Companies may move their data centers to a colocation site to save money or to outsource management and maintenance tasks. An ideal colocation provides affordable rack space, energy, and cooling for servers in a secure, state-of-the-art facility.
While all these advantages are strong reasons for moving to a colocation, bandwidth and other connectivity issues can be a powerful motivation as well. In a 2016 IDC study, 45% of companies cited additional bandwidth as a key driver for colocation adoption. The right colocation should provide fast, reliable, and cost-effective connectivity.
Moving Data at the Speed of Light
Companies can’t afford to suffer in performance or productivity losses simply because they moved their applications into a data center. For larger offices with a high density of end users, data needs to be transmitted from connected devices to server infrastructure over a low latency fiber network.
End-to-end quality is also a concern. Companies should feel confident that their data center provider and network provider are working together (or in a perfect world, are one-in-the-same) to guarantee network quality from doorstep to data center. After all, the point of moving server infrastructure into a high tech data center is to improve your IT resiliency and performance, not have to suffer with finger pointing from multiple providers when problems arise.
Physical Security
Some data centers can be like fortresses, protecting your hardware and data with fencing, cages, reinforced doors, and surveillance. Most IT decision makers forget how important physical security can be to protecting their data. When only authorized personnel are allowed to access server infrastructure the risk of insider threats can be diminished significantly.
Choose the Right Colocation Provider
Moving to a colocation facility can be a time-consuming and complex process, so you want to make sure you select the right one. Scoping out what type of network your colocation provider uses will help you figure out if it offers the level of connectivity you need to transmit your mission-critical data.
FirstLight has colocation sites available across the Northeast. Each site is supported by our high-speed fiber optic network. Our colocation sites meet a number of compliance standards and 24 x 7 x 365 surveillance. Our Romulus, New York, data center provides military-grade security in a concrete bunker with triple fencing, iron doors, and steel cages. When you choose to colocate with FirstLight, you’re choosing to work with a provider that offers end-to-end quality and customized solutions like data suites and managed services.
Looking for a colocation that offers superior connectivity? Turn to FirstLight.
