Colocation data centers let you host your IT infrastructure in a managed, secure, offsite environment — an important consideration for organizations that want to ensure high availability, data security, and resiliency.
This guide explains what colocation data centers are, the key features and benefits of colocation, and their role in modern IT infrastructure management (especially in the cloud era). It also outlines the factors that organizations need to consider when choosing a colocation provider to host their critical business infrastructure.
What is a colocation data center?
A colocation data center (or colo for short) provides managed rack space in a pre-existing data center facility for your servers and other IT infrastructure. Your hardware is sent to the facility and then installed and connected to their managed infrastructure. This space is shared, so while your equipment may have its own rack or cabinet, its power supply, and often networking and internet, are supplied by the colocation facility (hopefully, with robust network isolation and regular security audits).
Usually, you will have configured your hardware for remote access, and on-site access can be organized. This is often never required, as most tasks requiring physical intervention can be provided by an on-site engineer employed by the colocation provider.
Colocation data centers are an alternative to hosting your servers and data on-site in your own premises or in cloud environments where you don’t own (or have any control over) the underlying server hardware.
Benefits of using a colocation data center for your IT infrastructure
The biggest advantage of colocation over other data center solutions is cost: maintaining your own high availability IT infrastructure is expensive, involving redundant power, networking, and internet, HVAC, as well as a 24/7 engineer on hand to quickly resolve issues. Operating IT infrastructure is far more efficient at scale, so colocation service providers can provide resilient managed infrastructure at a fraction of the cost of building and hosting it yourself.
Colocation also gives you access to high speed internet connections, compared to what you might be able to get installed in your office. This combination of managed services results in reduced downtime and improved reliability for your IT applications. Colocation facilities are usually heavily monitored and require authorization for physical access, keeping your servers and data secure from theft.
Data center colocation vs cloud
With the proliferation of cheap cloud hosting, it may seem that colocation hosting is an outdated concept. In reality, this is far from the case, as colocation offers several advantages that the cloud does not and for some, by its nature, is incapable of meeting.
Colocation offers predictable costs based on your contract with the provider, unlike cloud infrastructure which can run the risk of incredibly high bills due to usage-based prices and unexpected spikes in usage.
Security, control, and compliance measures available in cloud providers do not match the ability to completely isolate your colocated servers from other infrastructure (if your colocation data center allows it). You can also be in control of your server hardware for its full lifetime to ensure that it is not tampered with. This is important for areas where secrecy and data privacy are a concern. In addition to your own digital access logs, you can also ensure that physical access to your assets is controlled.
Hybrid data center colocation and the cloud
For some businesses that do not need these heightened measures, colocation offers an intermediary step to ease migrating large deployments to the cloud: on-site hardware can be moved to a colocation data center with a fast internet connection so that it can be connected to cloud infrastructure, allowing a phased migration without interruption, and allowing large amounts of data to be quickly moved to the cloud as needed.
Some organizations will also take a permanent hybrid approach where colocated and cloud infrastructure are leveraged. For example, critical core infrastructure that is always under heavy utilization can be hosted in a predictably priced colocation environment, and cloud infrastructure can be on-hand, ready to kick in if demand outpaces the core infrastructure — allowing workloads to ‘burst into the cloud’ during periods of high demand, then return to normal operation.
Similarly, some businesses with large data storage requirements will store data in cheaper (but slower) object storage from cloud providers such as AWS S3, and then stage portions of it on high performance local storage only when it is needed.
Key features to look for when choosing a colocation data center
There are several key features you should look for when choosing a colocation data center and several factors to consider based on your specific requirements:
- Connectivity: Fast network and internet connectivity is a must, as colocation relies on a high speed connection to the greater internet (and thus, where you are working from).
- Redundancy: This is generally also a must, as redundancy is one of the biggest advantages of colocation, allowing your infrastructure to survive power outages and hardware failures.
- Physical security: This might depend on the sensitivity of the data you handle or your industry – but at a minimum, you should expect 24-hour surveillance and access control.
- Backup and disaster recovery: If high availability is a requirement, you may decide to use multiple colocation providers in different geographical locations so that data can be backed up to a different region, and optionally, a fully synchronized redundant replica can be maintained for zero downtime in the event of a major disaster. Alternatively, you can back up your data to the cloud or set up their redundant infrastructure in the cloud, which comes with reduced costs as it is only used in case of emergency.
- Managed colocation services and support: Some colocation facilities will offer simple remote access options and basic on-site tech support. You should check that your colocation service provider offers the on-site presence you require.
You should also consider the location of the colocation data center: if you’re going to need physical access yourself, it’ll need to be somewhere you can visit. You should also compare service level agreements between providers, to ensure that they are guaranteeing the reliability, redundancy, and uptime you are expecting. Be sure that you fully understand their cost and pricing models before you commit, and that they are compliant with all required data privacy regulations.
Remote management is key for colocation and cloud IT infrastructure
Managing and maintaining the security of your IT infrastructure is paramount in an increasingly threatening cybersecurity landscape. You need full visibility of your servers and network to ensure that they are up-to-date and properly configured. NinjaOne’s Remote Management and Monitoring (RMM) can alert you of unauthorized access, security threats, and physical changes to your off site infrastructure — as soon as they happen.
