What Is a Colocation Data Center?

What should I consider in choosing my Colocation Data Center?

When choosing a colocation data center, several factors to consider include:

• Location: The location of a colocation data center is essential for several reasons, including proximity to your business, accessibility, and natural disaster risks.
• Connectivity: You'll want to ensure the colocation provider has sufficient network connectivity options to meet your organization's needs. Look for providers with multiple network carriers and redundant network infrastructure.
• Security: Look for colocation providers with robust physical and digital security measures, including 24/7 monitoring, video surveillance, access control, and fire suppression systems.
• Service Level Agreements (SLAs): SLAs govern the level of service that the colocation provider will deliver, including uptime guarantees, response times, and support availability.
• Flexibility: Power and space are essential if you use colocation for growth. New power/cooling-hungry equipment demands higher capacity and on-demand availability. Specific workloads require adjacency for latency requirements as you grow, and accessibility to nearby floor space is critical.
• Serviceability: For internal and vendor support. The distance can translate into increased travel costs when equipment is manually touched.
• Term agreements: Colocation customers can find themselves locked into long-term contracts, which may prevent them from re-negotiating rates when prices fall.
• Transparency: Working with a colocation provider that provides transparency and some degree of remote self-monitoring and management. It is essential for an organization to closely examine its colocation's service level agreements (SLAs) so as not to be surprised by hidden charges.
• User Experience: Assuming you are using your colocation for your more critical applications, network bandwidth and redundancy of core services are essential to consider in their SLAs (refer to Tier classifications)

Is Data Center as a Service (DSaaS) the same as a Colocation Data Center?

This depends on your point of view or specific needs, but they share some similarities.

• DCaaS is a model where a third-party provider hosts and manages an entire data center infrastructure, including hardware, software, and networking. In this model, the customer owns no equipment and instead rents computing resources as needed.
• In contrast, colocation data centers provide physical space, power, cooling, and network connectivity for customers' computing equipment, which they own and manage.
• While both models offer benefits such as cost savings, scalability, and security, ownership, and control are the main differences. Many progressive DCaaS providers offer user-based services and portals, allowing on-demand services and granular insight into infrastructure performance.

Is a Colocation Data Center right for my organization?

Whether or not a colocation data center is right for your organization depends on several factors, including:

• The size of your organization: Colocation can be cost-effective for larger organizations that require significant infrastructure investments. Smaller organizations may not need as much space or redundancy and may be better served by cloud-based solutions.
• Your organization's IT expertise: Colocation requires some IT expertise to manage and maintain your equipment. If your organization lacks this expertise, you may need outside help to manage your infrastructure in a colocation data center.
• Compliance requirements: If your organization is subject to regulatory compliance requirements, you must ensure that the colocation provider can meet these requirements.

Do colocation tenants need DCIM Solution Services?

Colocation Data Center Infrastructure Management Software can help colocation tenants manage their infrastructure more effectively, including monitoring power usage, controlling cooling and humidity, and tracking equipment location and status. Progressive service providers offer their tenants' data center infrastructure management services with various insight, reporting, and local management capabilities. DCIM can help colocation tenants optimize their infrastructure and reduce downtime.