With the explosion of on-line business and communication in general (ie. Facebook, Twitter, eBay, etc.) ensuring that an enterprise infrastructure stays on-line is crucial for these new and evolving businesses.
colocation is the language used to mark out when an company places their server underpinning into a data center.
When an industry decides to colocate into a data center facility they are leasing real estate for their servers. Building out their own data center in many cases is not cost feasible
for most organizations. It is very expensive to construct out high availabity space. Redundantsystems for power, networks, mechanical and environmental are mandatory - in many cases building a very small data center can make a business spend one million dollars plus to build a standard facility. Therefore, organizations tend to look outside of their own businesses to colocate their servers within a data center facility.
Server colocation packages from data center operators vary in size and scope. The most basic colocation packages provide space, power and cooling. Some organization operate in a carrier neutral environment in which they do not provide network access or bandwidth to the customers. In these situations colocation tenants must contract their own network feeds. Other operators provide elabortate networks which customers can gain access. typically are called BGP or multi-homed networks. A multi-homed network means that a customer is utilzing a fully redundant network platform which is made up of several network providers. you are not relying upon solely one provider.. From an end user perspective they would not see any service disruption in the event of a failure. Most enterprises in the SMB market go with multi-homed networks.
the cost for colocation varies from $50 a month for a basic single server colocation solution to thousands of dollars per month for a private cage solution. Larger organizations utilize private cage solutiions as it provides a completely isolated fenced in (caged) room for their infrastructure. Cages typically are secured with bio-metric or card access systems and systems log entry and exit of the cage. private suites provide tenants with a very scalable solution.. For example, a cage will allow the use of non-racked computers in the room.. Unlike traditional colocation environments which require all equipment be racked within computer cabinets or racks - a cage environment provides a more flexible environment without the sole rack
restrictiions.
Data Centers offering server colocation provide a variety of add-on services if the customers need them. Typically the most basic level of service is what the industry calls; Remote Hands. This is in essence a service in which a data center staff member can perform basic services to the customer owned equipment. Examples of such services include; rebooting equipment, visual inspection and simple tape / dvd swaps, etc. More sophisticated services exist which are known as Managed Services which a data center operator will provide higher end more technically
elaborate services such as firewall management, operating system patching, etc. These additional services are scalable and often customizable to meet the exact customer needs required by a customer.
you can see why co-lo is gaining popularity with enterprises looking to house their equipment in a secure and high-availability environment. If your doing business on-line
you need to make sure your business runs - that is what server colocation is all about. deciding to construct ones own data center environment within is often not the best scenario for many organizatons as it is cost probhitted to setup and maintain. The expense of colo varies quite a bit based on the level of services required as well as the additional add-on services an organization needs such as Remote Hands or Managed Services.
co-lo services establish a flexible environment for your business with regards to housing infrastructure. As you business grows or shrinks you environment is elastic as is the cost base associated to it.
When evaluating data center operators it is best to scope out all their options and ask for references.
Author Resource:-
Tony Salvati is an IT professional which has been involved in the IT industry for over 20 years. He currently works with organizations seeking Co-Lo services. He currently oversees marketing of a Server Colocation facility.
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