Colocation Providers

Colocation providers are companies that lease out physical space, power, cooling, and network connectivity within their data centers, allowing businesses to place their own equipment in a secure and managed environment.

Services Offers by Colocation Providers

Colocation data center providers typically offer:

• Space leasing. Options range from individual server racks to private cages and dedicates suites, catering to varying space and security needs.
• Power supply. Redundant power supplies and backup generators provide continuous operation with flexible power options to accommodate different client needs.
• Cooling solutions. Advanced HVAC systems help maintain optimal temperature and humidity levels to prevent overheating and ensure equipment longevity.
• Network connectivity. Access to multiple high-speed internet service providers (ISPs) provides reliable and fast connectivity, with the ability to choose from various network carriers for flexibility and redundancy.
• Physical security. Biometric scanners, keycard access, mantraps, 24/7 video surveillance, security personnel, and alarm systems may be available to protect against unauthorized access.
• Support and maintenance. On-site technical staff, known as remote hands, can perform routine maintenance, hardware moves, adds, and changes, and troubleshooting. Continuous infrastructure monitoring may be available to help maintain uptime and ensure prompt response to issues.

Advantages of Using Colocation Providers

The benefits of using colocation providers include:

• World-class facilities. Organizations without facilities expertise can still rent state-of-the-art facilities with advanced cooling systems, redundant power, and robust security measures.
• Flexibility. Resources can easily be expanded or reduced according to changing needs.
• Low upfront costs. Direct oversight and access to infrastructure facilitates quicker detection and response to issues and vulnerabilities.

Disadvantages of Using Colocation Providers

The risks of using colocation providers include:

• Lack of visibility. Tenants have little control over their physical infrastructure and must rely on their provider to accurately execute work orders.
• Migration challenges. Moving equipment to a colocation data center requires meticulous planning, an accurate inventory, and the ability to track every change.
• Ongoing costs. Additional costs for power consumption, network bandwidth, remote hands services, and cross-connects can quickly add up.

Leading Colocation Providers

Some of the top global colocation providers are:

• Colt. Colt operates a network of carrier-neutral data centers across Europe and Asia.
• CoreSite. CoreSite provides data center, cloud access, and interconnection solutions across key North American markets.
• CyrusOne. CyrusOne specializes in providing enterprise-class, carrier-neutral data center colocation services.
• Digital Realty. Digital Realty is a leading provider of data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions, known for its large-scale facilities and extensive global network.
• Equinix. Equinix is one of the largest colocation providers worldwide, known for its extensive global reach and high-quality interconnection services.
• Flexential. Flexential provides hybrid IT solutions including colocation, cloud, and disaster recovery services, with a focus on delivering tailored infrastructure solutions.
• Iron Mountain. Iron Mountain offers secure colocation services with a focus on compliance, security, and disaster recovery.
• Interxion. Interxion operates as a Digital Realty company, providing colocation services across major European cities.
• KDDI. KDDI operates data centers primarily in Japan and Asia, providing colocation and a wide range of IT services.
• NTT. NTT provides a wide range of IT services including colocation, with a strong presence in Asia.
• QTS Realty. QTS Realty provides data center solutions including colocation, cloud, and managed services.
• Switch. Switch is known for its state-of-the-art data center facilities and innovation in data center design.

Get More Out of Your Colocation Data Center with DCIM Software

Colocation rates are reaching record highs and vacancy rates are near all-time lows. Do you have the tools to extract all available space, power, and cooling capacity without introducing risk?

Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software enables faster, more informed capacity planning and provisioning to help you increase the utilization of your existing resources and defer new buildouts.

Modern DCIM software provides:

• Real-time capacity reporting. Pre-configured capacity dashboards featuring high-level gauges by resource type let you know your available capacity at a glance.
• Visual capacity planning. Correlate and analyze capacity with interactive 2D and 3D floor map reports that color-code your cabinets based on the most common capacity constraints such as available RUs, power load, and temperature.
• Automatic server power budgeting. Unlock more power in your existing data centers by letting the Auto Power Budget feature take the guesswork out of assigning power budgets to server instances.
• Intelligent provisioning. Find the optimal cabinet to deploy new equipment in within seconds. Simply search for the model you’re deploying and get a list of all the cabinets with available capacity for it. Then you can easily reserve the space, power, and connectivity all at once.
• What-if analysis. Visualize space and power utilization of all your planned projects across all your racks to make better project planning decisions.
• Capacity trends. Forecast your capacity utilization and know when you will need to purchase more before you run out.
• Automatic rack elevations. Easily visualize space capacity across all cabinets across all sites.
• Informed power capacity planning. Automatic calculations of power and capacity at every hop in your power chain eliminate manual effort.

Want to see how Sunbird’s world-leading DCIM software can help you better manage capacity and utilization in your colocation data center? Get your free test drive now!