Is the Colocation Definition Changing? (SlideShare)

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Is the Colocation Definition Changing?

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The definition of colocation in the managed technology services industry

traditionally meant something like:

http://www.datacenterleadgen.com/

Internet service providers (ISPs) or cloud computing providers that

furnish the floor space, electrical power and high-speed links to the Internet for a

customer’s Web servers.



Wholesale data center services have usually differed from colocation regarding

several factors.


http://www.sphomerun.com/blog/is-data-center-rental-the-same-thing-as-colocation


Power Requirements

Colocation services have delivered more capacity and redundancy with electricity.

Over the past few years, wholesale data center providers have needed to increase power delivery.For business-critical applications and heavy traffic

workloads, wholesale customers need lots of electricity.



Service and Support Offerings

Wholesale data center services tend to be delivered in high volume, from a large cluster of physical

servers or dense virtual servers.The customers that contract for these services tend

to have many skilled IT personnel on staff, and don’t need the level of support retail colocation

customers have.



Where skilled technical staff is hard to find, retail colocation services make more sense, and the lines of and definitions for

wholesale data center and retail colocation get blurred.



Some service providers have adjusted their SLA’s and service offerings and classified

them as “wholo” data center services.



Contract Terms and Colocation Definition

Due to the physical scale and utility demands of wholesale services, a longer contract is usually

required.It also will require more capital investment outlay

before systems and floor space is installed and configured.



As colocation providers consolidate expand and improve their service levels, customers

are entering into longer contract terms with these providers to take advantage of

contractual savings opportunities.



Elasticity of Demand

Colocation customers have peaks and valleys in their bandwidth and computing capacity

utilization. Educated customers are demanding the same sorts of pricing models for colocation as their

wholesale counterparts.



DCIM and SDDCs

Software-defined data centers, virtualization software, and other data

center infrastructure management (DCIM) software is changing the game

for colocation customers.



This offers better visibility into:•Bandwidth usage•Hardware performance• Power consumptionRetail colocation providers are offering more tools for their customers to monitor their systems and applications.



Cloud and Application Service Providers

You would think colocation and cloud providers would compete head-to-head.

However, cloud providers are scaling up their services with storage, security, upload and

download capacity. For large application players like SAP, Oracle, Microsoft and Infor,

wholesales data center providers make sense for delivering their applications to end users.



Niche cloud application providers cloud application providers that have traditionally

partnered with retail colocation service providers are also pushing for services and

contract terms previously only offered through wholesale data centers.



Cloud apps need to live somewhere, and for smaller SaaS providers, colocation services

pale compared to those from wholesale vendors like Google, IBM, and Rackspace.



Big Data and the Internet of Things

For companies that collect, store and create a lot of data, storage capacity is vital.

The idea of migrating to another provider when you have many terabytes or petabytes

of data is usually not very appealing.



Industry experts are suggesting companies that need real-time analytics from significant data stores should keep these systems in-house, or partner with a provider who can manage:•The application layer•The database layer•The analytics engine



Companies which collect readings from “things” like wearables, or gauges on machines

and equipment meters require lots of bandwidth, redundancy, and uninterruptable

power.



Like cloud services, big data and the IoT are opportunities which colocation service

providers can either step up to with wholo services or lose out on lucrative contracts.



The colocation industry and the definition of colocation is evolving to meet changing

technology, increased demand, and customer contract requirements.



Some analysts think wholesale/colocation services are blurring together, while others have suggested the differences are getting

clearer.



What do you say? Are colocation services changing to the extent that they will be just

another line item on a wholesale service provider’s price list?



Tell us your thoughts in the Comments section below!



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Is the Colocation Definition Changing? (SlideShare)