Improving My Internet To Improve My Life

There's something about having tangible, complete control over your equipment that brings added security to the minds of tech leaders and other industries maintaining technology infrastructure. Unfortunately, that secure feeling can be unfounded if you aren't part of or managing an all-star technical staff with leading security principles. Before seizing power in the form of equipment in your own business space, consider a few downsides of physical ownership of (Information Technology) IT equipment versus data center colocation.

Responsibilities For Physical IT Ownership

When installing and maintaining equipment for your own IT infrastructure, how much is being performed properly? On top of the costs of purchasing the equipment, are you paying full salaries and benefits to a team that needs to keep an eye on the equipment while on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year? If your IT needs are so important that your business needs an Internet-facing presence or powerful machines, you'll need to commit full-time resources just to maintain your IT resources.

Maintenance means more than cleaning off dust or performing updates. Technology isn't perfect, and there's always the issue of errors that can go unseen, file corruption that happens with no explanation and wear and tear of electronic equipment. That initial investment will have replacement costs because a heat-generating piece of equipment is bound to fail at some point.

There are businesses dedicated to handling IT infrastructure, but if you're running a business that merely uses the IT infrastructure, what sense does it make to create a nearly new organization just to support the main organization? Instead of diving headfirst into another industry that only creates costs, colocation can be a great answer.

What Is Colocation?

There was a time where businesses with IT assets could send their physical equipment to an Internet Service Provider or a data center that provides their services just to make the travel of information shorter and maintenance easier. Today, you can simply lease virtual space that represents all the IT infrastructure you need without having to worry about purchasing actual equipment or replacements.

All of those new parts, cleaning, and maintenance are the responsibility of a colocation data center's team and is already factored into their operating costs. Maintaining your virtual assets is their business, and your cost is a static agreement based on how much space, speed, and accessibility you need. If your needs change, so can your agreement. All you need is an Internet connection to remotely access the data center's systems with their provided information, and you can use your powerful systems without filling up space in your own physical business.

Contact a data center professional to discuss colocation options and ways to maintain an agile, efficient IT infrastructure. For data center management, contact a company such as Cologix.