Colocation vs. On-Prem Servers: Navigating Your Digital Infrastructure
In the evolving digital landscape, growth and expansion lead to pivotal infrastructure decisions for businesses. One of the primary considerations is whether to keep servers on-premises or transition them to a dedicated data center facility.
Here’s a breakdown of some key areas to consider:
1. Security
Your critical data and applications are the lifeblood of your operations. Ensuring their security is not a matter of choice but a necessity.
On-Prem: While on-premises solutions offer a sense of control, it’s a significant responsibility to secure your core data. Not everyone should have access, and introducing proper security measures can be quite challenging.
Colocation (Data Centers): Colocation facilities like Voonami offer a multi-tiered security approach. Only those who have been rigorously vetted can access the facility. Furthermore, with 24/7/365 staffing, the chances of a security breach diminish greatly. Reputable data centers will employ two-factor authentication, surveillance cameras, and regular security audits. A dedicated Network Operations Center (NOC) often reviews and monitors access around the clock, ensuring every door, cage, and cabinet remains secure.
2. Availability – SLA
On-Prem: Infrastructure maintenance and uptime can be costly, especially when considering potential downtime’s impact on your business.
Colocation: Data centers, given their commitment to uptime, invest heavily in their infrastructure. When seeking a facility, prioritize those that offer high SLA guarantees (between 99.9%-100%). With this level of reliability, even if a disaster were to occur at your primary business location, your data remains unaffected, allowing swift relocation and minimal downtime.
3. Scalability
In competitive markets, businesses must be agile, adjusting to growth demands seamlessly. Your business has growth on the horizon, and your infrastructure should be able to scale accordingly.
On-Prem: Expanding an in-house setup can be challenging and time-consuming, especially when navigating physical constraints. Space, power, and bandwidth are just some of the resources that often restrict growth and become limited.
Colocation: Voonami and other top-tier data centers are designed to accommodate both present and future needs— accommodating increases in bandwidth, storage, or computing power. Whether you’re looking to scale vertically, horizontally, or both, the right facility is ready to support that growth.
4. Cost-Effectiveness
On-Prem: Although initial setups might seem cost-effective, ongoing maintenance, upgrades, and unforeseen issues can drive up costs.
Colocation: Shared foundational resources in a data center translate to having access to top-tier facilities without the individual overhead, allowing your IT team to focus on business-centric initiatives. Sharing costs like cooling, power, and networking with other tenants renders colocation a more economical choice.
5. Support and Monitoring
Colocation: Continuous monitoring through advanced tools and a dedicated team ensures rapid issue identification and resolution. Reiterating the security importance, quality data centers, like Voonami, employ two-factor authentication, surveillance systems, and maintain stringent standards. The presence of a 24/7 on-site NOC and highly trained staff ensures continuous monitoring and swift intervention if issues arise.
6. Infrastructure Redundancy
While it might seem repetitive, the necessity for quality security, especially regarding network, power, and cooling, cannot be overemphasized. This security is more than just physical access but extends to the reliability of the systems supporting your data. Ensuring business continuity demands stability.
Colo vs On-Prem Comparison Table
| Features/Considerations | On-Prem Servers | Colocated Servers in Data Centers |
|---|---|---|
| Security | – Limited physical security – Access control can be challenging |
– Stringent multi-tiered security – 24/7/365 staffing with vetted access – Two-factor authentication – Surveillance cameras & regular audits |
| Availability – SLA | – Potentially costly downtime – Varying reliability |
– High SLA guarantees (99.9%-100%) – Investment in continuous uptime |
| Scalability | – Restrictive growth – Space, power, bandwidth limitations |
– Designed for both present & future – Vertical and horizontal scaling support |
| Cost-Effectiveness | – High IT management costs – Infrastructure maintenance expenses |
– Economical shared costs – No need for extensive on-site IT |
| Support and Monitoring | – Might lack 24/7 monitoring – Limited staff support |
– 24/7 on-site Network Operations Center – Highly trained staff for swift issues resolution |
| Infrastructure Redundancy | – Potential vulnerabilities – Possible lack of backup systems |
– Network, power, cooling redundancies – Continuous reliability and uptime |
In Conclusion:
As businesses plan on optimizing their digital infrastructure, transitioning from on-premises to a colocation facility offers a large amount of advantages — from enhanced security to cost benefits and robust support mechanisms.
For businesses in Utah seeking a partner in this journey, Voonami stands out as a full-service data center. Offering tailored solutions and state-of-the-art facilities, Voonami bridges the gap between business aspirations and infrastructural capabilities.
