As companies embrace digital transformation, mission-critical legacy applications are not always ready for the cloud. Establishing separate data centre facilities can be advantageous for various reasons, including ensuring regulatory compliance, improving overall performance, and preserving data security.

Colocation is the process of renting space in a third-party provider’s data centre facility for servers and other computing equipment. Colocation services frequently include the building in which everything is housed, as well as networking, power, cooling components, and physical security. These components support the business’s servers and storage requirements. Using a colocation data centre allows organisations to reduce the capital expenditures (CAPEX) of building and managing the facility while owning and managing their physical servers.

One of the primary motivators for businesses to migrate from their own data centre to a colocation facility is the cost benefit. While the initial costs of IT equipment remain, the operating costs of running a data centre are significantly reduced. The level of detail and granularity of control is similar to that of a traditional in-house data centre. Organisations can focus on other business needs while leaving the details of running a data centre facility in the hands of contracted experts.

Top challenges and opportunities of colocation

According to Allied Market Research, the global market for data centre colocation is expected to increase at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 15.7% from $46.08 billion in 2020 to $202.71 billion by 2030. Colocation facilities are increasingly using their scale to offer clients faster on-ramps and connection points, as well as access to a diverse ecosystem of partners, services, and connectivity choices. While colocation offers various benefits to a hybrid IT estate, there are also several factors to consider prior to migration:

• Readiness – Assessment and preparation must be done in advance whenever a significant change is undertaken, and the move from an on-premise data centre to colocation is no exception. Experience in personnel and project management is essential for the successful migration process. This includes identifying the type, amount, and location of racks and servers.
• Operation – Assessment and preparation must be done in advance whenever a significant change is undertaken, and the move from an on-premise data centre to colocation is no exception. Experience in personnel and project management is essential for the successful migration process. This includes identifying the type, amount, and location of racks and servers.
• Costs – Moving to colocation incurs two types of costs: one-time fees for migration and setup that can be substantial, and ongoing monthly fees based on capacity used, power usage, and other factors. Organisations may postpone a colocation move to avoid incurring large upfront costs.

A hybrid approach to your workloads

Distributed data needs to be handled at near-real-time speeds to match user expectations for ubiquitous, always-on digital experiences, pushing organisations to embrace a cloud-first approach. However, businesses are becoming more conscious of cloud limitations and starting to rely on hybrid cloud solutions to provide greater security, performance, and data privacy.

As businesses recognise that some workloads are unsuitable for the public cloud, alternatives such as HPE GreenLake with colocation are becoming increasingly popular. HPE GreenLake and colocation can help businesses obtain more room for their assets, shift out of data centre administration, and reduce data centre costs. Organisations can begin building a complete infrastructure plan that integrates on-premise and cloud-based assets, allowing them to move up the stack to the application or Software as a Service (SaaS) level.

HPE GreenLake colocation delivers the underlying architecture required for growth and attaining the highest performance, speed, and flexibility levels. Businesses running on-premise workloads can benefit from a cloud-like pricing model for colocation, offered by HPE GreenLake. Businesses are able to change their workloads and reap the benefits of cloud computing without a large upfront financial investment. They are also given the flexibility to construct infrastructure near the cloud and networks required to establish the best hybrid multi-cloud architectures.

The business benefits of HPE GreenLake with colocation

HPE GreenLake with colocation combines the benefits of a cloud experience while allowing businesses to control IT with the advantages of colocation, relieving them from large capital expenditures and the burden of running a data centre on-premise.

HPE GreenLake is the market-leading IT-as-a-service offering providing the cloud experience to applications and data, wherever it resides, via a single unified interface. In a fully managed pay-per-use approach, HPE GreenLake delivers cloud services and infrastructure for on-premise applications.

HPE Greenlake with colocation offers businesses:

• Agility – The whole infrastructure (compute, storage, network, and data centre facilities) is on-demand. Businesses may benefit from HPE colocation partners’ cloud adjacency by employing hybrid- and multi-cloud services with lower latency and higher performance.
• Simplicity – There is only one contract to negotiate and manage. Your IT partner is your single point of contact to discuss support needs and capacity growth plans.
• Cost-efficiency – Pay-as-you-go applies to the whole IT infrastructure, including data centre facilities, decreasing current and future capital costs.
• Greater control – The business retains full control over its data and operations, as well as total visibility into usage and spending.

How can colocation power your business?

Colocation data centres are adaptable to the needs of businesses. Whether your business requires a rack, cage, or a larger data centre, colocation enables the tailoring of space, power, and cooling requirements to your specific needs, while avoiding the traditional data centre pitfalls of over provisioning and rapid obsolescence.

HPE GreenLake, in conjunction with colocation, enables organisations to reap the benefits of consumption-based IT while avoiding the burden of data centre maintenance and hefty up-front capital outlays. HPE GreenLake with consumption-based solutions and infrastructure may be implemented in any HPE colocation partner’s data centre worldwide, giving the organisation geographic flexibility to suit their individual requirements. Contact us, as your IT partner to discuss how HPE GreenLake with colocation can benefit your business.