In need of colocation services for your data center? Let’s take a quick look at the definition of colocation as it pertains to our industry. What is colocation on Wikipedia.

As it pertains to the computer and data industry. A colocation is a data center facility in which a business can rent space for servers and other computing hardware. In most cases, a colo provides the structure (building), cooling, power, bandwidth and security of the site. The client provides the servers and the storage.

Normally, space is leased by the rack, cabinet, a cage or an entire room. What are the benefits of choosing a colo over constructing its own data center. The primary benefit is it’s less expensive to go the colo route. Another one may be for the disaster recovery aspect of things. Colos have become very popular with the cloud service providers.

Some drawbacks of utilizing a colo may be the distance and travel involved, long-term contracts, and some have hidden charges. Be sure to check the colo’s service level agreements to search for hidden charges.

Be sure to check out the essential buyer’s guide for colocation.