More and more companies are choosing colocation as their IT infrastructure model because it gives them the control and power of having their own IT equipment. At the same time, they avoid all the hassle and expense of having their own IT locally. Here you can find out how colocation works and why it is a cost-effective, secure and scalable solution for IT infrastructure. We have listed the five main advantages of colocation!
What does colocation mean?
Colocation works like an office hotel, but for IT. Just as a company has its own private space in an office hotel – with a host who takes care of operations, security and everything else – a company can also rent physical space for its hardware and get help with the operational aspects. When your company uses colocation, you place your equipment (servers, storage media, etc.) in a shared data centre together with other companies. You have a dedicated space with full access to your equipment, whenever you want. The space (e.g. racks, cabinets and cages) is private, and as the owner of the IT equipment, you have access to and are responsible for it. However, the data centre provider supplies everything else that is essential.
Rent space in Bineros' data centre
Colocation providers typically offer services such as continuous power supply with generator backup, cooling systems, connectivity and security. Additional services known as ‘remote hands’ are also common. These involve on-site staff who can assist with installations, restarts, connections and similar tasks. This means that you, as the owner of the equipment, do not have to go to the data centre every time you need assistance. Colocation is very advantageous for companies that want control over their IT infrastructure but want to avoid the costs and extra work involved in running their own infrastructure.
Benefits of colocation for your IT infrastructure
1. Colocation: a cost-effective and sustainable model for your IT infrastructure
Colocation is a cost-effective and sustainable model for IT infrastructure. Having your own IT infrastructure usually involves costs in the form of server rooms, cooling systems, security systems and an IT team that works with operation and maintenance. With colocation, your company avoids investing in all of this, and instead you get a more stable and predictable cost for your IT. You pay for the capacity you need and can easily scale up as required without having to make any heavy investments. The time and money you save by using colocation can then be used to increase your growth.
2. More flexibility with colocation
Colocation is a highly scalable model that enables companies to quickly adapt their IT infrastructure to their current needs. It is common for companies to experience growing pains when growth accelerates and there is not enough capacity to support it. With colocation, it is quick and easy to increase IT infrastructure without having to make large investments. For example, you don't need to acquire more or new premises for the equipment required for growth.
Your company can easily rent more or less space in the data centre depending on your needs. Many colocation hosts also offer cloud services, making it easier to scale up to cloud or hybrid cloud solutions if desired. This gives your company the performance it needs, while ensuring a smooth transition to cloud services.
3. Better performance and connectivity
Another scalability advantage of colocation is that most data centres are operator-neutral and can offer a wide range of connections. If your company needs more data transfer capacity, you can easily scale up without having to negotiate with your supplier or install more fibre to meet your increased needs. A colocation data centre also usually has access to the latest technology, giving you high performance without having to make any upgrades or additions yourself.
Rent space in Bineros' data centre
4. Colocation provides greater security
Perhaps the most important aspect of IT is security. This applies to operations, access and protection. Colocation centres are generally built for high redundancy and have backup power to protect against power outages. In addition, there are high-capacity cooling systems to protect the equipment, as well as stable connections to ensure that you are always connected to the hardware.
The facilities often have very high security, for example with strong perimeter protection, on-site staff and camera surveillance. In addition, access cards are used to ensure that only authorised persons can enter the facility, and there are advanced fire protection and alarm systems. This means that when you use colocation, you get strong protection against downtime, fire, intrusion, or damage, for example. This way, you don't need to invest in or spend time on the security measures required for safe operation.
5. Access to support and expert help
Having your own IT infrastructure is demanding. It can involve everything from cabling and adapting premises to monitoring power and cooling. Or solving technical problems as quickly as possible so that operations are not affected. A colocation data centre has this expertise and capacity.
Our support team always has experts who monitor your IT infrastructure and carry out preventive work to ensure that any problems are detected as early as possible before they affect operations. This gives your company the support it needs to ensure that your IT structure always works flawlessly and optimally. You can also get remote assistance with equipment maintenance (remote hands) and access to IT expertise if you encounter any problems with your equipment. With colocation as your strategy, your company gets a whole new level of support and security that allows you to focus entirely on your core business.
How Binero works with colocation
At Binero, we want to make it easier for companies to obtain a secure, cost-effective and flexible IT infrastructure. Our colocation data centre has a well-designed redundancy system for both energy and cooling, with two completely independent systems for maximum operational reliability. We have strong security measures in place, including specially designed concrete buildings with no windows. In addition, we have electric fences that give our data centre the ‘protection class 3’ quality mark. We also have advanced alarm systems with perimeter protection, seismic sensors and strict access control down to rack level. Our facility is equipped with the best fire protection on the market in the form of a Novec gas extinguishing system and aspirating detectors that quickly detect and deal with fires without endangering people. Our data security is based on a highly redundant routing and firewall service which, like our other services, is CVE-tracked daily and updated both continuously and immediately if a vulnerability is detected.
We are operator neutral, and you can choose to connect to the internet (or via dark fibre) through your own providers. If you would like us to manage your connections, we can offer a multi-redundant high-capacity connection to the internet that is also protected by IDS/IPS and DDoS protection. We can also offer IP networks or help you advertise your own. As we work with several providers of dark fibre and high-capacity connections, we can offer highly cost-effective, redundant solutions for connecting to other locations, such as other data centres or offices.
An important part of a company's sustainability issues and environmental policy is being able to report sustainable operations in its IT activities.
At Binero, we take this very seriously and therefore started our environmental work early on. As a result, we now have ‘Fossil Free Datacenter’ certification, as we run our data centre on renewable energy, which generates reusable heat for residents in the surrounding area.
As a user, you can easily reach our data centre in Vallentuna by car or train. With an electronic key and code, you have full access to your equipment. Whenever you want. You also have the option of booking a temporary workspace directly adjacent to the hall with a patch connection directly to a specific rack. If you are unable to be on site, we can offer remote hands and remote eyes. If you need help, you will receive a quick response from our Support organisation, and our Network Operations Centre can solve your IT problems 24/7.
