6 Benefits of Colocation for Your Business

Colocation is an excellent hosting option which can be used by businesses of all sizes. Medium or large-sized businesses can expand their IT infrastructure without undertaking facility leasing or costly construction. Small businesses can get access to a large IT infrastructure without doing much investment. Colocation provides both the security and infrastructure of a data center without much investment. If you want both physical control over your system and the benefits of cloud computing, then colocation is the best option.

In today’s world, information is the most important thing. This information is mostly stored on servers. Servers require good infrastructure. It also requires power, connectivity, security, and cooling. You need to make sure that you have a good disaster recovery policy. Colocation will help you in mitigating some costs by hosting your own servers in other data center facilities. These data centers will provide you both physical security and IT infrastructure. The best thing about collocation is that you will get full control over your servers. This is not possible if you are using cloud technology. Your IT department can physically access your servers at the colocation center.

You can store your equipment like hardware in a cabinet or server which will be located in a secure data center. This data center will provide bandwidth, power and public IP address to your server. Colocation data centers offer various advantages in terms of business continuity and IT management. It is difficult to run a data center on-premise due to its high cost. Even most of the large companies opt for colocation data centers due to cost advantage. Below are some advantages of colocation:

1. 24/7 Availability

On-premise data centers don’t have high reliability due to their lack of cooling or power infrastructure. Most of the on-premise data centers lack sophisticated analytics. Thus, they are not energy efficient when compared to modern data centers. If your server is down for a long time, then it can badly affect your organization’s reputation. Thus, more and more companies are moving towards a more reliable infrastructure.

Most of the colocation data centers take necessary precautions to make sure that your data is available at any cost. They test many fall-back scenarios to make sure that their disaster recovery policy won’t fail in a real crisis. Make sure that the colocation provider you are choosing has an excellent track record. There are many colocation providers that provide more than 99.9999% of uptime. They experience less than 3 seconds of downtime throughout the year. An average business can lose more than $5000 per minute of downtime. Thus, it is very important to find a provider with a good reliability history.

2. Affordability

Most small businesses can’t afford their own data centers. Thus, data colocation is the perfect option for them. Even large-sized organizations are using colocation data centers to save their money. Every business today needs a server for running their enterprise. But, it can be very expensive. The data center needs a lot of electricity to operate. You also need expert IT experts for running these servers smoothly. Every colocation data center has trained staff which will make sure that your equipment safe. You can save electricity costs by sharing space with other companies.

3. Business continuity

If you are using a colocation center to store your data, then it is protected against disasters like flood, fire or power outage. Your colocation provider will take precautions to make sure that your hardware doesn’t overheat. The temperature of the whole data center is controlled by cooling systems. These cooling systems will make sure that your equipment won’t overheat. The best way to ensure business continuity is by storing your data in two different data centers. This will make sure that your data is always accessible in case of disasters.

4. Security and compliance

It is very important for every company to secure their data from attackers. There are various security compliances which you have to follow. Colocation centers will make sure that your data is secured from hackers. They have biometric scanners installed that will make sure that your data is secured from attackers. There are various more security measures like alarm monitoring, 24/7 video surveillance, electric fencing, biometric scanners and servers equipped with locks. A good colocation center will also have the controls and policies in place to meet various compliance standards like HIPPA, PCI DSS and SSAE 18. If you are working with a good colocation data center, then you don’t need to worry about these regulations.

5. Scalability

It is very difficult to scale your on-premises data center. But, if you are using a colocation data center then you can easily scale up or down according to your needs. A few servers can be enough for a small start-up. But, you need to scale up with time. A colocation provider will allow you to scale services whenever you need it. Thus, you can always keep up with your customer needs.

6. Service

Most businesses that choose colocation data centers have their own IT experts. They can send them to the data center in case of emergencies or maintenance. Due to this, there is a large degree of redundancy built into their infrastructure. Your technicians don’t need to visit the data center for every hardware failure. You can also hire remote workers at the data center which will replace your defective parts. They will take care of everything from equipment shipping to setup.

Conclusion

Colocation is often the best option for most businesses. You can save a lot of money by choosing a colocation provider. Businesses can focus their efforts and resources on their business. They don’t need to worry about their data solution needs. You can easily scale up your servers. Colocation centers will make sure that your data is always available to you.

Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™  services and solutions in how we can help your business.