Colocation: your go-to location for your servers?

Popular with private enterprises for disaster recovery and in reducing capital expenditure, colocation~(colo) is~becoming increasingly popular~with cloud service providers. According to IMS Research, the North American colocation sector generated $6.5 billion in revenue in 2012, and is expected to grow to $10 billion by 2017, begging the question: “should your company be using colocation?”. And if so, why?

6 ways you can benefit from colocation:

#1 Cost

Every business looks for ways to reduce costs. One of the biggest advantages of colocation is the way it allows you to lease and share a rack, cabinet, cage or room. This enables you to reduce the capital expenditure (CAPEX) associated with building and maintaining a large computing facility internally. Sharing a rack also enables you to benefit from higher bandwidth speeds and better redundancy than if you were to manage this yourself.

#2 Site Security

While the colo provides the building, cooling, power, bandwidth and physical security, the client is responsible for providing and maintaining the servers, storage and networking equipment. With so many people coming and going at a colocation site, controlling access is crucial. Many colocation providers use next gen systems like biometrics to scan fingerprints and retinas and high-resolution surveillance technology to keep~unauthorised~personnel out..

#3~Physical Attack Prevention

This follows on from point #2 but security is a top priority for every business. Because of the impact downtime can cause a business, many colocation companies install~wire fences, reinforced walls and physical barriers to protect both people and property.

#4~Fire Detection

Natural and manmade disasters can have a devastating effect on business, and cause loss of life. To prevent fire, many colocation companies use advanced technologies that can detect even the tiniest particles of smoke of gas. Extinguishers~that put fires out with chemicals, rather than water which can damage equipment, are also used

#5 Outage protection

Better fire detection and intruder security are just two ways colocation companies can protect companies from outage. Additional measures colocation companies employ include powerful generators and backup power to better protect against natural disasters such as a storm. This power advantage is a big plus point~for colocation and of huge benefit for clients.

#6 Ownership

One of the key benefits of colocation relates to ownership. You own the hardware and software and this gives you greater IT control. For instance, you don’t have to wait for the data center provider to upgrade memory as you can do it yourself. Similarly, if you need to install software, you can do it yourself without waiting for the provider to install it.~ However, you will need to travel to the location and this can translate into labor and travel costs.

While there are significant advantages to using colocation, there are some factors you need to watch out for. Look out for our follow-up article on Colocation: a no-no location?~[link to follow] and make an informed choice.