Colocation is becoming a much more popular solution for data center needs as businesses look to keep their costs low but the power of their servers and center high. However, when selecting a colocation provider there are many points to consider to ensure a firm is getting exactly what it needs from a data center operator.
“Enterprises choose colo to save total cost of ownership compared to building or buying a data center,” Ian McVey, head of systems integrators at Interxion Holding N.V., a carrier-neutral colocation provider in Europe, recently told TechTarget. “There are power, security, uptime and cost advantages.”
Traditionally, businesses don’t invest in colocation for IT management services, but rather the scalability and building management solutions they provide. From cooling to power demands, simply running a data center can be incredibly demanding, let alone the data and software side of the puzzle.
However, when firms consider the colocation provider, one of their top concerns should be security. With a shared data center space, server rack security will be a key factor in protecting data.
In order to optimize security, firms should invest in biometric technology that eliminates the risk of unauthorized access to their servers. This will optimize access control while helping keep the costs lower, as a firm won’t have to invest in cages or other physical protection solutions that could end up driving the expense of server cabinet security up.
Optimizing accessibility based on biometric security will help companies focus on other key areas with the assurance that their servers are safe in a colocation environment. In turn, companies will save more so they’ll have funds that can be directed toward other key data center needs, such as scalability, server virtualization or other costs.