London Colocation

The modern world is more and more dependent on technology. The need for electronic systems to always work becomes more and more critical. And the consequences of failure become more and more severe. Providing a secure, reliable, connected environment for dedicated server and telecoms equipment is difficult and expensive, and is rarely a core function.

A carrier neutral London colocation data centre does nothing else. Specialist colocation hosting provides reliability of services, connectivity, security and long-term cost predictability.

Reliability of service through colocation

Everyone wants to provide reliable services to their customers. Always-on and always working. Service reliability is at the heart of the decision to operate in-house or in a London colocation data centre.

Electrical Power Conditioning

A colocation data centre keeps the electrical power to your hosted equipment always clean, always there and always working. It has:

• Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) to ensure your power never stops
• Diesel generators, with guaranteed fuel supplies, so power is always available, even if the mains is not

So you can rely on the power to your equipment.

Reliable Cooling

A colocation data centre has sophisticated cooling systems, in multiple redundant configurations. So your hosted equipment will always be operating within the environmental conditions for which it was designed.

Specialists in dedicated hosting

A colocation data centre’s very existence depends on consistently delivering reliable services to you, so you can deliver reliable services to your customers. It will:

• Have its own full-time high-calibre technical staff on site
• Proactively and regularly test and search out weaknesses before they become problems

So you can be sure every effort will be focused on your need – reliability of the services you deliver.

Environment for colocated hosted equipment

Everything in a colocation data centre is about ensuring your hosted equipment is in the right environment. The people running the data centre make that their first priority. So you don’t have to worry about your equipment’s hosting environment. You can sleep at night, and concentrate on the other things that really matter to you in your life.

Disasters happen. A London colocation data centre is organised to avoid disasters or to be able to cope with them and to protect the operation of the equipment and servers hosted inside. Few in-house facilities are.

Flood Risk

External floods can affect electrical or communications connections. Colocation data centres are built where flood risk is low. Internal floods can be caused by sprinklers or kitchens. Colocation data centres do not have sprinklers or kitchens.

Fire Detection and Prevention

Electrical wiring can cause fires. A colocation data centre:

• Inspects wiring regularly and proactively repairs anything risky,
• Has early fire warning systems for fast security alert and response,
• Has no other on-site activities, such as kitchens or smoking.

Digging

Cables can be dug up by utility or road-works contractors. A colocation data centre has:

• On-site diesel generators to cope with power cable loss,
• Multiple entry points for communications cables, so that loss of one does not stop operations.

Access and Isolation

Terrorist action or the Emergency Services can isolate a data centre. A good colocation data centre is:

• Located outside any Security Zones,
• May have special arrangements for key staff,
• Able to run unattended for considerable time if needed.

Running unattended.

When local or national disasters happen, you won’t need to worry about your colocated hosted equipment. You may have your own problems, but your critical hosted equipment and services will continue to work.

Critical equipment is valuable and the cost of downtime from theft, or attempted theft, or malicious attack is very high. A colocation data centre protects you from such threats.

Protection

A London colocation data centre has:

• Manned Security 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
• Sophisticated camera systems with motion detection and electronic tripwires
• Physical access controls such as turnstiles and swipe cards

All working together to ensure your equipment remains safe, secure and operating.

People Problems

The key to all good Security is people. A colocation data centre has trained, courteous, professional, decision-making guards on duty all the time.

Guards are supported with fair, well-designed Security Procedures. There is a clear escalation procedure, so that major issues can be referred upwards quickly.

Confidence

Access to your colocated equipment is controlled by you alone. No-one can touch or remove any of it without your knowledge and permission. There are records of all equipment removals.

You can have confidence that your hosted servers and other equipment are safe in a colocation data centre.

Telecommunications carriers and Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) differ in:

• Geographic coverage, particularly internationally
• Quality of communication and connection
• Monitoring and Support when things need change or go wrong
• Pricing structures

Providing internet connection and telecoms connection involves road-works and digging. The expense means that only very large in-house data centres have multiple carriers and internet connection options.

Carrier neutral colocation

A London colocation data centre has many carriers and Internet providers present, and makes it easy for you to interconnect with them. The colocation data centre will act on a “carrier neutral” basis, not favouring one carrier over another, and providing equal access to all.

