Colocation data center is commercial offering available for last 20+ years which provides Space, Power, Bandwidth, Cooling, Fire Suppression & Security to house IT equipment.  Typically, colocation facilities also known as Data Centers, usually store networking and server devices.  Colocation Data Centers allow corporations the ability to rent these services at a fraction of the cost compared to building their own facility.  As more organizations push to a cloud first strategy, they will equally evaluate colocation infrastructure of their provider(s).  Google Data Centers for example support some of the largest infrastructures worldwide.

Statistically per Marketwatch.com, The global data center colocation market was valued at USD 25.52 billion in 2021, and is expected to reach a value of USD 47.34 billion by, at a CAGR of 10.85% over the forecast period. This clearly shows Colocation is not leaving the market anytime soon especially as power consumption & internet speeds increase.

Colocation in 2022:

More organizations are opting keep their colocation footprint but at a reduced square footage and closer to their edge network for a few reasons.  Colocation still plays a critical role in Cloud and Multi-Cloud designs and allows a company the flexibility of storing & hosting whatever they want in the physical space.

 

  1. Many applications are still not built, coded, and optimized for Cloud – Collocating these environments in a data center is more practical since the application is not cloud native.
  2. Leveraging numerous internet carriers – Using a 3rdparty colocation datacenter offers flexibility across telecom internet carriers.  Most facilities have 3+ more on-net carriers who can simply deliver a fiber cross-connect to deliver public transit immediately.

 

Leaving a Data Center?  Colocation decommissioning & what you should know:

 

Conversely, many organizations have finally cut the cord with Data Centers pushing forward with a Cloud-First approach.  If you are leaving the colocation data center, a few things you should understand:

  1. Recycling laws & methods – you simply can’t toss an older server in the dumpster for environmental reasons.  Equipment that is end-of-life and provides zero resale value should be recycled.   have no resale value are dismantled and the materials are sorted, aggregated, and routed to specialized downstream recycling partners.
  2. Macronet follows comprehensive industry best practices in keeping with regional e-waste guidelines to ensure all materials are processing resulting in ZERO landfill  All recycling activities are complimented with a transfer of ownership / certificate of destruction
  3. Proper datacenter decommissioning also means wiping your drives of data – ensure you are NIST compliant
  4. Cost:  Does it make sense to send your critical team out to perform a colocation decom?  Not just the cost for transit but the business loss where they can’t attend to normal daily activities
  5. Hardware Resale – we will work to leverage our partner to re-market anything of value so you do not expend cycles.  Often, this has paid for the data center decommissioning itself.

 

How does Macronet support Colocation?

At Macronet, our colocation experience dates back 20 years when commercialized offerings started.

 

Our approach which is 100% free to any client is our data center assessment which focuses on colocation reliability, edge networking & Hybrid/Multi-Cloud design option.

  1. Colocation & Data Center Assessment

2. Edge Networking Options – utilize our fiber-based asset tool which provides clients an understanding of routing to their environments as this can be cumbersome. (Example below)

 

3. Data Center Migration – moving equipment to new or existing facilities, recycling equipment and re-marketing of equipment.

4. Data Center and Public Cloud private connectivity options.

5. Benchmark Pricing & MSA matrix.

Please contact us for a complimentary data center assessment of your topology as we have worked on hundreds of designs.