Colocation data centers are growing in popularity and have become alternatives for enterprises not looking to invest in building their own data centers, which can be a complex, costly endeavor. Today’s enterprises are turning to colocation providers for a variety of key reasons.
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These factors are outlined in a new report from Sabey Data Centers. These include core competency, access to cost-efficient expertise, the opportunity to move OPEX to CAPEX, and of course, flexibility and scalability.
First off, businesses like to focus on what they do best, and colocation providers allow them to focus on their customers by assisting with upgrading and maintenance tasks for data centers.
And for many businesses, the fact they have access to colocation providers’ trained professional engineers and data center operators is an attractive value proposition. The report points out “this means businesses circumvent the ongoing labor costs for operations personnel to maintain mechanical and electrical equipment.”
Using a colocation provider also allows organizations for find tenancy for their IT equipment without spending money on land purchases. Lastly, flexibility and scalability are also primary drivers of interest in colocation providers as a data center choice. According to Sabey’s report, this is mostly dude to tenants being able to operate on contract terms, and rent additional space in increments to match their own growth.
“As more businesses gravitate toward these and other benefits of colocation services, they must adequately assess their prospective provider’s ability to supply tenancy at a relatively low total cost of ownership, and in compliance with service-level agreements.” — Sabey Data Centers
The report outlines in detail the following factors to consider when choosing a colocation provider:
- Location: A data center’s geography can directly influence TCO in several ways, the most crucial being the cost of energy in that region.
- Annualized power usage efficiency: The metric is determined by dividing all power entering a facility by the amount used to support the IT load (servers, switches, etc.).
- Concurrent maintainability: For mission-critical IT equipment, tenants demand no less than 99 percent availability, and it’s not hard to see why
- Sustainability: Using affordable hydroelectricity – and consuming as little of it as possible with a low PUE – translates to money saved.
- Track record: Tenants must establish complete confidence in the data center provider’s ability to maintain the standards outlines in SLAs.
Download the new report from Sabey Data Centers, “Top Factors to Consider When Assessing a Colocation Data Center Facility,” for a rundown of factors to consider when choosing a colocation provider for your data center needs.