Blogs

Why Should a Small-to-Medium Business Consider Colocation?

• Posted: 8.27.2018
• Topics: Data Center

By Amy Mithelman
Senior Enterprise Account Executive

With the ever-increasing need to store, maintain and backup critical customer data and core applications, small-to-medium sized businesses like yours need to keep up – not fall behind. Oftentimes, however, most businesses don’t have the time, expertise or budget to build and maintain facilities that will keep their IT equipment protected and running at optimum performance levels.

That’s why data centers exist. Now your business can choose colocation, where you can outsource your technical equipment needs to a third-party data center provider. Data centers will keep your equipment maintained and secure – and a team of data center experts will monitor performance levels and perform reboots as needed.

While the benefits of colocation are endless, here are just a few reasons why your business should make colocation a key part of your IT infrastructure.

Reliable Internet Access

Outsourcing the management of your IT environment can ultimately provide your business with increased internet reliability as well – and if your provider can guarantee a direct connection to their privately-owned network then you’re looking at an extremely reliable uptime.

After all, in today’s world, downtime isn’t an option. A single unplanned outage can cost a business roughly $9,000 per minute¹ – maybe more if your business thrives on online sales. Data centers are built to be connected and maintained 24/7/365 – with backup systems in place to handle outages so your business never loses out on revenue due to an unreliable connection.

Decreased Facility and Equipment Costs

Let’s imagine you just bought a boat. You need to store your boat, so you spend time, effort and expense to build an extra garage stall. But, even though you put precautions in place, your boat is constantly exposed to harmful elements such as dust and moisture, or even your kids bumping into it with their bikes. You’ll soon come to find out that your boat isn’t very well protected and is going to show wear faster. Having it stored in your garage also requires you to plan and organize the transportation to get access to the lake.

Alternatively, you could have stored your boat in a secure storage facility – located close to your favorite lakes! Plus, your boat would have been secured and maintained all year long.

Similarly, businesses that choose colocation also benefit from lower facility costs – and longer-lasting equipment. Power, cooling, security and staffing can come at a high cost, but with outsourcing options available, your business doesn’t have to make that investment. Plus, colocation provides easy access to more network options and is a scalable solution that allows you to increase your equipment space as your boat (I mean “business”) grows. 

Keep the Focus on Your Business

Time to work smarter – not harder. Whether you’re reading this as a business owner or an IT professional, your small or medium-sized business deserves to have one less worry. Moving your IT equipment into a data center can make that happen. That way, you can spend more time running your business – and less time thinking about your data backup.