What is colocation?

A colocation data center, or ‘colo,’ is any large physical datacenter facility that rents out rack space to third parties for their servers or other network equipment. This is a very popular service that is used by businesses that may not have the resources needed to maintain their own data center, but still want to enjoy all the benefits.

A colo offers space with the proper power, cooling and security to host businesses’ computing hardware and servers. This capacity includes anything from cabinets to cages or private suites.

Often, colo providers lease space to various tenants – including network providers, cloud providers, and enterprises. These tenants can then interconnect to one another within the colocation data center and do business together. This allows businesses to centralize their IT operations and create an efficient architecture that can reduce costs.

Benefits of a colocation data center

  • Lower cost than building and maintaining your own facility

  • Data center provides staff & support

  • Exceptional reliability with redundancies and backups

  • Security and compliance

  • Flexible options

  • Predictable expenses

  • Easy scalability for growth

  • Interconnection with a marketplace of networks, carriers, and IT service providers

  • Hybrid cloud services available from leading providers, e.g., Amazon, Google, and Microsoft

Facilities

  • 99.995% uptime
  • F5 tornado resistant architecture
  • N+N redundant power and cooling
  • Private cages or shared rack space
  • Customized power and cage configurations
  • Fire suppression and environmental controls
  • Multi-layered security systems; bring your own security
  • Secure workspace for staging, storage and offices
  • Incremental pricing model; pay as you grow

Solutions

  • High availability primary data centers
  • Disaster recovery data centers
  • Multi-location network cores
  • Redundant Array of Generators™
  • Redundant Array of UPS’s™
  • Redundant Array of Chiller Plants™
  • Most Direct Power Path™

Managed services

  • 24 Hour Network Operations Center (NOC)
  • 24×7 monitoring services
  • Remote hands services, tape handling
  • Router, firewall and switch services
  • Server management services
  • SAN storage
  • Online backup and recovery services
  • Customized services based on client specifications