What is data center colocation and what are the benefits?
Ideal for startups, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), or large corporations with significant IT infrastructure needs: colocation is a cost-effective and flexible service for optimising IT infrastructure. Organisations rent server space, equipment and services in a third-party data center where power, cooling, bandwidth and physical security are already in place. This enables them to:
- Avoid costly investments in buildings and maintenance.
- Reduce operational costs (power, cooling and facilities management etc) through sharing these with tenants.
- Scale fast with options to expand or contract infrastructure based on their requirements, without incurring costs doe to over-provisioning.
This flexibility and cost-efficiency makes colocation attractive to businesses of all sizes. They can focus resources on core activities while benefiting from a professional-grade IT environment. It’s also beneficial for organisations implementing digital transformation projects, as it provides a scalable way to accelerate delivery.
What are the benefits of data center colocation?
Colocating IT infrastructure and services within edge data centers offers a multitude of advantages that contribute to a more robust ROI for organisations.
1. Reduce costs by:
- a. Reducing or eliminating your on-site real-estate requirements
- b. Lowering bandwidth costs
- c. Reducing energy consumption by using state-of-the-art efficient data centers
- d. Optimising your infrastructure
- e. Sharing resources including ongoing updates and maintenance
2. Achieve scalability at speed:
- a. Quickly adapt to changing demands and fluctuations in user traffic
- b. If working with an edge data center, you can expand your physical footprint by adding on new locations and ensure they are all connected
3. Tailor bandwidth:
- a. Your bandwidth as well as your footprint can be scaled to match your changing requirements
- b. Scale up and down as required during peak times and seasons.
4. Increase reliability:
- a. Higher levels of uptime (normally near 100%)
- b. Up-to-date redundancy and disaster recovery capabilities
- c. Advanced power, cooling, and networking infrastructure
5. Enhanced security:
- a. Elevated digital security with firewalls and encryption
- b. Physical security is assured with access controls, biometric systems and 24/7 surveillance
6. Carrier breadth and neutrality:
- a. Connect with a large range of connectivity suppliers from data centers offering carrier-neutrality.
7. Gain access to industry experts:
- a. Access a wider pool of expertise by leveraging the center’s skilled technicians and engineers for maintenance, troubleshooting, and support.
8. Achieve sustainability goals:
- a. Modern data centers operate more efficiently therefore reducing their environmental impact and saving you money.
How secure is colocation?
Colocating servers in a professionally managed facility can provide higher levels of security than most in-house data centers. The right colocation provider will provide robust physical and virtual security to protect infrastructure and data.
Physical Security
To keep infrastructure safe, colocation facilities are usually equipped with advanced physical security measures such as 24/7 surveillance, biometric access controls, and reinforced walls.
Virtual Security
Data is usually protected with stringent cybersecurity protocols, including firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and regular security audits.
These security measures support business continuity, and keep data safe from both physical and cyber threats.
Can colocation ensure data sovereignty?
Data protection laws vary from country to country, influencing how data is handled and by whom. Data sovereignty is, therefore, a critical issue when choosing a colocation provider to mitigate legal risk and protect your business.
To make sure that data is protected and compliant, check that your colocation provider complies with relevant legal requirements and can supply data residency options meeting your business needs. This may require:
- Choosing a provider with data centers in specific geographic locations
- Ensuring that they comply with international standards like ISO/IEC 27018, SOC 2 and SOC 3 Reports and Tier Standards, as well as relevant legal requirements such as GDPR, CCPA and PIPEDA
- From an operational perspective, it is also important to follow best practice with regard to data management such as data encryption, access controls, regular audits and back-ups etc.
How to decide if colocation is right for you
To decide whether colocation fits your business needs, it’s important to assess several key factors.
1. Review your current and future IT needs. What is your organisation’s growth strategy, and do you have the infrastructure and resources to support this? If you plan to scale rapidly, colocation will support growth without large investments in capital.
2. Assess the reliability and security of your IT setup. Is your infrastructure capable of meeting security standards and regulatory compliance requirements – now and during growth? Colocation facilities may offer physical and cybersecurity measures tailored to your needs, and better than your in-house data center.
