When it comes to IT, colocation is a term that doesn’t have a clear-cut definition off the top of people’s heads. Colocation is generally when the physical servers of a company are placed in a third-party data centre. Ownership and server control traditionally remains with the client, of course. Infrastructure and rack space is what is basically rented out. The responsibility of managing the servers daily then falls under the facility, including cooling and power provisions. Maintenance and connectivity concerns on the basic level will also be addressed by them.

It should be noted that colocation isn’t available with every single data centre out there. After all, colocation services require more space than usual. Here are some ways to tell colocation data centres apart from private data centres:

One of the best ways to ensure that clients are confident in their decision to take on colocation is reassurance. This is best done by having constant remote hands services available at all times all year round who can provide on-site expert technicians as needed. A server going down at 2AM, for example, will be easily and swiftly addressed by colocation providers.

As previously mentioned, when it comes to colocation, the servers are still owned by their customers. This is why full transparency is crucial as well as visibility for asset monitoring. Real-time metrics on the likes of power usage and traffic as well as reports can help create better collaboration between the data centre and company or organisation.