Why are companies moving primary data centers to wholesale colocation facilities like Lifeline Data Centers? Part 5

Why are companies moving primary data centers to wholesale colocation facilities like Lifeline Data Centers? Many companies are consolidating data centers, and a wholesale colocation facility with great access to telecom can be an ideal place to consolidate.

Many enterprise data centers have reached power, cooling or floor space limits. Consolidating to the old, primary data center may not be possible. If a company is moving the primary data center, moving to a wholesale colocation facility can theoretically be the last data center move a company will need to perform. Some companies choose a primary data center move as the kickoff to a larger consolidation project.

If a company is considering building more data center to support a data center consolidation, it may make sense to consider wholesale data centers. Wholesale colocation is often cheaper to rent that it is to build. If you require 99.995% uptime or higher, the cost to build a true N+N data center redundancy that can actually deliver high uptime is almost always higher than the cost of wholesale colocation. Data center capital costs can be high. Do the math.

Access to telecommunications carriers can be a key component of choosing the right wholesale data center provider. Data center consolidations projects often require access to multiple telecommunications providers to consolidate and blend wide area networks. Carrier neutral data centers are an ideal fit. Data centers with no cross connect fees can greatly reduce the costs associated with telecommunications consolidation.

Data center pricing models can greatly help or hinder a data center consolidation effort. Are private cages available? Can you purchase additional contiguous space without paying for rack charges and the associated power until you add them? What is the potential for growth in the outsource data center? Will it support your merger, acquisition and organic data center growth?

Why are companies moving primary data centers to wholesale colocation facilities? If a company is consolidating data centers, wholesale colocation with high uptime and cheap access to multiple carriers is a nearly perfect destination. Companies that perform most of their own operations work can keep uptime high and data center operations costs low. Companies that that employ third party service providers can send them into the wholesale colocation facility with full confidence.

In Part 6 of this series, we’ll address how wholesale colocation is the destination when clients are moving headquarters or moving a data center.

Alex Carroll

Managing Member at Lifeline Data Centers

Alex, co-owner, is responsible for all real estate, construction and mission critical facilities: hardened buildings, power systems, cooling systems, fire suppression, and environmentals. Alex also manages relationships with the telecommunications providers and has an extensive background in IT infrastructure support, database administration and software design and development. Alex architected Lifeline’s proprietary GRCA system and is hands-on every day in the data center.