3. Conduct a cost-benefit analysis. What are the long-term maintenance and upgrade costs for an on-premises data center compared to the cost of colocation? Consider factors such as energy consumption, cooling, staffing, and disaster recovery capabilities. As well as reducing operational costs, colocation provides instant access to advanced technologies and expertise, ensuring optimal quality services.
By carefully evaluating these aspects, you can make an informed decision about whether colocation aligns with your business objectives and IT strategy.
How to choose a colocation provider
To find a colocation provider that meets the current needs and future ambitions of your organisation, here’s our checklist of important questions.
LOCATION
Are they close to your business (offering low latency and high performance) or in strategic locations?
SECURITY
What physical and virtual measures are in place to keep data and equipment safe?
COMPLIANCE
Do they meet relevant industry standards ie, GDPR, HIPAA, ISO etc?
ESG CREDENTIALS
Can they help you meet sustainability goals with a Carbon Free Energy commitment?
SCALABILITY
Are they able to provide additional infrastructure and services to support growth?
RELIABILITY
What are their SLAs and uptime guarantees, and track record for disaster recovery and availability?
CONNECTIVITY
What network options are available to ensure consistent, reliable performance?
SUPPORT
Do they offer remote hands services, proactive monitoring & 24/7 technical support?
COST
What are the upfront costs and long terms operational expenses involved?
EQUIPMENT CARE
Do they have adequate cooling, fire suppression systems and environmental monitoring to protect equipment?
Find out what colocation can deliver for you
With a free 30-minute consultation, our team of colocation data center experts will review your current infrastructure against the following key areas:
- Space requirements
- Energy consumption
- Data protection
- Bandwidth costs
We will then provide a range of different solutions that focus on providing you with:
- Reduced costs
- Enhanced reliability
To book your free consultation, simply fill out the form and we will contact you within 48 hours to arrange an appointment.
Why nLighten for Colocation Services?
Our colocation services facilitate hybrid cloud deployments as well as providing a flexible environment that scales with your business for digital transformation and cloud migration initiatives.
EMEA’s leading edge data center platform
nLighten operates a leading network of edge data centers in Europe’s key economic hubs. We are large enough for next-gen infrastructure yet agile enough to respond quickly to our customer’s needs.
Digital Transformation Catalyst
nLighten combines advanced technology, reliable partners, highly accessible internet exchanges and public clouds, providing organisations with the ideal platform to achieve their digital transformation goals.
Scalable and customisable infrastructure
We offer scalable infrastructure with options from quarter rack to multi-room.
Achieve substantial cost savings thanks to reduced real-estate, energy consumption and bandwidth.
Carbon-Free Energy Commitment
nLighten’s goal is to innovate on the 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy concept by providing full transparency on our decarbonisation efforts with the use of sector coupling and advanced energy practices in procurement, supply and policy.
FAQs
Q. How is colocation different from cloud services?
A. Your IT is hosted in a data center for both colocation and cloud services. However, you lease your hardware from cloud providers, whereas you own and control your servers in colocation.
Q. What makes nLighten’s colocation services different?
A.
Locations: nLighten have a large and expanding footprint of edge data centers. As a result, we are able to process and store data locally at the edge, leading to cost savings for you and an improved experience for your customers.
Sustainability: nLighten are innovating on the 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy concept by procuring energy via renewable power sources and using excess heat to support the energy needs of our local communities. This in turn supports the sustainability goals of your organisation
Customisable: We offer scalable and customisable infrastructure with options from quarter rack to multi-room
Q. How does colocation improve the reliability of IT infrastructure?
A.
Reliability is one of the most important things to considering colocation services. Typically, they offer heightened reliability thanks to:
-Redundant power suppliers, including backup generators
-Advanced cooling systems
-State-of-the-art physical and virtual security
-Multiple network connections to ensure uninterrupted internet access
Q. What are the steps required to migrate existing IT infrastructure to a colocation facility?
A.
Migration typically involves 5 key steps:
- Planning: Auditing your current setup and identifying the requirements of a new facility
- Preparation: Ensuring the compatibility of your hardware with that of the new location and making sure you limit the risk of downtime during the migration
- Transport: The safe transportation of equipment between centers
- Installation: The technical setup and installation in the new space
- Testing: Running system checks post-migration
Do you have a question, a concern or simply want to get in touch with us?