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Significance Of Data Center Colocation In A Hybrid World

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Anjani Kommisetti, Country Manager - India & SAARC, Raritan & Servertech, Brands of LeGrand

Whether you’re totally new to cloud computing or looking to invest in a fresh cloud solution for your business, you need to make sure that you have the operating capabilities to integrate your private and public cloud setups in a way that maximizes your investment return. While this can seem fairly easy, it is one of the most daunting facets of hybrid cloud deployments that have challenged many IT leaders. Undeniably, colocated data centers have solved one of the main challenges – integration of multiple infrastructures in a single, optimized environment, also referred to as hybrid technology.

Many collocated data centres, including a secure, private cloud with access to public clouds, offer a hybrid environment that is assisting the organizations in the creation and operation of a hybrid data center. Now, companies can focus their resources and efforts on their business without constantly worrying about whether their data solution can accommodate their needs or not. Here are some of the ways a collocated hybrid data center helps businesses:

Security Measures: Co-location data centers can manage certain data security needs of an organization without taking full control of security, which is the case with cloud service providers. Co-location often helps to reduce the threat of shared cloud infrastructure and provides more physical security than most private data centers can offer. Typically, colocation data centers have rigorous mechanisms for granting physical access, including various identity checks that are cross-referenced with an access list and biometric authentication. In several cases, server racks are locked inside caged enclosures with surveillance through both human and automated systems.

Co-location companies at times might regulate

media types permitted in the data center, while forbidding removable devices like USB drives. For customers with managed infrastructure, co-location providers include additional security features like data encryption, uninstallation tools, firewalls, and ransomware identification.

Access to Multiple Providers: Data center colocations, like other cloud service companies, allow customers the freedom to deploy applications, store data, and divide workloads within the data center. Colocations may also give their customers direct carrierneutral connections to a range of cloud services. These connections have reduced latency, which boosts efficiency by splitting the workload across various networks and accessing data stored in a different virtual location. Cross-connections in a co-located data center also minimize the expense and certain ‘last mile’ issues under which service providers cut their network.

Flexibility & Scalability: Co-located data centers make it simpler and easier for consumers to expand their operations as compared to private data centers. Instead of being involved in the time-consuming process of growing their own data center, customers can lease extra space at a co-located data center if needed. Co-location users have the choice of acquiring additional infrastructure from a cloud service company to an external network inside a co-located data center.

Curated Cloud Ecosystems: Co-location providers can also offer a carrier-neutral location that serves as a meeting point between customers and cloud services providers. This location usually offers simple access to cloud platforms with a low-latency cross-connection. Such cloud ecosystems are also managed, and the co-location data center has already vetted the cloud providers as reliable.

Data center co-locations, like other cloud service companies, allow customers the freedom to deploy applications, store data, and divide workloads within the data center


Service Availability: Co-location data centers are systematically designed to handle natural hazards including tornadoes, flooding, and hurricanes. They often provide better storage and energy resilience than on-site data centers to keep the servers running in case of power disruptions or discrepancies.

Control over Workloads: The customers of a colocation facility provide their infrastructure, which is controlled and operated by the client. This system helps consumers to monitor their workload without bearing the heavy cost of installing their systems.

Shift from CAPEX to OPEX: The colocation data centers allow consumers to pay for the services when required, usually on a monthly basis. This system helps consumers to move their spending from capital expenditure (CAPEX) to operational expenditures (OPEX), thereby eliminating the need to allocate funds in a lump sum simultaneously.



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