More and more organisations are seeking the best colocation data centres globally to house their IT equipment flexibly and affordably.
More importantly, businesses are looking for IT storage space that prioritises data protection as well as equipment protection.
This is where colocation data centres come into play.
According to Precedence Research, the global data centre colocation market was valued at $65.04 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach $205.65 billion by 2033.
This article tells you everything you need to know about the best colocation data centres, what it is and why is it important.
What is a Colocation Data Centre?
Also called “colo,” a colocation data centre is a physical infrastructure that stores IT equipment for organisations of all sizes. This infrastructure allows businesses to rent space in a data centre where they can store their IT equipment such as servers, networking equipment, and other storage devices.
Colocation data centres are designed to be flexible as well as cost-efficient for organisations. In addition to providing flexibility, they prioritise the safety and security of an organisation’s equipment and that it's well connected to high-powered and high-speed networks for processing business workflows.
Overall, colocation helps businesses meet most of their IT needs while still optimising costs.
Also Read: How AI Growth is Impacting Data Centre Demand
How Do Colocation Data Centres Work?
Colocation data centres let businesses lease space in a data centre including renting desks, or a cabinet, a room or rooms depending on the quantity of IT equipment needing storage. The organisation’s IT equipment then uses the common energy infrastructure provided by data centres where other companies’ equipment too is housed.
Individual organisations by sharing a common space benefit from a data centre’s strong security measures, environmental optimisation and high-speed networks for processing tasks.
In addition to protecting IT equipment and servers of and for individual businesses, data centres will usually automate certain tasks. These include security measures including 24/7 surveillance, biometric access control, and fire suppression systems, to protect the physical infrastructure and the valuable data stored within.
Why Are Colocation Data Centres Important?
1. Cost Optimisation
Colocation data centres are necessary to optimise costs for different organizations that are storing their equipment in a common data centre. It helps data centres allocate space to individual organisations efficiently, minimising wasted space.
Leasing a specific area of a data centre can help businesses avoid unnecessary costs associated with building and maintaining their own data centre. Such expenses often include real estate costs, construction, power infrastructure, cooling systems, and security personnel.
2. Security
Colocation data centres prioritise the safety and security of all organisations' IT equipment. The data centre's primary role is to support individual businesses in running their IT systems efficiently, protecting them from malicious attackers.
By housing their equipment in a secure, controlled environment, businesses can significantly reduce the risk of cyberattacks, physical damage, and other security threats.
3. Scalability
Colocation data centres also enable businesses with the capability to scale up or down, letting them manage their IT infrastructure according to constantly changing industrial requirements. With business growth, scalability becomes an imperative factor to keep up with the demands and industrial advancements.
Data centres with colocation provide that flexibility whether an organisation needs an extra room to store servers or needs to get rid of a desk that is not needed anymore. Colocation providers usually accommodate the changing needs of a business.
This flexibility also allows organisations to adapt to changing business demands without the need for significant upfront investments or long-term commitments.
Best Colocation Data Centres
Digital Reality
Digital Reality is a real estate investment trust that runs data centres. This company’s colocation solution available through its PlatformDIGITAL helps organisations stay flexible, adapt quickly and leverage new opportunities.
According to Gartner, PlatformDIGITAL aims to provide clients with a secure data “meeting place” and a proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx) solution methodology for powering innovation and efficiently managing Data Gravity challenges.
Digital Reality also ensures organisations’ nIT infrastructure is safe and secure from malicious actors, natural disasters, and other threats. It encourages modernising hybrid IT workflows to improve the performance of an organisation’s applications and services. This further helps unlock innovation and efficiency and saves costs.
Telehouse
Telehouse is a London-based colocation data centre service provider. It’s hailed as Europe’s first carrier-neutral colocation facility, home to the London Internet Exchange (LINX), in addition to being called the backbone of the global Internet network.
There are a total of 5 Telehouse data centres in London that provide end-to-end ICT solutions along with KDDI Europe. These solutions also include managed services, integrated communications services, virtualisation services, content management and system security services as well as disaster recovery services on the same site.
With a variety of services catered to hosting individual organisations’ IT equipment, Telehouse has made a name for itself. In fact, the company won the Colocation Supplier of the Year Award at the 2021 DCS Awards, surpassing its competitors including Pulsant, Iron Mountain Data Centres and Vantage Data Centres.
Expedient
Expedient provides colocation data centre services among many other solutions. Its colocation service encourages organisations to host their hardware in one of any of their data centre locations spread out in the US.
Some of the features at Expedient's colocation data centres include every facility having N+1 or 2N redundancy ensuring high availability and reliability. All of their data centres are interconnected by a private multigigabit network.
Through its colocation data centres, the company says that it helps clients mitigate the risk of downtime and supports the implementation of diverse IT footprints. Every Expedient data centre maintains detailed Security and Control Policies and is audited per SSAE-18 SOC1 and SOC2, HIPAA and PCI standards.
