authority to edit, modify, delete or change the data. The colocation facility will have no role in data handling, but it is responsible for protecting its stored data.
Types of Colocation Facilities
Retail Colocation
To lease a particular space, such as renting a rack or caged off corner present within a data center
Wholesale Colocation
Renting an entirely built data center at a cheaper rate with lesser power
Hybrid Cloud-Based Colocation
Mixed services of in-house and outsourced data centers
Benefits of a Colocation Data Center
One of the most obvious benefits is its ability to cut down the expenses on a significant level. Building and maintaining your own data center for keeping IT infrastructure safe will definitely cost more than the money you will be spending for a colocation data center. It is a cost-effective option.
To maintain the data center, you need a huge team of skilled experts to keep a close check on all equipment, security, power, and technical operations. Still, the colocation data center can minimize the number of technical staff. No need to hire large IT staff now!
What do you want to make your company a success? Reliability in every aspect of the action. And colocation data centers can deliver outstanding reliability as they are generally equipped with the highest provisions for redundancy.
The colocation data center offers security more than you can imagine, and it happened to be unbreachable, too. Besides, in case of any mishap, it ensures to provide a powerful backup. That means it has first-rate physical security securing multiple network connections.
The feature of feasible and quick Scalability makes it a good option. The flexibility lets you have an additional capacity in terms of space, power, and network bandwidth whenever needed, significantly when your business is expanding.
Along with getting a place to secure your complete IT infrastructure, you will be provided with experienced authorities. This team will solely be dedicated to looking out for your data center management.
Having a data center away from your premises will give you more space to make offices. You can use this extra space for any other purpose that could help you keep your business.
Disadvantages of Colocation Data Center
Starting your colocation data center can be really expensive as its initial cost can be high, but it usually depends on the services you have chosen and the number of technical specifications it is offering. Colocation Hosting is comparatively pricier than basic hosting.
To visit the data center, you need to travel that will cost money and can get time-consuming. Sometimes, the fluctuating monthly expenses because of the network bandwidth can decrease the efficiency of managing budget. Having a data center, not within your premises can be challenging. Your servers will be situated off-site, and accessing them on time can be an arduous task.
Accessing and visiting your center anytime will be a problem. Having a data center submitted to a 3rd party will demand you to make an appointment first to visit your IT infrastructure. Time restrictions might make contact for upkeep less appropriate.
