Choosing data center colocation services for your business can be difficult, especially when you have no prior experience. In this article, I go over some of the top questions you should ask when evaluating data center colocation to ensure you choose the perfect solution for your organisation.
What Is Data Center Colocation Services?
Colocation services allow you to rent space in a data center where professionals store and maintain your company’s equipment.
The data center provides the physical space and equipment needed to run your company’s IT infrastructure and keep it running smoothly.
In addition, you’ll be able to access most types of data centers worldwide through a single internet connection, which means your network will always be up and running even if there’s an issue with another area.
Data center colocation services are famous for small and medium-sized business owners who want to get their company’s data offsite but not necessarily out of state.
Why Use a Colocation Service?
Colocation services are an excellent option for businesses that need more flexibility than they can get with managed hosting or cloud services. Still, they don’t want to commit to full-fledged facility ownership.
There are several reasons why data center colocation services can be beneficial for your business:
- Security: You can rest assured that your equipment will be safe from theft or damage in a data center.
- Reduced energy costs: With fewer servers running at home or in an office building, you’ll see lower electricity bills each month. The savings can add up over time!
- Data storage flexibility: If you need more space or additional bandwidth later, upgrading with data center colocation services is easy.
While colocation providers can provide many different facilities and services, most offer at least some form of power and cooling, network connectivity, security and physical space.
How to Choose Colocation Services That Are Right for Your Business
While colocation is more expensive than hosting your self-hosted server, it can be a good option for those who don’t want to manage the hardware or software.
When choosing a colocation provider, make sure they offer the following features:
- Unlimited bandwidth — You’ll want an unlimited bandwidth plan, so traffic spikes don’t slow your website down. If you have a high-traffic website, consider looking for an unlimited bandwidth plan that includes unlimited disk space and CPU usage.
- Reliable network — Look for providers with redundant network connections to ensure your website is always up and running. If there’s an outage in one location, another site should take over without any interruption in service.
- Rack space — You’ll want enough rack space to host all the necessary equipment. Make sure you know exactly how much room you’ll need before signing up with a provider so that you don’t end up paying for more space than necessary.
Choosing the right data center is crucial to ensuring that your business aims for success. After all, you can’t run your business from home or your local coffee shop!
Read more about: data center operational management
Colocation services can reduce costs and simplify management for your business.
Colocation services are more flexible, reliable and scalable than in-house servers. When you colocate your servers, they’re in a secure facility with access to power and the Internet. This allows you to focus on other aspects of running your business while the experts handle the technical details.
Businesses choose colocation for many reasons:
- It’s more cost-effective than buying your hardware and infrastructure.
- You can get more bandwidth for less money than leasing space at an office building.
- The best providers offer 24/7 support and monitoring for maximum uptime — so you never have to worry about server issues or downtime.
- You can scale up or down as needed without worrying about purchasing additional hardware or finding new space.
There’s no doubt that colocation can be less expensive than running your own data center. You avoid the capital expense of purchasing and maintaining your hardware and eliminate the ongoing operating costs (power, cooling) associated with keeping that equipment up and running.
The logistics of managing your own data center can be daunting, mainly if you have limited staffing resources.
Colocation providers handle all of this for you, so you don’t have to worry about searching for equipment vendors, negotiating pricing or upgrading as new technologies emerge.
They even take care of disaster recovery planning so that if something were to happen at their facility, they’d have a plan ready in case their servers went offline (and vice versa).