Colocation in modern data centers - a solution for your IT infrastructure

Colocation in modern data centers helps companies to use their IT more efficiently and save costs at the same time.

Instead of operating their own server rooms, they rent space in a professional data center and benefit from a stable power supply, fast Internet and a high level of security. This solution not only offers flexibility, but also economic benefits.

It allows companies to concentrate on their core business while their IT infrastructure is managed by experts. Especially for small and medium-sized companies or growing organizations, colocation is an attractive alternative to their own data center.

Colocation offers a number of advantages over in-house data centers. One of the most significant advantages is cost efficiency.

• Cost efficiency: Companies can save considerable costs for building and maintaining their own data center infrastructure. Instead, they only rent the capacity they need, which makes the costs calculable. They also benefit from economies of scale that enable more efficient cooling and power supply.
• Flexibility and scalability: Colocation enables rapid adaptation to changing IT requirements without the need to invest in their own infrastructure. Companies can easily expand or reduce their resources as required. This is particularly advantageous for companies with seasonal peak loads or growing IT requirements.
• Reliability and security: Redundant systems and professional operation ensure high availability of IT systems. Advanced physical and virtual security measures effectively protect hardware and data.
• Access to expertise and support: Companies benefit from highly qualified personnel and the latest technology. 24/7 monitoring and support by specialists ensure that the IT infrastructure always runs smoothly.
• Sustainability: The bundled use of resources is often more efficient than many small data centers. Modern concepts for greater sustainability in the data center, such as the use of renewable energies, help to minimize the ecological footprint.

Colocation services offer significantly more flexibility than in-house data centers:

• Rapid scalability: companies can easily expand or reduce their IT infrastructure with colocation providers at short notice without having to expand their own infrastructures
• Adaptation to requirements: Servers and racks can be flexibly adapted to current requirements without cost-intensive purchases or conversions.
• Access to modern technology: Colocation providers always keep their infrastructure up to date, enabling companies to benefit from technological advances without having to invest themselves.
• Cost efficiency: Flexible scalability enables better cost control and only paying for the resources you actually need.
• Rapid response to market requirements: Companies can respond more quickly to changing business requirements thanks to the flexibility of colocation services.

In contrast, in-house data centers often require long-term planning and considerable investment for expansions or adaptations, which limits flexibility.

Various challenges can arise when switching to colocation:

• Ongoing costs: Although colocation reduces initial investment, the monthly fees for the rented space and services result in ongoing expenses.
• Physical distance: Hardware is located off-site, which can make physical access difficult when needed.
• Dependence on providers: Companies must rely on the services and reliability of the colocation provider. Quality of service can vary.
• Complexity of data transfer: Large amounts of data between company site and colocation data center can present network challenges and potentially incur additional bandwidth costs.
• Migration effort: Planning and implementing a migration can be time consuming, especially if major changes to workloads are required.
• New operational challenges: The migration may require the development of new processes and the use of new tools for tasks such as monitoring and security.
• Risks during migration: Problems such as hardware failures, data loss or network outages may occur, requiring careful risk analysis and contingency planning.

To overcome these challenges, thorough planning, careful selection of the provider and a structured migration strategy are crucial.

Physical distance plays an important role in the use of colocation and has both advantages and disadvantages:

• Accessibility: A nearby colocation center enables companies to access their hardware quickly if required. This is particularly important when expert IT staff need to be dispatched to investigate problems.
• Network latency: Minimizing latency delays is critical to application performance. A closer data center can result in lower latency.
• Travel costs: A data center that is too far away can lead to higher travel costs if physical access is required.
• Georedundancy: The spatial distribution of data across multiple locations can increase the availability and reliability of services. For example, conova offers georedundant services from data centers 11 kilometers away as the crow flies.
• Challenges: Physical distance can make access to hardware difficult, which can be problematic when needed.
  Data transmission: Long distances can lead to challenges in transferring large amounts of data and potentially incur additional bandwidth costs.

Despite these challenges, colocation offers companies the opportunity to benefit from professional infrastructure and security measures without having to operate their own data center.