Colocation data centers are a practical outsourcing solution suitable for businesses of varied sizes and industries. Collaborating with state-of-the-art data-centers, we prioritize maximizing uptime, scaling services efficiently, and implementing the latest innovations in monitoring to enhance user experiences.
Data Center Colocation
Data center colocation is a business model where a client leases space from a third-party provider to address their data center requirements. The companies typically own the hardware, which is stored and maintained by the data center personnel. The colocation operator emphasizes continuous monitoring, timely upgrades, and routine maintenance. These centers are essential for huge companies with expansive geographic presence.
What are the Benefits of Colocation Data Centers?
- Cost-Effectiveness: While there are continuous leasing expenses, colocation nullifies the financial burdens linked with constructing and managing an on-site data center. As business requirements evolve, adjustments to the colocation setup become relatively straightforward.
- Performance: Colocation data center operators leverage economies of scale, updating infrastructure to deliver higher reliability and faster network speeds.
- Redundancy: Colocation centers often incorporate power and cooling systems with built-in redundancies, striving for near 100% uptime. Advanced storage techniques enhance data redundancy, bolstering security and recovery times.
- Flexibility: These resources are strategically placed near essential facilities like manufacturing units, ensuring reduced latency while maintaining optimal physical security.
Types of Colocation Facilities
There are several types of colocation data centers:
- Clients rent designated spaces within a data center.
- Wholesale: In wholesale data centers, the tenant rents a fully built-out space in the data center.
- Hybrid cloud: Hybrid cloud deployments include a combination of on-premises and on-demand data center solutions.
Colocation Data Center vs Cloud
While both colocation and cloud services address external computing needs, their functionalities differ:
- Cloud computing is defined as on-demand access to applications, data storage, development tools and network resources via the Internet.
- Colocation is defined as shared access to physical space, hardware and infrastructure. Colocation facilities do not create or update client applications.
- Management: Cloud resources are overseen by cloud service providers, offering users subscription-based access. In contrast, colocation resources are managed by tenants who pay for consistent infrastructure access.
- Scalability: Cloud resources offer immense scalability owing to their virtualized setup. If a client has housed their equipment at a colocation data center, they can expand their capacity either by providing the provider with more equipment or by choosing supplementary services like dedicated servers, VPS, or additional Bare metal storage.
How Does Colocation Data Center Pricing Work?
Cost reduction is the main reason why colocation customers choose it. Pricing models and plans for managed hosting services are constantly evolving according to available options and hosting methods. Data center pricing includes the following factors:
- Floor space: Rack space is the main colocation center pricing factor and the easiest to measure. In a data center, customers typically rent all or part of a 42U rack.
- Internet services: The speed and bandwidth of the service depends on the needs of the customer and affects the price.
- Energy consumption: The biggest variable cost for a data center provider is the energy required to run the IT equipment. Additional energy sources add to this burden, and higher data center levels are associated with higher OPEX costs that are passed on to customers.
- Support: The level of support can be tailored to customers who wish to outsource the monitoring and maintenance of their facilities. Smart Hands and Remote Hands are additional support services that can be provided on an on-demand basis rather than on a fixed basis.
