Your in-house data centers can become overworked with rising corporate demands, and this could lead to costly downtime. To solve this problem, you need to expand your business' needs. This is where colocation can come in handy.
Colocation refers to a service offered by managed IT services providers (MSPs) that provides a secure space for enterprises to manage their data storage equipment. This way, an MSP manages the company-owned hardware in another location and takes care of them on behalf of the company.
If you expand internally, you'll need to hire additional staff, consume more electricity, and acquire and maintain more equipment. With colocation, on the other hand, an MSP houses your servers and other hardware in a data center away from your company’s location.
Here are some benefits of data center colocation:
#1. Better uptime
One big advantage that businesses can look forward to with colocation is better server uptime. The Uptime Institute has four accepted tier rankings, which differ in terms of uptime:
- Tier 1: 99.671% uptime per year with a maximum yearly downtime of 28.817 hours per year
- Tier 2: 99.741% uptime with a maximum yearly downtime of 22.688 hours per year
- Tier 3: 99.982% uptime with a maximum yearly downtime of 1.5768 hours per year
- Tier 4: 99.995% uptime with a maximum yearly downtime of 0.4 hours per year
This solution eliminates frequent service interruptions and memory leakage. What’s more, servers are monitored 24/7/365 so file security is assured.
#2. Easier disaster recovery
Making use of a colocation facility ensures that your business can continue to operate and serve clients even during a major disaster. For example, say a storm damaged your in-house data centers. Through the redundancy features of colocation, your files will still be safe because it is located in an off-site facility.
#3. Scalability
Your infrastructure, processes, and business objectives change, and through colocation, you can easily meet your IT needs as they grow. This could range from storage, power, support, or security. Scalability allows companies to better allocate their budgets to crucial activities while still having the option to upgrade should the need arise.
#4. Bandwidth
Colocation solutions aren’t just designed to remotely host your data centers and maintain them as needed. It also provides enterprises with the bandwidth they need for their servers to function at the most optimal level.
For example, an MSP can offer a transfer allotment and network port speed such as “10TB on a 100Mbps port.” This means a business can consume up to 10 terabytes in a month at 100 megabits per second. This makes transferring large files faster and easier without the need to wait. Overall, it enables better operations for enterprises than using in-house facilities.
#5. Cost
By partnering with an MSP for colocation services, there’s no need to worry about paying a full-time in-house IT staff to maintain your data centers. Colocation service plans provide benefits such as support, security, redundancy, and connectivity at a fixed monthly cost.
Also, when you entrust your money to an MSP, you’re assured that your data will be stored in a resilient and reliable environment, so unforeseen additional costs will be eliminated. Through colocation, businesses regain the ability to focus on more important matters while an MSP takes good care of their data.
Don’t risk the security of your data. Through F1 Solution’s Colocation services, you’ll be able to take advantage of all the physical security that a Tier 3 level data center provides. Call us today to know more.
