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Whether you’re a small, medium or large business, colocation is always an option that’s available to you. Essentially, colocation data centers allow businesses to seek benefits of a larger internal IT department without incurring any of the costs of a full-fledged data center. Besides costs, there are other factors such as space, power, cooling capacity, and IT support and maintenance that could influence your decision to move to a colocation facility.
Should You Consider Moving Your Server Location?
The moment a business considers purchasing a new or additional server is also often the moment when transitioning to a colocation facility is considered. 50 percent of businesses surveyed say company growth prompts a new server purchase while 38 percent cite performance degradation and maintenance costs according to the 2019 Spiceworks State of Servers survey.
It is usually a combination of factors, like the ones addressed earlier, that prompts a business to consider moving to a colocation data center. And of course, let’s not forget the many advantages a business can receive from choosing the right colocation data center provider.
Let’s review some of the advantages.
Enhanced Network Security and Privacy
Colocation data center providers have far greater security than an in-house server location. With data centers being ISO 27001 certified, SOC2, PCI, HIPAA compliant and having grade firewalls, onsite security, and many other safety measures, your data will be safe. Privacy measures in place along with network access controls prevent unauthorized access.
Lower Investments and Costs Savings
Ask yourself, why invest in an expensive in-house data center when you could enjoy a high level of customization, security, and expert support at a fraction of the cost? By moving into a colocation data center you’d be paying a fixed fee that keeps you well within budget and also helps you avoid unexpected costs.
Opportunities to Expand
If you’re looking to expand your business, now or in the future, you will have scalability issues if you have in-house servers. Modifying your infrastructure to suit your growing business will involve costs of increasing power supply, cooling requirements, professional support and maintenance, and necessary levels of connectivity. Colocation data centers are equipped to handle the growing needs of your business and data centers without you having to invest unimaginable amounts. The right centers also offer expert developed transition plans to migrate your systems.
Better Resource Utilization
Running a data center is no easy feat. There is a sizeable amount of ongoing costs and time investment that makes it possible for skilled staff to maintain equipment and systems. Many companies would probably be better off to offload these tasks and allocate resources to developing innovative new products and services.
Transitioning to the Cloud
In times of COVID-19 and people embracing the ‘new normal’, many businesses are moving to a remote structure with mobile workforces. This has left many business owners wondering if their network and servers are capable of providing remote employees with secure remote access to access applications and workloads?
Moving to the cloud is probably an option you were considering long before the pandemic hit. In fact, moving to a colocation data center takes you one step closer to the cloud. If your company is looking at cloud computing in the near future, colocation provides a smooth transition by allowing you to move your equipment to an offsite facility that has increased capacity to support your business needs while ensuring a smooth move to the cloud.
There are several phased planning and migration strategies with additional benefits to consider when moving from a server room to a server colocation. Finding the right IT support partner can ensure that the decision to move servers to colocation is made at the right time to maximize the benefits to your business.