Iron Mountain Data Centers
Iron Mountain Data Centers' colocation provision is growing at an extraordinary rate owing to their growing partners, connectivity ecosystems, top standards and service levels as well as sustainable design and operations.
The company provides a full range of certified monitoring, migration and engineering services at all of its facilities across the globe. For detailed NOC reporting, they provide a user-friendly customer portal, or full-scale builds and migrations, they can provide a one-off, ongoing or global solution.
In terms of a sustainable colocation data centre design, Iron Mountain Data Centers facilities are matched by renewable power. The firm’s clients take credit for the green energy that Iron Mountain buys on their own sustainability reporting with Green Power Pass.
TierPoint
TierPoint Colocation Services has 40 carrier neutral data centres across the US providing flexible connectivity options. Owing to the firm’s diverse geographical footprint, it allows for law latecty and high performance.
The data centres provide high-density colocation services and also offer remote visibility, management, governance, and security tools. TierPoint data centres employs modern cybersecurity measures and best practices to meet and exceed industry standards for information security and sensitive data protection.
According to Gartner, the company simplifies the complexities of modern IT by offering cloud-first and data center-centric solutions. They help organizations optimise their IT resources, reduce operational overhead, and accelerate digital transformation. By streamlining hybrid IT environments, TierPoint enables businesses to focus on innovation, improve customer experiences, and drive revenue growth.
Ascenty
Ascenty, also a Digital Reality company in collaboration with Brookfield is one of the leading data centre and connectivity solutions providers in Latin America. It’s key markets are Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Colombia with 34 operating data centres that are interconnected by a 5,000 km fiber optic network.
The firm’s diverse set of clients range from cloud and technology service providers to financial, retail, healthcare organisations and IT services providers. Ascenty specializes in building and operating high-performing data centers that offer robust connectivity options, including direct connections to major cloud providers, internet exchanges, and cable landing stations.
Digital Reality’s ServiceFabric platform allows Ascenty to leverage its performance and tackle complex workloads for clients. It also allows them to manage AI applications, and high-performance computing across multiple clouds and data centres worldwide.
US Signal
US Signal known for its data centre technology along with cloud solutions and managed services are known for top security fiber network.
Gartner’s overview also noted that US Signal’s data centre solutions can meet even the most unique or complex technical requirements. This could include colocation solutions for a variety of purposes from IT infrastructure, endpoint monitoring, data management, disaster recovery, and security services.
Designed to supply high-performance, low-latency connectivity, the solution makes full use of edge computing. It also provides direct access to the internet and major cloud providers.
US Signal data centre infrastructure is protected by multiple power feeds and a minimum of 24 hours of generator power. It also fully manages its clients' IT equipment maintenance, as well as the data centre infrastructure, including UPS systems, cooling, and heating.
NTT Communications
NTT Communications offers businesses the flexibility and scalability of IT equipment storage through their colocation data centre services.
In addition to providing a safe harbour to store IT equipment, the data centres are equipped with high-performing technologies including advanced security measures, redundant power systems, and high-powered cooling systems for adequate performance and reliability.
The company’s London data centre market is actually one of the most active colocation ecosystems in the world. Its clients are not only home companies but multinational corporations too use the colocation services.
It’s hailed as one of the top three data centre providers in the world and with over 20 years of experience in the UK market formerly operating as Gyron. NTT Communications' data centres offer a range of services, including rack space, cabinets, and private suites, to accommodate various IT infrastructure needs.
Similar to other colocation data centre providers, they provide network connectivity options, including high-speed internet access and direct connections to major carriers. This allows businesses to optimally use their network performance.
Equinix
Equinix’s colocation data centres hone in on the concept of mission-critical data centre capacity at the interconnection crossroads of a business’s clouds, backbone, digital ecosystems and edge.
The company provides their clients with the space to build adaptable and scalable hybrid infrastructure. This also allows them direct access to capacity across physical colocation, networking, public cloud and an organisation’s as-a-service ecosystem.
The firm has strategised its locations in an efficient manner to provide adequate traffic flows. They provide the lowest latency and the highest network capacity.
Equinix owns and operates a network of over 260 International Business Exchange (IBX) data centres located in 73 major metros around the world to make interconnection easy.
CoreSite
CoreSite data centres provide high-speed, low-latency connectivity environments to meet digital business objectives. It’s platform aims to drive innovation and provide colocation speeds to transform business operations in addition to workload optimisation, and coping with increasing data volumes.
Serving as hubs for interconnection, CoreSite colocation data centres link enterprises, customers and ecosystems from the edge to the cloud. Sales in the IT Services Industry awarded CoreSite Colocation Services a 5/5 Rating in the Gartner Peer Insights Colocation Providers Market.
CoreSite's interconnected data centre infrastructure helps provide a strong digital platform with direct cloud connections. This equips clients with the capability to build custom-tailored hybrid IT solutions and accelerate their digital transformation.
