Colocation: How Data Center Colocation Works

Our firm, known as BlueVPS, extends a comprehensive service that delves into the concept of Data Centers Colocations, exploring its functionalities, mechanics, and advantages.

A colocation data center, often called a "colo," enables enterprises to lease data center infrastructure from an external provider. 

This arrangement allows them to offload the responsibility of managing most, if not all, of the infrastructure. However, businesses must remain vigilant in securing data center assets, including cyber resources not covered under the colo's responsibility for safeguarding physical infrastructure access.

What is Colocation?

Data Centers Colocation, commonly called "colo," presents an excellent rental option for enterprises seeking to house their vital servers and hardware required for daily operations.

This service provides secure, shared spaces in controlled environments optimized for server operations, ensuring ample bandwidth to meet demands. Clients can select from various service tiers that guarantee specific uptime levels.

When deciding whether to relocate, expand, or consolidate your data center, several critical factors come into play, including cost, operational dependability, and, of course, security. 

Considering these aspects, many businesses discover that Colo offers a fitting solution, sparing them the burden of managing an independent data center.

Colocation providers operate akin to leasing from a landlord: Enterprise customers rent dedicated space within the colocation facility to accommodate their hardware requirements.

BlueVPS provides a valuable service where businesses can access a colocation data center. 

Now, let’s delve into the benefits you get with these services and see if they’re worth the investment. 

Benefits of Data Center Colocation

The advantages of COLO make it a suitable option for businesses of all sizes and across diverse industries. Let's explore these benefits.

Reliability & Uptime

Datacenter colo offers significant advantages for enterprise businesses, particularly regarding server reliability. Companies that subscribe to a specific package receive an assured percentage of uninterrupted service, eliminating the need for in-house maintenance expenses or payroll costs.

Risk Mitigation 

Employing a colocation facility guarantees uninterrupted business operations even in the face of natural disasters or outages. This implies that network traffic remains unaffected if your business location experiences a power loss.

The critical factor behind its effectiveness lies in its redundancy. The multiple layers of redundancy provided at a colocation data center surpass what many companies can economically establish independently.

Certain enterprise firms may choose the off-site location as their primary data storage site while retaining onsite data copies as backups.

Safety Measures

Cutting-edge security technology outfits data centers, incorporating state-of-the-art cameras and biometric scanners. Standard features include welcoming check-in desks for incoming visitors and regular security badge checks.

To guarantee nonstop security, these colocation facilities undergo round-the-clock physical and cloud surveillance, meticulously preventing unauthorized access.

Economical Aspect

Colo stands out for its substantial cost efficiencies, particularly when compared to the expenses involved in operating an in-house data center. For numerous companies, renting required space from a data center presents a viable solution to tightening IT budgets.

With colocation services, concerns over planning for capital expenditures like uninterrupted power sources (UPS), multiple backup generators, power grids, and HVAC units (with the ongoing cooling expenses) are alleviated.

Beyond these initial capital expenditures, in-house server maintenance and management also entail ongoing costs.

Network Capacity

These data centers allocate the essential network capacity required to operate enterprise client servers seamlessly. Equipped with expansive bandwidth to cater to numerous companies, these data centers are perfectly poised to provide businesses with unparalleled support, a capability often surpassing that of their office locations. 

This becomes increasingly vital in the context of remote work environments.

Expert Assistance & Credentials

The colocation data center provides a reassuring advantage — by teaming up with colocation providers, your enterprise business can minimize prospective payroll expenses, entrusting the management and troubleshooting of critical equipment to the data center's skilled professionals. Count on certified experts to offer unwavering support for your enterprise needs.

What Data Centers Are Used for?

Data centers are a comprehensive amalgamation of various elements, including routers, switches, firewalls, storage systems, servers, and application delivery controllers. Due to their responsibility for storing and managing business-critical data and applications, ensuring data center security becomes an imperative aspect of design. Together, these components offer:

Network infrastructure connects servers (both physical & virtualized), data center services, storage, and external connectivity to end-user locations.

Storage infrastructure acts as the lifeblood of the modern data center and serves as the repository for this valuable data.

Applications represent computing resources as the data center's driving force. These servers furnish the essential processing power, memory, local storage, and network connectivity to support and propel applications.

In-house Data Center vs. Data Centers Colo

In recent years, colocation services have gained popularity among businesses, with steady growth surpassing in-house data centers. Colo offers higher bandwidth levels at lower costs and ensures maximum uptime through redundant power and Internet connectivity.

It also proves cost-effective for expanding businesses, reducing IT expenses, and eliminating the need for onsite professionals. As the data centers colo market grows, more companies opt for this outsourcing option, expecting it to reach $48 billion in revenue by 2021.

Cloud Services vs. Colo

In contrast to data centers colo, cloud services provide a managed solution, handling servers, storage, and network. This allows enterprises to focus solely on utilizing the services, alleviating the burden of technical requirements. Cloud services prove advantageous for businesses, offering cost-effectiveness, rapid start-up times, scalability, and integrated features such as monitoring, data storage, querying tools, networking, and machine learning capabilities.

While cloud services suit new businesses seeking quick deployment, more established enterprises may find colocation services or in-house solutions more cost-effective in the long term. 

Conclusion 

So, to quickly recap. Data centers are specialized colocation facilities for efficient storage, power supply, cooling, and IT infrastructure connectivity. Colo is a service offered by data centers where your IT hardware, such as servers, is hosted off-site in their colocation facility. 

Understanding the distinctions between colo, data centers, and hosting allows you to consider the advantages of migrating your IT infrastructure to a data center. Feel free to contact us for further discussions and explore your options. We're here to help!