When it comes to handling data, today’s businesses have a plethora of alternatives to choose from. Although some businesses opt for complete cloud solutions, the vulnerabilities such as security issues with the public cloud have driven many businesses to use data centres as the foundation for their IT infrastructures.
So, is it better to have an on-prem data centre or colocation data centre services?
Organizations will need to decide whether to establish or develop their own data centres as they plan and prepare a budget for their Information Technology (IT) requirements in 2021. Colocation is one option to consider, as it allows you to lower the capital expense (CapEx) of building a business owned data centre by providing rented space at third-party facilities.
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Understanding Colocation Data Centres
Business organizations of all sizes can significantly benefit from implementing colocation as a part of their IT strategy. However, a detailed data centre description of colocation and how it varies from other solutions is necessary. This article will discuss everything you need to know to help you understand colocation data centre services better.
What Do You Mean By Colocation?
Colocation is a concept that is frequently used, but it’s not generally defined correctly. The actual meaning of colocation is a scenario in which a company’s actual servers are housed in a third-party data centre.
The facility is in charge of day-to-day server infrastructure management, involving the provision of power and cooling, along with dealing with certain basic connection and maintenance concerns. However, the customer retains ownership and control rights of the servers and everything else present on them – this is the conventional definition of a colocation data centre agreement.
Here, businesses have to rent rack space, place the equipment required to operate them and choose from connectivity options.
What Are The Different Kinds of Colocation Data Centres?
Colocation data centres come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Let’s take a look at them one by one, below:
Retail Colocation Data Centres: A consumer leases space within a data centre, generally a rack, space inside a rack, or a caged-off section, from a retail colocation centre.
Wholesale Colocation Data Centres: Large corporations and government organizations use wholesale colocation centres. A wholesale colocation centre client often necessitates more space and may choose to keep their infrastructure distinct from most of the other clients.
Because of these factors, wholesale colocation facilities typically contain IT equipment for a little less or more than 100 clients[1].
Hybrid Colocation Data Centres: These data centres combine, cloud, in-house and outsourced data centre services. Hybrid colocation services provide a cost-effective methodology, while enterprises may keep a data centre presence while also moving specific tasks to the cloud.
What Makes Colocation Data Centres Different?
Colocation solutions are not available in every data centre. Here are a few factors that set them apart from on-premises data centres:
Infrastructure: Colocation data centre facilities are built to meet a variety of client requirements, as their infrastructure is designed to be adaptable enough to support both legacy hardware and high-density server technologies.
Moreover, colocation services must also be able to precisely estimate a client’s space, power, and cooling needs in order to customise their data centre deployment appropriately.
Remote Hands: Businesses that choose colocation after weighing the pros and cons of on-premises vs. colocation options want to feel confident in their service selection. This involves the surety of having remote hands services available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to ensure mission-critical systems stay up and running.
When a server is down, for example, in the middle of the night, colocation providers have the capabilities to address this real quick.
Assured Deployment Capabilities: Colocation data centres understand how to supply infrastructure for future expansion. They can forecast where a business’s IT requirements may go over the next few years, based on its current IT demands.
This can reduce the problems involved with infrastructure migrations and eliminate the need for future retroactive modifications, resulting in considerable cost savings and enhanced adaptability.
Are Colocation Data Centres a Good Option for You?
According to a 2018 IDG research, nearly two-thirds of businesses store at least a portion of their data in colocation data centres. In addition, many firms are choosing both on-premises and colocation data centre solutions and services, with over 70% of those who depend only on private facilities expecting to shift some infrastructure to a colocation data centre in the coming years[2].
Colocation services are becoming increasingly popular as businesses consider the pros and cons, as well as the costs and benefits of on-premises vs. colocation data centre solutions. Nonetheless, even if businesses decide to continue utilizing a private data centre as part of a wider IT strategy, the mix of flexibility, cost savings, and dependability makes colocation an appealing alternative.
So, if you are looking for a leading colocation data centre services provider, you can explore options from reputable data centre operators such as STT GDC India. They are a market leader in the Indian DC industry, operating 18 colocation data centre facilities in 9 cities, and have the largest floor area of more than 2.5 million sq. ft, backed with an IT Capacity of 135 MW.
No matter what your uniquely distinctive needs are, you can trust them to deliver the best of colocation services. Head on to their website to know more!
