What Is Colocation And How Does It Apply To Credit Unions?
by Kirk Drake
If you don’t think you can ever get over the idea of not owning your infrastructure or trusting a partner to provide your data center as a service than don’t read this post. However, if you are interested in looking at ways to get out of the business of owning and operating your own data center – than this post is for you.
What is colocation?
Generally colocation is the concept of outsourcing your data center. Instead of building your own data center and providing the generator, UPS, cooling, fire supression etc. you purchase a rack of space, a cage or some custom space from a colocation provider. Than the credit union, or business, puts its equipment (servers, switches, SANs, etc.) in the colocation providers data center and runs it remotely. The services from the colocation provider will usually need to include the following items:
- Power
- Ethernet Connection
- Block of IP space or IP Addresses
- Cross Connect (to a private mpls or some other third-party connection)
- Remote Hands
- Physical Security
- Better Disaster Recovery
Why is Colocation different than cloud or other Web-hosting services?