Choices of carriers

A choice amongst many carriers in a carrier neutral colocation data centre means you can negotiate:

• The best communications routes for your data or telephony traffic patterns
• Multiple paths and multiple carriers for redundancy and resilience
• Different carriers for the same routes for performance comparison
• The best pricing, and a change of carriers if needed.

Internet connection

A good London colocation data centre offers a multi-homed Internet Transit service. You get the best of the carriers’ internet communications offerings wrapped up in one service and managed for you.

SIP Trunking

For organisations looking to integrate voice and IP together in a private cloud implementation, a colocation data centre offering SIP Trunking is essential. SIP Trunking replaces the conventional ISDN or analogue telephones lines between your premises and the telephone exchange. A good colocation data centre will have a range of SIP Trunking providers to choose from.

Range of carrier possibilities in colocation

Operating from a colocation data centre, you gain access to a whole world of carrier neutral telecoms and internet connection possibilities. You pick and choose what is right for you, unconstrained by the priorities of others, and change your choices as you choose.

The facility and costs of an in-house data centre are largely fixed. Most costs are incurred regardless of how much or how little of the data centre is being used. A carrier neutral London colocation data centre provides flexibility to expand or contract at will. You only incur costs for the facilities you actually use.

Grow or contract as you choose

You can grow or contract at will as your needs dictate:

• You can add or subtract colocation racks, space or power allocation as you choose
• You have no need to make long-term commitments for data centre power or space you may never need
• You can expand or contract linearly – no need to build or close down facilities in big lumps
• You can increase, decrease or change your carrier neutral internet and communications carriers at will.

In control with colocation

Colocating gives you flexibility for data centre growth or contraction on demand, as and when you need it. You can configure your dedicated server or telecoms installation to your needs and grow or contract with ease as your needs change. Your hosted installation will always be exactly what you need, no more, no less.

If things go better than expected, you can expand fast and meet the need for new services and equipment. If they don’t, you can contract fast and stabilise the situation. An independent carrier neutral colocation data centre offers you ultimate flexibility.

In-house data centres tend to be small. Being small means that power cost per rack and carbon emissions per rack tend to be high. When a data centre is in-house, it is a small part of an organisation and there is often little focus on its carbon footprint. It may not be allocated funds to install new energy-efficient plant.

A London colocation data centre has economies of scale. It continuously replaces old equipment with new. A key part of its business is driving down its power costs and its carbon emissions. A colocation data centre has the scale and buying power to purchase all its electrical power from renewable resources – making it 100% green in operation.

Carbon footprint reduction through colocation

Placing your equipment in a dedicated hosting environment in a colocation data centre gains power efficiencies and reduces energy consumption. A well-run commercial data centre will be environmentally responsible and purchase its energy supplies from 100% green renewable resources.  You reduce the carbon footprint of your technical operations because you benefit from the economies of scale that only an efficient, focused, multi-client colocation operation delivers.

Capital allocation

Building a London data centre is capital-intensive. It consumes a lot of up-front cash whose benefit is slowly realized over a long time. Running your services from a colocation data centre means not investing capital to build a data centre – the colocation operator does all of that.

There are no Balance Sheet implications. You don’t have to raise either equity or debt. You can use your capital for more productive purposes.

Staffing your operations

You don’t have the costs of support or maintenance staff when you place dedicated servers or telecoms equipment in a colocation data centre. Nor all the time, effort and risk involved in recruiting, allocating, motivating and retaining the people.

You benefit from the shared expertise of staff who do this all day long and from a high level of resources pooled with others – without incurring the costs.

No nasty surprises with colocation

Your costs are fixed at the outset for as long or as short a time as you agree with the colocation operator. You have a constant cash flow and don’t have to worry about finding money for nasty surprise cash peaks. You can start with a shared rack and move to a private suite as your business grows.

In control in colocation

You are in control of your hosted server or telecoms equipment at all times. You don’t have to rely on others buying and configuring for you and be subject to their priorities, not your own.

You use your hosted server or telecoms equipment, working the way you want it to work and the colocation data centre keeps it safe, secure and running.

Managing cost and reducing cost

You can spend all the capital you can raise on growing your business.

Your costs are fixed, constant and predictable. You can meet your budgets and financial targets more easily.

You benefit from the efficiencies and economies of scale of the colocation data centre.

You won’t experience nasty operational financial surprises.