Colocation is the act of renting out rack spaces to house servers and other IT hardware within a data center owned by a third party. Typically, a data center facility provides the building/space, power distribution, cooling, internet connectivity, cabling, fire suppression and physical security systems, while the customer brings in the servers for storage within a containment. This containment is often leased as rack space, cabinet, cage or room. Many colocation providers have also extended their offerings to include managed services such as remote hands & eyes support, backup and disaster recovery service, managed cloud security and managed public cloud service that supports their customers’ business initiatives.
There are several reasons a business would choose to collocate within a data center facility rather than building or managing their own on-premises data center facility. Top among the key drivers for colocation is the cost savings that would resort from maintaining an OPEX cost-model rather than carry the CAPEX cost associated with building, maintaining and updating a large computing facility. In the past, colocation was used by private enterprises as a secondary back-up (disaster recovery) to their primary colocation facility, usually on-premises. In recent times, collocation have become especially popular as the primary source of data storage among enterprises. This popularity is driven by the ever-increasing amount of data storage and analysis businesses have to provide now as they adopt digital operations. The need for a scalable colocation platform that allow enterprises expand without increasing cost of building and maintain data centers become paramount. A collocation facility easily solves these challenges for enterprises, providing a single monthly bill without having to worry about operational and maintenance cost.
In Nigeria today, leveraging outsourced data center services is key for enterprises to effectively deploy and manage their digital IT infrastructure at lower costs, and enable businesses to focus more on their areas of competitive advantage as well as improve their bottom-line compared to competitors that operate on-premise data centers. According to research by PWC, about 40% of businesses in the country are currently utilizing data center services.
Colocation services help businesses cut back on huge capital investments, maintain higher uptime, bolster security and benefit from a team of certified data center professionals without worrying about facility leasing or construction and maintenance costs. Businesses can enjoy the benefits of highly available infrastructure and access to expert technical team for a fraction of the cost.
The following are benefits of data colocation:
- Cost-Efficiency and Savings:
Businesses can save on initial, large capital investments on hardware, infrastructure and facility leasing by colocating in Data Centers. Sharing costs through colocation allows for higher security, the ability to scale to meet demands and provide better uptime reliability.
- Reliable Connectivity:
Colocation data centers have fully redundant network connections ensuring that customers’ business-critical applications always run uninterrupted
- Security and Regulatory Compliance:
Data security is a top concern among businesses and consumers. Companies can leverage colocation data centers to provide multi-layer security to protect infrastructure. IDS systems, encryption, firewalls and other security measures offer robust security on multiple levels. Facility security may be in place including on-ground security guards, cameras and a 24/7 security staff that monitors and responds to security issues. The requirements for data localization is rapidly evolving and has been recently enforced in many countries including Vietnam, Indonesia, Brunei, Iran, China, Brazil, India, Australia, Korea, Nigeria and, most recently, Russia. Colocation data centers ensure that organizations’ data remain in-country and accessible at all times.
- Redundant Power Supply:
Colocation data centers offer power redundancy through a combination of multiple power grids, diesel power generators, double battery backup systems and excellent maintenance practices.
- Bursting Capability:
Colocation data centers provide customers with the flexibility to burst to higher bandwidth levels to accommodate their traffic demand without having to make repeat capital investments. Since data spikes are distributed over time across numerous users, bandwidth costs are significantly reduced.
- Scalability & Flexibility
Businesses that continue to grow will have their IT demands rise. Colocation allows businesses of all sizes to continue growing without being impeded by the inability to scale due to large capital expenditures. Colocation services allow businesses to scale without worrying about infrastructure or support in the process.
- Remote Hands:
One of the biggest concerns about data center colocation is what to do when you need to perform a physical upgrade or a physical hardware swap. With Remote Hands, Certified NOC engineers are available to perform any task that your business might require in terms of a hard reset of a server, a memory upgrade, a hard drive upgrade, etc.
Only a few companies in West Africa can provide the right data center services for enterprise businesses today. MDXi data center is the clear leader in Nigeria, offering best in class colocation services for enterprises in-country. These services are offered out of Tier III, carrier-neutral data centers across Nigeria, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, certified to PCI DSS, ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 standards.
Colocated customers have direct access to MainOne’s highly reliable and resilient network interconnected with major operators and ISP’s for domestic, regional and international access. The facility also provides unrivalled access to leading internet peering exchanges and global content providers.
Contact us today if you’re ready to experience the benefits of colocation for your business