A data centre is an integral part of business for a modern enterprise. It offers servers, storage systems, and network infrastructure essential to support diverse and challenging enterprise applications that help grow the business. Building and operating a full-featured data centre is complex, demanding, and expensive. It may not be possible for a business to set up, equip, and manage a data centre or multiple data centers at strategic locations regionally or globally on its own.
Rather than going for such a capital-intensive investment to build and manage a private data centre, you can choose colocation. With it, you can opt to rent a space for computing and server hardware. Generally, a colocation service comes from a remote provider, which offers server space, power, bandwidth, cooling, and physical security.
What is colocation hosting?
Colocation hosting is providing some kind of IT support, especially basic data centre facilities to companies. A service provider leases or rents server space in the facility, offering Internet bandwidth, reliable power, server cooling systems, and physical security.
Customers own the hardware and transport the physical server and other resources to the data centre in the colocation hosting arrangement. In a way, the ownership and control of the server, including software and hardware, is with the customer. It does not include the space within the facility. Depending on the business requirements, the customer can upgrade the features for better bandwidth and storage space.
Various benefits of choosing colocation hosting
With colocation hosting, a business can save on IT on-premises investment. Here are the other benefits of going for a colocation facility.
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Reliability
The infrastructure in the colocation hosting arrangement ensures reliable communication, power, and cooling systems to meet the requirements of innumerable clients in a day. Resilient infrastructure offers strict access control and continuous connection.
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Cost Savings
Businesses, irrespective of their size, can use this type of hosting to save on infrastructure costs like network and power costs. They also save on other state-of-the-art services that are not affordable to them individually. For instance, it will be quite expensive and demanding for a company to set up a high-end server environment. With a colocation facility, you don’t have to invest in equipment to reap the benefits of first-class infrastructure.
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Security
Servers and their resources at a colocation facility are secured against risks like burglary, fire, and malware attacks. Moreover, access to a physical location is also protected by adopting security measures like the installation of biometric locks, cameras, etc. However, the clients are also required to protect their servers against cyberattacks.
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Accountability
A colocation service provider guarantees uptime through clear service-level agreements (SLAs). With an SLA, the provider agrees with you about the processes, audits, definitions, resolution response times, and reporting included in the service. Nevertheless, these SLAs are flexible to help negotiate with clients on certain terms and conditions.
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Reduced Maintenance
The provider offers 24-hour customer support and advanced server support equipment to maintain the facility. The dedicated staff keep monitoring the system, and in case of issues, they take urgent action. Meanwhile, they also conduct regular service of the system.
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Scalability
You can scale the resources up or down based on your business needs. For that, you pay only for the power and space you use.
To conclude, if your business is growing, you need to devise a strategy considering the factors like uptime, security, costs, reliability, etc. With colocation hosting, you can ensure better performance and reliability at a low price.
