Whenever an IT manager finds it difficult to handle branch expansions or sudden spurt in web application requirements he or she tends to look for outsourcing options. A small business will find it beneficial to move its servers to a conveniently located Data center colocation facility to ensure the smooth running of the business.
While cloud platforms enable a small business to scale by luring them with negligible upfront costs, they tend to charge high fees once the business is set. Moreover, the cloud does not offer the best solution for workloads in general. Colocation, on the other hand, offers several benefits to small businesses.
What is meant by colocation?
Colocation is a data center where companies can park their servers. The data centers take care of everything from cooling to top-class security and around the clock power and internet backup. These centers can provide cabinets, racks, and cages or even private suites as per individual requirements.
Some major benefits of colocation:
Reduced costs
Reduced costs are one of the major advantages small businesses can enjoy arises from the economies of scale. This is possible as a colocation data center facility helps you share the space with other companies and bring down the power, space and cooling costs. Sharing a redundant infrastructure with multiple tenants works out to be more cost-effective.
Uptime
With downtime leading to costs of more than $8,000 per hour, companies no longer need to worry about downtime. They enjoy availability around the clock after having moved their servers to a colocation data center where the onus of providing uninterrupted power, network and cooling lies with the provider. The uptime SLAs are a boon for small businesses. The uptime SLAs (service level agreements) is a benefit for small businesses
Better Security Features
Small businesses get to enjoy better levels of physical security when they outsource to colocation facilities. The same levels of security can cost prohibitively when the servers are located in-house. Some commendable security features of colocation facilities include restricted access, availability of security officers, monitoring by cameras, etc.
Rapid Scalability
Most small businesses cannot afford the high capital expense costs involved in construct expansion and maintenance of an in-house data center. Apart from the construction costs, there are many other expenses the business has to incur, which are necessary for fast scalability. There is also the infrastructure maintenance, security, additional UPS and generator expansion and monitoring apart from cooling and staffing expenses to contend with. Often not considered by companies is the loss of additional office space required for data center expansion.
Outsourcing to a data center allows a small business to expand space at a very nominal cost. With businesses increasingly using IoT devices and adopting edge computing strategies, data processing, collection, and storage present a serious challenge to in-house data center expansion.
Many data centers tend to be carrier-neutral which enables them to offer seamless connectivity. Businesses also have a choice of ISP carriers to select from. Any increased bandwidth requirements can be accommodated at short notice. Moreover, regulatory challenges can be easily handled by modern data centers that are keeping compliance in mind.
About DataCenterandColocation
DataCenterandColocation.com is a free professional and non-bias service provided to clients for selecting the right data center, colocation, managed hosting or cloud facility for their requirements. Data Center Colocation is one of the largest colocation site consulting firms in the United States. They represent approximately 3000 data centers and colocation centers in the United States and Canada. At no cost to clients, they identify specific space, location, power and security requirements, solicit proposals, professionally analyze the responses, compare the strengths and weaknesses of each facility, negotiate to price and deliver highly competitive bids for colocation. They also perform a comparative analysis of in-house vs. design-build services, wholesale data center colocation space, and data connectivity.