One of the foremost challenges faced by the IT personnel in most companies is the difficulty in scaling up their resources when business demands grow. The internal staff in most businesses find it rather hard to upgrade their data center environments to cope with the changes in demands. With the evolution of the Internet of Things and Big Data, the need for change in enterprise data center capacities is but natural. The demands are only likely to increase as time passes. This explains why more and more enterprises have started to sign up for colocation hosting solutions. Colocation has turned out to be the most preferred alternative for businesses which need more space to grow seamlessly.
Research in recent times suggests that the colocation market witnessed nearly 11% growth every year and the rate is not going to become any less through 2018. The important thing to understand is that colocation does not only imply an increase in space. A major reason to opt for colocation for businesses is to increase their efficiency. It helps to improve scalability of businesses to easily cope with changes in demands. However, the truth is that most data centers fail to add flexibility or improve productivity without their quality of services getting affected in some other areas.
How should you choose a colocation facility?
When you have decided to choose a colocation facility, you need to make sure that all data center services are well provided for. So, the provider should be able to provide proper cooling systems, power supplies etc to guarantee uninterrupted and seamless performance. Like cooling and power systems, the provider should also guarantee both cyber security and physical security for their clients. So, there should be CCTV surveillance, man-traps to deter impersonation, effective fire-proof walls and doors for handling unexpected disasters. Besides, the colocation hosting provider India will also offer DRaaS or Disaster Recovery as a Service. This guarantees that valuable data of businesses remains completely secure, even in the event of outages, natural calamities like floods or earthquakes.
When choosing colocation for businesses, it is also necessary to make sure that it offers carrier neutral connectivity. This ensures that you can expand your private networks even when you do not use the Internet. Businesses can thus communicate among different systems within a datacenter. This carrier neutral facility will also cover communications that take place between endpoints and colocation infrastructure.
What are the key benefits for businesses?
- When you sign up for colocation hosting, you can enjoy many advantages. Colocation offers the scalability which businesses need for seamless growth. Modular data center solutions will help an enterprise by offering the standardized deployment features which can cater to its current and future computing needs. This also means that you do not have to procure additional capacity if you do not need it at the moment. You can expand as and when you need it.
- Another key benefit which businesses stand to gain from colocation is cost savings. With modular data centers, you can use your infrastructure better. So, you can do away with the wastage or high costs which come when resources are under-utilized. When you find that the capacity in your private data center is exhausted, you are likely to over-buy the second time around. When you do this, you actually pay more for some services that you have no need for. At the same time, you also end up paying more on overhead energy costs. The colocation facility can help you save these operational expenses. They have been designed using advanced technologies like hot-and-cold aisle containment. This guarantees more efficiency, lower energy costs and saves money.
- When you choose to sign up for data center hosting, you can enjoy greater security from modular data centers. A colocation center will also be able to offer a variety of services to meet varying infrastructure needs. The demands for computing resources keep changing. So, colocation solutions can effectively handle high-density and low-density applications without letting it affect efficiency.
- Colocation will also ensure that businesses are connected globally. Most companies with onsite servers rarely have access to a resilient web connection. They also lack dedicated personnel for handling traffic flow. But with colocation, businesses can get faster networking, better connectivity etc at affordable prices. Getting high bandwidth in a private data center may be very costly. Third party data centers have connectivity with multiple providers and they own large bandwidth pipes for delivering superior services at low costs.
- Data centers also have resources and time to invest in green technologies. So, businesses are able to successfully reduce carbon footprints.
Traditional data centers were designed with the building in mind. Data management was mostly an afterthought. However, today there is demand for data management and resource management between multiple data centers and also within a single data center. Unless you get regular feedbacks, you cannot be sure that your facility is running at an optimal level. Most data centers are required to upgrade their environments sooner or later. At such a time, it is important to adopt a strategic approach. You should invest in an advanced data center facility which is efficient, scalable, and secure. Right Colocation providers will be able to cater to your business needs at far lower costs than if you had to maintain it in-house. Colocation providers also have the power and expertise to set up businesses and make them active within hours. They will offer flexibility which businesses need to grow seamlessly; so, you can hope to get extra bandwidth, power or space when you need these.
Colocation services have spent a huge amount of money already to offer advanced technologies, security, disaster recovery services and flexibility to their clients. These are features which businesses would find rather difficult to afford on their own. But, before you settle for just any colocation provider, you need to ensure that they are credible and trustworthy. Your aim should be to get a reliable colocation partner which is open to treating your business as its own.
