Colocation

Data centre colocation, often referred to simply as “colo,” is a service provided by data centres where businesses can rent space, power, cooling, and security for their servers, networking equipment, and other hardware. Instead of building and maintaining an in-house data centre, companies can colocate their hardware in a third-party facility, gaining access to the infrastructure and support needed to ensure their IT operations run smoothly.

In a colocation arrangement, businesses place their servers and networking equipment in a data centre owned by a colocation provider. The provider offers the physical space—typically in the form of racks, cabinets, or cages—as well as the necessary power, cooling, and physical security to keep the equipment running 24/7. Additionally, colocation facilities often provide robust internet connectivity options, allowing businesses to connect to their servers remotely.

Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how it works:

• Choosing a Colocation Facility: A business selects a colocation provider based on factors like location, cost, connectivity options, and the facility’s ability to meet their specific needs.
• Deploying Equipment: The business ships its servers and networking equipment to the colocation facility, where it is installed in the allocated space.
• Connectivity Setup: The colocation provider connects the equipment to the facility’s power and cooling systems, as well as to the internet and any other necessary networks.
• Ongoing Management: While the colocation provider handles the physical infrastructure, the business retains control over the management and maintenance of its own equipment, including software updates, backups, and monitoring.
• Scalability: As the business grows, it can rent additional space or upgrade its connectivity options as needed.

The cost comparison between colocation and cloud services depends on various factors, including the scale of operations, specific business needs, and the duration of use.

Colocation: Generally, colocation can be more cost-effective for businesses with consistent, high-level demands that require dedicated hardware. The predictable costs and long-term savings on capital expenditures can make colocation appealing, especially for large enterprises.

Cloud: On the other hand, cloud services offer flexibility and the ability to scale resources up or down quickly. For businesses with variable workloads or that require rapid deployment, the cloud can be cheaper in the short term, though costs can rise as usage increases.

In essence, colocation tends to be cheaper for businesses with stable, long-term infrastructure needs, while the cloud is often more cost-effective for those requiring agility and scalability.

Tier III designed and built data centre’s offers a high level of redundancy and reliability, allowing for concurrent maintenance without system shutdown and providing a very high levels uptime guarantee.  Tier III data centres are designed to deliver 99.982% availability, which translates to a maximum of about 1.6 hours of downtime per year

A Tier III data centre is characterised by the following key features:

• Redundancy and Concurrent Maintainability
• No Single Points of Failure
• Dual-Powered Equipment
• Backup Power and Cooling Systems
• Independent paths for power and cooling