There are many benefits of colocation – one being how it enables organisations to embrace Digital Transformation without taking on additional data security risk . Liam Taylor , Head of Data Centre Operations at Node4 , explores the function of colocation in cloud-led businesses of all maturities and why it is a Digital Transformation alternative to fully public or private cloud architecture .
C olocation is a cloud enabler that is gaining significant traction as a high-performance lower-risk hosting solution .
As such , it is playing a unique and increasingly vital role in helping organisations build or strengthen their cloud-led business credentials . This is especially true in the area of businesscritical application deployment .
It ’ s a trend that is intensifying as businesses prepare for post-pandemic economic recovery and growth and rethink what agility really means . Rather than going ‘ all in ’ with cloud , they ’ re viewing colocation as a powerful alternative that offers significant advantages for any enterprise looking to underpin a multicloud or hybrid cloud model .
Cost-effective agility and performance – with no loss of control
In a multi-cloud or hybrid cloud model , colocation empowers businesses to deploy critical applications and workloads from a highly available , highly secure data centre . By enabling their workloads to access public and private cloud environments via the data centre , companies are able to benefit from the agility , resiliency and connectivity of the cloud without losing technical control or incurring the costs associated with creating their own data centre .
Indeed , deploying business-critical apps from a colocation facility represents a winwin on a number of fronts . Compared to deploying on-premises , organisations get to benefit from all the availability , power , cooling and networking they ’ ll need with none of the associated overheads .
Similarly , scaling with a public cloud can prove an expensive proposition . Worse still , these environments can often struggle to cope with the workload demand peaks of core business apps . By utilising colocation , organisations are able to prioritise performance – including availability and latency – for their critical apps while continuing to deploy lower-level functions via a public cloud as needed .
Finally , while private clouds may be an excellent choice for delivering the high customisation and performance organisations need for business critical apps , their made-to-measure approach is notoriously expensive . However , colocation facilities give organisations access to a flexible and highly customisable infrastructure that makes it possible to deploy and retain control
IN A MULTI-CLOUD OR HYBRID CLOUD MODEL , COLOCATION EMPOWERS BUSINESSES TO DEPLOY CRITICAL APPLICATIONS AND WORKLOADS FROM A HIGHLY AVAILABLE , HIGHLY SECURE DATA CENTRE .
The future of
colocation : Does it have a role in a cloud-led business ?
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