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Everyday enterprises make colocation decisions as part of their IT infrastructure strategy to leverage from the zero latency data center interconnects. In this light, it is worth understanding, if this location mantra enchanted by some of the service vendors is just another promotional strategy or has some substantial weight in it.
With the expeditiously changing IT dynamics, businesses of all sizes are increasingly realizing the importance of colocation hosting. It is considered as an ideal solution for the businesses looking for greater flexibility and control over their servers, but lack in-house space and resources to securely store it. From superior bandwidth connectivity to ensuring high-level of redundancy, third party service providers ensure that your hardware is effectively housed in an optimum environment.
According to a research conducted by the TechNavio, the global data center market is forecasted to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.7% to reach $4.8 billion by 2016. Another study conducted by the IndiaInfoline predicts that by 2016, Indian Colocation & Hosting market is expected to reach approximately $1.30 billion. This is mainly fuelled by the move of the organizations to adequately centralize their IT infrastructure and adoption of the cloud hosting technology.
While colocation services have been around for more than two decades, technology pundits are now debating on the correlation between a data center facility and a company’s operational location. So does distance really matters or is it just another myth propelled by the service providers?
Let’s Dig Further to Understand if the Server Colocation Really Matters in the Realm of IT Hosting:
The argument for shifting to a colocation facility gained momentum with the rising demand for the robust IT infrastructure. The cost of constructing a new data center facility is prohibitive for most of the enterprises. In this regard, selecting a right colocation partner is a critical business decision that defines the success or failure of any organization.
There are opinions for and against having a colocation site near a company’s business location, power of which entirely varies depending on the nature and size of a firm. For most of the companies, the most influential and important aspect of the colocation hosting arises from the safety and infrastructure of the space wherein their critical data and applications are hosted. It is the physical location of a premise that can critically dictate the growth rate of a business and its capability of meeting the changing client and customer needs.
Colocation facility should not be built in a location prone to natural calamities, such as earthquakes, floods, fire, catastrophes etc. that can adversely affect a business as well as cause havoc to its internal IT infrastructure.
Political and financial stability are the other important factors that need to be considered while selecting a service provider. This is because any swing in a country’s exchange rate can raise the total cost of colocation, and political instability caused by a nation’s poor economic conditions can adversely affect the service provider’s availability.
To conclude, location of a colocation vendor is only important to the extent that it does not envisage a situation where an organization’s productivity is affected.
