To colocate or to collocate or to co-locate or to co locate in a data centre or a data center or a datacentre or a datacenter or a colo or co-lo or a co lo or a telehouse? Or not, as the case may be.
Do we in this industry colocate? Or do we collocate? Or do we co-locate? Or do we co locate? And if we do, do we do it in a data centre or in a datacentre? Or in a data center? Or a datacenter? Or a colo or a co-lo or a co lo? Or a telehouse? Does anyone know?
There are all sorts of usages, not just in different parts of the world but even in the same document in the same part of the world. Logically, the right word ought to be “co-location” (or possibly “co location”) because the root is “location” and if two people do it together, then they are “co-locating” (or “co locating”). But almost nobody uses “co-location” or “co location” in text. A bit of research shows that (in English English in England anyway) the most common word is “colocation”. But Microsoft has its own view of the world, because if you type “colocation” into Word, it kindly and automatically changes it for you to “collocation” when you’re not looking at the screen. Which is why we see documents with two different usages in the same sentence.
For centre or centre it’s easy. Anyone with a US orientation writes “center”. Anyone with a British orientation follows the original French root and writes “centre”. Neither is right or wrong, just different (like aluminum and aluminium, which is another story). But is it “datacentre” (or datacenter) or “data centre”? A lot of people think it’s datacentre, but a bit of research shows that FIVE TIMES more people search for “data centre” than search for “datacentre”. So the community thinks it’s “data centre” and who are we to argue? And just to make it more complex, some people refer to the place as a “colocation house” or “colo” or “co-lo” or “co lo” for short, or sometimes a telehouse.
It gets even more complex if you add in languages other than English. In French “colocation” means flat-sharing. It’s not at all uncommon for City Lifeline’s website to generate enquiries from (not very good) French-speakers looking for somewhere to live in London. Whilst being accommodating to potential customers is important, running a refuge for homeless Algerian students within a secure London colocation data centre might not exactly be considered best practice.
So colocation or collocation or co-location or co location? Colocating or collocating or co-locating or co locating? In a data centre or a datacentre? Or a data center or a datacenter? Or a colocation house or a colo? We decided to be a “Central London Colocation Data Centre”, because that’s what the research says is the most common usage amongst our customers. So that’s what we are – (the best, of course) “Central London Colocation Data Centre”. But whether customers want to colocate or collocate or co-locate or co locate with us, we’re very flexible in this data centre (or datacentre or data center or datacenter or colocation house or colo or co-lo or co lo or telehouse).
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