Client Portal (Login)
The investment required to build and maintain an 'Enterprise Class' data centre can be expensive and is out of reach for most SME companies. The cost of enterprise class data centre infrastructure is further amplified when a company only requires a handful of equipment racks.
As a direct result of this capital expense it is all too often the case that an SME’s core I.T. assets are operated within unsuitable environments with poor, or in many instances no cooling, limited UPS capacity and rarely are these facilities backed up by generator systems.
Unsuitable data centre infrastructure leads to many SME businesses being put at a significant competitive disadvantage with a high risk of service or data loss due to infrastructure failures. If these I.T. assets are also running cloud based services for clients, failure will cause significant inconvenience and will also result in revenue losses.
SME businesses should seriously consider the use of Data Centre as a Service (DCaaS) also commonly known as Rack Colocation.
What is a rack colocation provider? Using a rack colocation provider allows a company to rent equipment rack space for one or more company owned servers in a shared data centre making use of the data centre’s building space, power, cooling, racks, network connections, and internet access. It depends on the contract, but most companies renting equipment rack space will retain responsibility for the physical hardware and the installed software.
Why use rack colocation services? The use of Data Centre as a Service (DCaaS) or Rack Colocation allows SME companies to benefit from the use of Enterprise Class data centre infrastructure which is comparable and in many instances will exceed the capabilities of data centres operated by larger national and multinational corporations, but without the capitol expense. The investment in building the data centre is made by the Data Centre as a Service / Rack Colocation provider who in turn is able to share the capital investment and operating costs across multiple tenants.
Advantages of Rack Colocation Include:
- Avoids the Need for Expensive Capital Investment
- Provides Access to Enterprise Class Data Centre at an Affordable Rate
- Provides a Secure Shared Facility
- Allows for Cost Effective Growth in line with I.T. Assets
- 24 x 365 Management & Monitoring of Data Centre Infrastructure
- Provides Cost Effective Bandwidth with Direct Access to Internet Services
For information on rack colocation selection please view our Colocation Selection Guide, found below.
Roy Griffiths, Technical Director, commented "Having the colocation provider nearby reduces network latency and data-replication issues. Workspace Technology’s Rack Hosting offers Enterprise Class data centre infrastructure. Located in Sutton Coldfield this data centre provides unrivalled regional support for Birmingham, West Midlands and East Midlands based organisations".