What is a Colocation Data Center?

Organizations with huge amounts of data strive to effectively find better ways to manage and protect their data for business efficiency and profitability.

These big businesses with enormous data needs can either build their own data centers to safeguard and organize their data in a more accessible manner or seek the services of a colocation data center.

What is a Colocation Data Center?

A colocation facility like Data site Orlando is a place where businesses can rent space for their servers and other hardware equipment meant towards protecting their data and allowing daily operations of their business to run smoothly. This service is mostly sorted by the business which lacks the wherewithal to construct their own data facilities and still want to experience the benefits of a fully functional data center.

Types of Colocation Centres

There are three types of colocation centers and it is prudent for a business to assess its data needs to establish the most suitable type of a colo facility. The first type is a retail colocation facility; for this category, a business can rent a rack or a small space available within a rack or a designated caged room. This type of colocation is mostly suitable for small businesses with fewer data needs.

Colocation Data Center

The second option is the wholesale colocation where the tenant leases out a fully-built data center to a business probably at a lower rate compared to what retail vendors charge. Hybrid cloud-based colocation is a mixture of an in-house data center and outsourced data center services; a business may opt to have a section of their data needs managed and catered for in-house while outsourcing other needs to a third-party data management company.

Clients can choose any type of colocation data center depending on what their business requires as far as data and daily operations are concerned.

Features of an Effective Colocation Data Center

Colocation centers differ from one another but generally, the following features are common among different colocation companies. These features constitute the benefits clients are set to enjoy when they hire the services of the facility.

Provision of Technical support

Clients provide their servers and the necessary software and hardware needed in the management of their data needs. Colocation company provides the technical support on-site, this is basically for maintenance and fixing of any hiccup which may occur along the way. The presence of an on-site technical support team enhances that clients do not get to experience any prolonged downtimes which may hurt their business and reputation.

a)   Physical Security

The nature of the information stored in any colocation data center demands that there are top-notch security protocols in place to safeguard data from any theft or damage. Physical security caters to the protection of any break-ins and allows the clients to rest knowing that their property is well protected.

b)   Reliable Internet Connectivity and Power

The benefit of colocation facilities is their capability to provide redundant internet and power connection to ensure that their clients do not get to be an inconvenience at any point. This feature ensures that companies get to run their daily operations smoothly and limit any blackouts as much as possible.

Generally, Colocation data centers provide the above services in addition to safeguarding against any cyberattack. The data center has sophisticated defense mechanisms to anticipate and neutralize any cyber-attack. The ability to take care of data’s integrity, prevent any damage to the servers and hardware, protect against cyber-attack, makes colocation centers a good bargain for any business in need of sophisticated data center experience.

It is also important to note that for budgeting purposes, a business should consider the amount of uptime they need for their operations. Colocation centers have categories as follows; Tier 1 comes with redundant power, internet connectivity, and cooling, Tier 2 redundant power, and cooling Tier 3 withstands 72-hour power outage and Tier 4 can withstand power outage of up to 96 hours. Acquisition of any Tier is solely dependent upon the business uptime and data needs.

Benefits of Colocation Facilities to Businesses

There are several benefits accrued by any business which seeks the services of a colocation data center, whether on retail, wholesale, or hybrid cloud-based colocation data center. The following benefits are more likely to be realized;

a)   Saving Costs

The capital needed to build and run a data center is enormously huge and mostly out of reach for most businesses. The ability to exact service they would from a data center by seeking the services of a colocation facility enables businesses to cut a lot of costs on building their in-house data centers and hiring of technical personnel to manage it.

Additionally, colocation centers provide their own technical support on-site, which makes it even less expensive and the most viable business decision for any organization. The ability to predict the total cost of using a colocation center annually, also makes it easy for a business to budget for their IT support services.

  1. Ease of Expansion

The continuous growth of any business means an increase in their data management needs. Colocation centers provide more space for growth and therefore capable of allowing companies to scale up their space should they need more. This benefit enables a business to focus more on key business operations without worrying about the space for the data needs.

c)   Guaranteed Security

Security provision throughout the year is what makes colocation centers the most preferable third party data storage facility. Colocation centers take the issue of security seriously and have gone to greater lengths of enhancing not only external security but also erecting fences around servers. There are several security protocols needed to be passed to access the servers or data hardware, this approach benefits clients of colocation centers especially those with sensitive data in their possession.

Conclusion

Given the sensitive nature of data, businesses should strive to understand the reputation of a colocation data center before committing to sign a contract with them. Additionally, it is necessary to consider the location of the colocation facility, it is advisable to choose one that is close to the users of any given business.

If your business runs huge workloads of data with a preference for running them on in-house hardware but remotely then a colocation data center should be a priority for such a business.



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