Every business must digitally transform to improve their efficiency and results. But there is a vast set of ways in which they do so, and the best mechanisms for achieving digital transformation differ based on the requirements of the business.

 

Understanding your organization’s computing needs is the first step towards digital transformation. A few ways to understand your needs are to identify your internal resources, determine your organization’s mobility and flexibility needs, and recognize what purpose your computing resources will serve. 

 

When you know the answers to these questions, you’ll get a rough idea of your business computing needs. In its own, cloud computing has been one of the most efficient ways to access additional computing power and applications, but not every organization is suited to renting computing power via the cloud. Some organizations have their own physical computing assets, so collocating them into a data center instead can solve many of their challenges.

 

An Alternative to Other Computing Architectures

 

Colocation is essentially a practice wherein you rent a rack, cabin, or space from a data center where you can place your proprietary services. You still own the servers and any other networking equipment you provide, but a third party will take charge of the physical space where your server “lives” and its environment. This includes heating and cooling responsibilities, power, and physical security.

Despite the rise and popularity of cloud computing, colocation is still a primary model for organizations that own their own computing assets. The global data center colocation market size will have an annual growth rate of 13.3% from 2021 to 2028.

 

Colocation VS Managed Server Hosting

 

Colocation

The word colocation can sometimes be written as co-location. As a business model, a colocation company that owns a data center will rent out racks and cabins to different companies for them to store their servers. Thus, one data center location will have servers from multiple companies, all of them co-located together.

 

However, each server is still owned by the company that placed it in the data center. Resources aren’t shared. The servers simply share the same physical environment. 

 

The third party provides the physical space, cooling, physical security, and essentially any service around the physical management of the servers. However, depending on the colocation vendor, they would or would not manage those servers’ virtual upkeep as cloud vendors might.

 

Managed Server Hosting

 

In this scenario, companies rent out an entire server from third-party vendors who provide them. Furthermore, they are usually also in charge of the server administration, problem-solving, management, maintenance, and more.

 

Managed server hosting is often less expensive than maintaining proprietary servers, but also requires your organization to sacrifice some control.

 

The Benefits of Colocation

 

If your company wishes to operate its own servers, obtain extra security, and reduce data center management costs, colocation might be a good option. Here are some reasons why colocation is better for your business.

 

Reduced Costs

 

When a company opts for colocation services, they only rent out a rack and not the entire data center. Thus, the cost is reduced significantly since you don’t have to rent out an entire facility. 

 

Furthermore, the colocation service will charge less for its services, such as troubleshooting, maintenance, security breaches, etc., since the number of servers being rented out is much smaller and the third-party isn’t in control of the servers’ operating systems or virtual environment. Your IT team can thus focus on your core business and channel their efforts towards growing the organization.

 

With fewer in-house requirements, you’ll need fewer IT staff to take care of the physical maintenance of your servers.

 

Increased Control Over Computing Resources

 

When you lease spaces for your servers and computing equipment, you have more control over your computing environment then if you were to rent space on a third-party’s server. You won’t have to share computing resources with other renters, and you’ll have more choice over how your resources are optimized.

 

You don’t have to rely on the third-party vendor’s hardware, either. Hence, the quality of your computing devices is determined solely by you.

 

More Localization

You can opt for colocation services near your geographic location, thus providing advantages such as reduced latency, faster analytics, and more. You’ll be able to perform your operations in a faster and more efficient manner, thus reducing time for your other dependent activities.

 

Better Security

In typical cloud computing scenarios, you must often share data centers and even specific servers with other companies. The security risk is thus higher since there are multiple actors involved in a single space. Even in a virtualized server environment, there are many channels through which hackers can attack the system.

 

Colocation can also be an important solution for physical security. Instead of maintaining an expensive physical security apparatus at an internal data center, you can rely on the security guarantees of a third party.

 

Higher Reliability

 

Colocation services have been designed to keep your machinery in the best possible environment. They provide high physical security to your servers and have multiple power reserves if there’s an issue. 

 

On the other hand, if you keep your servers on-premises and in-house, there could be too many costs to bear to protect and maintain the servers. If your office or data center suffers a disaster or an outage, you will be responsible for fixing it and bringing your servers back online

 

Scalability

 

Computing and data requirements will increase as your business expands but building or purchasing new space for servers can be prohibitively expensive. When you own your servers and rent out a third-party center to house them, scalability becomes easier. Simply install your new resources in you partner’s data center and turn them on. 

 

scale your servers as and when you need to. You don’t have to rely on a third-party vendor to scale them for you since you can do it independently. You only need to rent or lease more space which is easily possible.

 

Budget Consistency

 

You will always be able to foresee and predict the cost of your colocation service. Since you know what your requirements will be for at least a year or two, you can sign contracts that effectively manage your budgets. 

 

Even if there is an additional requirement, you already know how much that would cost since very few variables are involved in the purchasing process. Thus, your budget will be consistent.

 

Moreover, colocation contracts are typically straightforward since several clauses and conditions associated with the usual cloud vendor system won’t apply. Thus, problems such as vendor lock-in are not bound to occur with colocation service providers.

 

Get the Best Out of Your Data Center with Uvation

 

Your business can shift to colocation services today by working with colocation expects like Uvation. Uvation can guide you through the entire process, making it simple, straightforward, and hassle-free. We can even provide you with new servers and infrastructure resources through the Uvation Marketplace.

 

If you’re considering colocation as an option for your company, teach out to Uvation. We’ll help you understand the intricacies of this computing model help you reach your goals.