What Is the Difference Between A Colocation And A Data Center

Data centers are now critical aspects of most tech-driven businesses. As a business expands, the decision of whether to maintain a data center or opt for a colocation facility must be examined. However, before making this decision, you ought to know what you stand to gain from each of these data storage methods, their differences, similarities, and factors that make one more beneficial to your business than the other.

What Is A Data Center? 

A data center can simply be explained as a facility that is made up of networked computers and storage where corporate and personal data are stored. Here, the data is not only stored but also organized, processed, and well secured. It is a place where centralized data processing takes place and this activity will require certain resources. The resources needed for data processing includes electricity, cooling, powerful servers, top-notch network system, physical security, internet bandwidth, hardware maintenance team, and many more.

Now that you know what a data center is, there are two things to consider when opting for this method of data storage. That is; whether to use an in-house data center or share one.

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In-house Data Center

An in-house data center is the server room situated on the premises of your company. Your company has to fully manage, maintain and secure this data storage facility. Your company is also responsible for every security activity, backup and recovery plan, cooling, bandwidth, and any other resources needed to store data efficiently.

Some organizations also lease space in their data center to other organizations to help reduce the cost of maintenance. However, the data center in question still belongs to that company and the duty of securing the data rests on them.

There are many advantages of using an in-house data center but the major one is its flexibility. Having a data center on-site gives you the privilege to expand and modify it at any time. Another advantage of using an in-house data center is the fact that you have all your hardware on your premises at all times. This makes maintenance and troubleshooting easier.

Colocation

A colocation data center is the opposite of an in-house data center. Here, instead of storing your data on-site, it is stored at a third-party data center. Also, in this case, you have to share IT equipment and other resources with other companies. A colocation facility is, therefore, a type of data center that is shared amongst different organizations for a certain fee. This takes away the burden of managing and securing your data by yourself.

How Does A Colocation Facility Work?

Before opting for a managed colocation service with ServerMania or other firms, you should understand how a colocation facility works. Many people think that colocation just involves renting a floor space in a data center to get access to electric power, stable security, and the internet. However, colocation is more than just sharing the data center’s resources. It is a place where organizations get tons of data management services ranging from manager IT to hybrid cloud. Here, you are also provided with a great power density which is essential for scaling new technologies.

Colocation has two major models which are wholesale and retail. As a company considering using a colocation, you will have to choose the model that suits your business the most. In a wholesale model, you will get a customized data center space built to meet your specific needs. This kind of model is perfect for people who need more than ten thousand square feet of space and/or have high power requirements. In a retail model, you only get to rent a data center space within a cage. This is best if your power requirement is low, and the space you need is less than 2,500 square feet. Whatever model you are going for, you must choose a data center provider that truly understands your business needs.

Advantages Of Colocation

Using a colocation facility or outsourcing data center has lots of advantages but the major one is that it removes the responsibility of managing and protecting your data by yourself. It also reduces the cost of cooling, IT management, and power. Another amazing thing about colocation is that colocation companies tend to get better deals from internet providers than you as a single company can ever get.

As technology improves, there is also a need for more secured and efficient means of storing data. Data centers and colocation facilities have features that meet these needs.

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