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Our Data Centers Decoded series simplifies technical data center industry terms and solutions, explaining them in clear language for foundational understanding.
The Benefits of a Colocation Data Center for IT Infrastructure
In today’s data-driven world, businesses face the constant challenge of managing increasing volumes of information. But how do companies handle this growing need without investing in massive infrastructure? Enter colocation data centers.
Let’s break down what a colocation data center is, why businesses choose it and how it compares to other data center options.
Colocation Data Centers Defined
A colocation data center is where businesses can lease space and power to manage their IT equipment and digital infrastructure — such as servers, cooling, storage devices and networking gear. Rather than building and maintaining your IT infrastructure, you lease space and power in a shared facility designed for high security, reliability and optimized performance.
However, these facilities are not just secure real estate for your servers. They feature advanced offerings not found in other data centers that help businesses scale and accelerate growth. They provide advantages like interconnection—private, high-speed, secure connections to partners, network and cloud service providers and customers. This enables seamless data transfer, communication and resource sharing between businesses and other data centers. Colocation data centers also offer the expertise and capacity to support and handle high-density, high-compute AI workloads for today and the future, as well as flexibility, choice of providers, potential cost savings and service excellence.
Key Benefits of Data Center Colocation
Colocation provides several advantages that can optimize your IT infrastructure while potentially reducing costs and helping your business grow.
Interconnection, Choice and Cloud Onramps
At colocation data centers, interconnection connects you privately and seamlessly to an ecosystem of carriers, network providers, cloud service and AI cloud service providers, as well as access to major cloud onramps. These are onramps are private rather than the traditional public cloud connection, enabling more secure, reliable connections. Together, these businesses are the key partners, customers and providers that can enable the solutions you need at your digital edge – and you can connect to them locally or globally. Additionally, many colocation data centers are network- and cloud-neutral, allowing you to connect to your choice of clouds and networks.
Support for AI Workloads
As demand for AI accelerates, colocation data centers are built to accommodate AI workloads and use cases, particularly those using GPUs (graphics processing units), which demand significantly higher power and cooling. Colocation providers:
- Offer high-density power configurations (often exceeding 20-50 kW per rack) to support AI servers.
- Use advanced liquid cooling solutions (direct-to-chip cooling, liquid cooling) to efficiently dissipate heat from high-performance AI hardware.
Cost Savings
Building and managing your own data center is costly. From construction to maintenance to leveraging the latest technologies (e.g., cooling options), the costs add up quickly. By leasing space and power in a colocation data center, businesses can share the infrastructure costs for overall operations, including cooling and security with other companies, making it a more affordable option.
Scalability
As your business grows, your IT needs will change. Colocation provides the flexibility to scale up (or down) with ease. Whether you need more space, bandwidth or processing power, you can easily adjust without additional building in your own facility.
Expert Support
With colocation data centers, you get access to experts who can help with everything from installation to troubleshooting. They also can assist with expertise in optimizing cutting-edge technologies and how to manage them best. Many colocation data centers have technicians available on-site to assist with maintenance, hardware repairs and other tasks as needed, saving your team valuable time, effort and potentially headcount.
Business Continuity
Disasters can happen at any time. Colocation data centers are designed to ensure business continuity, with backup power supplies, cooling systems and disaster recovery plans in place. This means your data and IT infrastructure are protected even in emergencies, keeping your business running smoothly.
Colocation Data Centers vs. Other Data Centers
It’s useful to compare colocation data center benefits with those of other types of data centers to better understand their benefits.
- Private Data Centers: A private data center is owned and managed by a single company. While it offers full control, it also requires significant investment in IT infrastructure, maintenance and security. This option can be expensive and time-consuming to manage. It is also unlikely to have as many network and cloud connectivity options as a colocation data center does.
- Cloud Data Centers: Cloud services like AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure offer virtual storage and computing power. While the cloud is scalable and convenient, it means relying on a third-party provider to manage your data and infrastructure, leaving you with limited control over your physical hardware. Additionally, cloud data centers operate within their own networks, so they don’t provide businesses with a choice of multiple internet and cloud service providers in the same facility.
Colocation strikes a balance between these two options. You maintain control over your equipment but benefit from shared resources, network neutrality and choice and expert management in a secure, well-maintained facility.
Why a Colocation Data Center Is Right for Your Business
Colocation data centers are a smart choice for businesses looking to scale without the heavy cost of running their own data center or the investment in private or cloud-owned data centers. Whether you’re a growing startup or a large enterprise, colocation provides the flexibility, scalability, security and expert support you need to meet your IT needs while keeping costs in check.
Power Your Growth with Cologix
If you’re ready to scale your business sustainably, with flexibility, superior connectivity, service excellence and your choice of providers, Cologix can help.
Unlike other types of data centers, Cologix’s data centers give businesses true choice by offering direct access to hundreds of network carriers and cloud providers within the same facility. Our highly connected, AI-ready carrier- and cloud-neutral data centers power growth at the edge by integrating hyperscale edge capacity with our robust interconnection ecosystem. Cologix’s foundational data center design offers flexibility for your infrastructure and operations to meet your specific needs, plus the agility to accommodate changing workload densities for your AI solutions. One connection to our platform connects you to the partners and solutions you need, with flexibility and the power to choose.
Cologix delivers these critical infrastructure solutions from our footprint of 45+ hyperscale edge and interconnection hubs across 12 strategic North American edge markets, with direct access to 30+ cloud onramps. Over 1,975 leading network, hyperscale, cloud, managed services, media, content, financial services, government and enterprise customers trust Cologix to support their business-critical infrastructure and connect them to their customers, vendors and partners.
Regarding service excellence, Cologix believes that customers are best supported locally. We provide direct access to local teams backed by exceptional operational support and superior customer service.
Cologix data centers are energy efficient and offer a low carbon footprint. We continue to build for a sustainable future using industry-leading green technologies to reduce environmental impact. Additionally, our data centers are ISO27001 certified by Schellman and are SOC1, SOC2, HIPAA and PCI-DSS compliant.
Whether you need greater capacity for AI workloads, better data security or faster connectivity at the edge, our network of advanced colocation data centers is here to help you reach your business goals. Learn more about how Cologix can help businesses like yours accelerate growth.
