What is colocation?
Colocation on the surface is a simple concept, where instead of keeping servers in-house or in privately run data centers, businesses can rent physical space for their hardware and collocate in a third-party data center.
The beauty of colocation is that the data center provider will manage all of the important aspects such as network connectivity, power, and cooling.
How does colocation work?
Colocation has become an extremely attractive prospect for businesses looking to scale their IT capabilities whilst ensuring costs stay at a minimum.
With the majority of colocation services, businesses will purchase their own equipment or move their existing hardware and pay a colocation provider (either a managed service provider or data center) for resources and space in a data center. Subsequently, the business is therefore only responsible for the setting up, configuration, and maintenance of their server going forward.
Why would you choose colocation?
The onset of the global pandemic over the past eighteen months has seen a number of businesses transition towards colocation services as core business and operating requirements drastically changed.
In general, businesses are starting to move away from hosting their own IT infrastructure on-premise, to a data center whilst still wanting the flexibility of still being able to manage their own equipment and network. For businesses who wish to pursue such an option, space is easily rented based on their current requirements at the time and can easily be scaled up as the business grows.
What are the benefits of colocation?
- Cost-effective: Running an established IT infrastructure on-site can be an extremely costly process. Moving away from the traditional process of managing IT services in-house and outsourcing within a data center has been proven to be an effective method to manage IT spending. Colocation plans provide businesses with a comprehensive plan, often for a fixed rolling fee, that encompasses support, security, redundancy, and connectivity all-in-one.
- Scalability: Much of the value of colocation rests with the customisation and flexibility of the solution on offer. When a business decides to collocate in a data center, they only have to pay for what they require at that current moment, however, this does not mean there is no room for maneuver. Every colocation facility has the flexibility to expand, this subsequently means that businesses have the ability to grow or expand into their space in line with ever-changing business needs and customer demands.
- Facilities: Data centers offer high availability and uptime, with redundant power supplies and emergency generators to keep data centers up and running at all times. They also offer improved bandwidth and lower latency, compared to hosting your own infrastructure on-premise .
- Disaster Recovery: Colocation also allows you to implement a disaster recovery plan and back up your mission-critical data to another data center. Disasters can occur at any time, and if your IT infrastructure is kept on premise, data could be lost or destroyed. Backing up your data to a separate data center location ensures that in the event of a disaster, your mission-critical applications will remain up and running.
Colocating with a managed service provider
There is no doubt colocation provides businesses with the chance to grow whilst managing costs in line with the needs of the business. Although colocation provides businesses with the freedom to scale and manage their IT infrastructure, more and more businesses are not only looking for an effective colocation service but a managed service on top.
Businesses looking for colocation services are spoilt for choice in today’s marketplace. Not only can businesses directly go to a data center provider for space, organizations have the ability to collocate through a managed service provider. A managed service provider will look after every aspect of your infrastructure from physical hardware, software updates, and general maintenance, this allows a business to focus on what matters to them.
So how can Hyve help you?
Colocation with Hyve
At Hyve we provide colocation to our customers on a global scale, spanning across multiple data centers in key locations worldwide.
We can either perform a ‘lift and shift’ operation where we migrate existing IT infrastructures into our data center, or we can provide bespoke ‘kit to rack’ within our data centers. In all cases, we provide customers with a resilient environment and the ongoing support that they need. The benefit of working with Hyve is that you get one account contact to manage all data center locations, wherever they are in the world.
To find out how Hyve can help you with your colocation needs or for more information on where you can relocate your IT infrastructure, contact a member of our sales team today on 1 888 708 5581.
